As a Voice Teacher and Vocal Coach, I have seen the stage show many times, when my own students were involved in the production. The BEST one was Calvary Chapel High School which had a complete Pit Orchestra comprised totally of students, and production values worthy of Broadway. There were NO innuendos in these productions, and they were terrific. The show is MUCH better than anything by Andrew Lloyd Webber, of which I have also seen quite a few.
Disney is STUPID to ruin this charming musical, based upon an ancient fairy tale, to suit an agenda. It is a form of economic and artistic suicide.
One merely has to look at the “art” of Stalin’s USSR, or Mao’s “Cultural Revolution” to see the banality and ugliness of Agenda-Driven and Controlled Art.
“...own students...”
Yes- our daughter was Mrs. Potts her senior year last year in their high school play - she should have been Belle but it was truly politics - the girl they cast as Belle’s father was on the school board and a liberal lobbyist lawyer by profession. Somehow he managed to on the down low trade funds for a new stage for his daughter to get the lead - it wasn’t just me - many in the school (even within the music department) felt that our daughter ought to have been Belle (clearly I am not over it). Our daughter looks like the Broadway Belle - perfect features, soprano - perfect pitch with some professional training - a perfect score on her NYSSMA level 6 (highest level) solo as a freshman - violin training since the age of 6 so very savvy to scores, etc,; and some dance training - (this girl has an OK voice and that is it), slim, etc. And yet the other girl chosen was short and a bit overweight - the directors deliberately chose to cast against type. Our daughter is Christian, sweet and not full of herself at all. Trust me, this is not just parental bias, a teacher I am close to at the high school totally saw how incredibly unfair it was as well and her opinion is fairly unbiased.
Sorry to vent to a perfect stranger on a forum, but it was terrible.
On point: I agree that the stage version (we had a student and adult mixed pit orchestra that did a great job) is a great play based on a wonderful ancient tale and should not be ruined by Disney by a feminist liberal agenda. Too bad.