Bowdlerise/Theater: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

* The very first words (sung by the black chorus) of the musical ''Show Boat'' have been Bowdlerized in various ways over the years. The most faithful of the three film versions (1936, Universal) began "'''darkies''' all work on de Mississippi." The major Broadway revival in 1946 (for which Oscar Hammerstein made a few other revisions) changed the line to "'''colored folks''' work on de Mississippi," which has become the most commonly seen variant. At least this keeps the sense of the following line ("...while de white folks play") intact, unlike another once common variant: "'''here we all''' work on de Mississippi." The 1966 Lincoln Center production, like MGM's 1951 film, dodged the subject by abridging the opening chorus (and the second verse to "Ol' Man River," which reprises the excised section); in these versions, to quote theatre historian Miles Kreuger, ''nobody'' worked on the Mississippi. Kreuger and a few other musical theatre buffs, citing the fairly serious treatment of race relations in ''Show Boat'', have expressed their preference for the original opening lines as they were sung in 1927:

Niggers all work while de white folks play..." }}

* In [[The Fifties]], Ira Gershwin replaced all uses of "nigger" in ''[[Porgy and Bess]]'': about twenty, by his count. It's fortunate that the earlier stage version of ''Porgy'' has succumbed to [[Adaptation Displacement]], as it used the word considerably more often.

* Passages of three [[Gilbert and Sullivan]] patter songs from ''[[The Mikado]]'' and ''Princess Ida'' were rewritten in the forties to get rid of that same word. As Psyche says to the girl students in ''Princess Ida'', "you will get them [[Bowdlerise|Bowdlerised]]" in this manner:

"Is blacked like a nigger with permanent walnut juice" {{=}}> "Is painted with vigour and permanent walnut juice" (''The Mikado'', "My Object All Sublime") }}

** The forties? Gilbert himself rewrote parts of ''The Mikado'' to that end at least, after American audiences pointed out that, while the word may have been innocent in Victorian Britain, across the pond it was rather closer to the modern implications.

* There was some Bowdlerization on original cast albums of the 1960s and earlier, though it ought to be noted that even the original lyrics used [[Gosh Dang It to Heck]] to an inconsistent extent.

** One of the most consistently censored expressions was "son of a bitch," three instances of which were removed from ''The Most Happy Fella''.

** In "Get Me to the Church On Time" from ''[[My Fair Lady]]'', "For God's sake, get me to the church on time" became "Be sure and get me to the church on time."

** However, when the show performed another medley on ''Good Morning America'', part of "Totally Fucked" was also performed, but this time with the phrase "totally fucked" changed to "totally stuck" and "kiss your sorry ass goodbye" as "kiss your sorry life goodbye".

* The original published version of the song "You Can Drive A Person Crazy" from ''[[Company]]'' altered the last word of "if a person was a fag" to "drag"; some singers use this. For the 1996 revival of the show, [[Stephen Sondheim]] rewrote the line and its complementary rhyme:

If he happened to be gay }}

** It has since been restored to the original version.

* A modern example of Bowdlerisation is when ''[[The Taming of the Shrew]]'' is changed to make it more "feminist" especially the ending. The most ridiculous examples have Petruchio and Katharine end up with a happy marriage where all their verbal abuse has ended, even though this was what neither character wanted from the other in the first place.

** It's not the first time ''[[The Taming of the Shrew]]'' has been bowdlerized. Many high school versions of the play remove Petruchio's line "What? With my tongue in your tail?"

* Some school productions of Les Miserables leave in "send the slut away" and "I should have known the bitch could bite" but change "Damn their warnings, damn their lies" to "Blast their warnings, blast their lies." The "Lovely Ladies" song is also surprisingly uncensored, while Valjean hitting Javert over the head with a chair is removed.

** The chair thing might have more to do with the potential physical danger involved than with censoring.

* In all twentieth-century versions of ''[[Starlight Express]]'', Ashley carried a pack of cigarettes and frequently mimed smoking them. The second U.S. tour made her a smoking car [[In Name Only]] and heavily implied that she'd turned to promiscuous sex instead, which would be fine if it hadn't been presented in the sleaziest manner possible.

** The 1992 London revamp excised the [[Serial Killer]] villain, who provided the catalyst for most of the conflict in act two. Ironically, the rewritten reversal was more violent than before.

* At least one High School production of ''[[A Chorus Line]]'' turned the song "Tits and Ass" into "[[This and That]]". Which, in a way, turned a song about stage titillation into a song about prostitution (!).