A local production of "Grease" is challenged by religious conservatives in Missouri.
By: Hank Kalet
Something struck me from Saturday’s New York Times, so I figured I’d better get it off my chest.
Apparently, conservatives are a bit unhappy that a local high school in Missouri performed the musical "Grease." The issue, according to opponents, is values, i.e., smoking, drinking, drug use and teen sex.
So the high school caves, apologizes and cancels a spring performance of Arthur Miller’s "The Crucible" (ironic, eh?).
This comes at a time, of course, when there is rioting in the Muslim world over the publication of cartoons. I don’t want to equate the violence that is spreading halfway across the globe with what has happened in a small Missouri town, I can’t help but notice that the same germ exists here, one in which religious folks demand the right to veto cultural and political works.
I am no fan of "Grease." It is horribly sexist (I mean, really, the girl gets her guy only by changing? She has to give up who she is and become what he wants her to be?) But it has been a mainstay of school and community theater for a long time. The notion that so many who haven’t seen the play can shut it down, that we should give up our rights of expression to avoid offense is offensive in and of itself.