Newman University Reverses Censorship Decision for LEGALLY BLONDE Production

Newman University, a catholic school in Wichita, Kansas recently performed a production of the musical LEGALLY BLONDE. A new article by Howard Sherman reveals that the first two showings of the production were performed with censorship, yet the final two performances were done with book and lyrics intact, thanks to strong student reaction and support from the school newspaper.

Director of Theatre Mark Manette announced the choice of Legally Blonde as the school's musical several weeks ago. Rehearsals got underway with the script as written. However, senior C.L. Smet, a theatre major who was cast in the role of Paulette explains, "There were very light hints of censorship early on, but only the type of things that we are used to. In most shows we are asked to take out all instances of using the lord's name in vain because we go to a Catholic university."

Manette was eventually asked to appear before the Provost's office to clarify reports that the show's contents may be inappropriate for the school. He explains, "When I was called into the office I was told that our production featured live masturbation, drug use, and two guys kissing. My response was that the show features none of these things. But the seed of the rumors could be traced to the two changed lines: 'Masturbatory emissions' and 'Get you high and laid'."

He continued, "I was told that I had to make the changes or else. I did send a letter to the Provost stating that I had signed a contract not to make any changes to the script. He took that up the ladder, so to speak, and told me to go forward with making changes."

On the day before Opening Night, the school newspaper, The Vantage, published a top story on the censorship situation. The paper's editor-in-chief, senior Matt Riedl explained, "It was my decision as editor-in-chief to pursue the story. It wasn't something that was being brought out by the administration. We thought it was our responsibility. Every viewpoint can be voiced. There had been a few voices that had been pro-censorship, but we thought it was important that every viewpoint be represented."

Smet explained, "Once the Vantage article was published, cast members became even more open about not being okay with the censorship. For our Saturday performance we returned 100% to the written word of the script - we did the play that was actually written."

Riedl adds, "We decided to perform the musical in its full uncensored form on Saturday and Sunday. It was kind of a group decision. We had a little meeting before our performance on Friday and we talked about it. The coverage was getting so widespread and everyone was talking about it so we decided we weren't going to put up with it any longer. We were going to subvert the order to change."

In the end, the administration decided to withdraw its requests for an alteration of the show's text. Read the story in full here

Article courtesy of Arts Administrator and Producer Howard Sherman: hesherman.com

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(Photo courtesy of Newman University)