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.

** 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.