Cheyenne Jackson performs in a scene from the Broadway musical "All Shook Up" in March 2005, in New York City. A Utah school district has reversed itself and will now allow a local high school to put on the musical as song as an unidentified "risque" song is dropped and a few scenes are tweaked.(Photo: Joan Marcus)
A Utah school district has reversed itself and will now allow a local high school to perform the musical All Shook Up, but only if it drops an Elvis Presley song that was considered too risque.
Jordan School District officials, however, have declined to identify the song to the news media, The Salt Lake Tribune reports.
The 2004 musical, which is based on William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, is now set to run in February and March at Herriman High School, located about 20 miles from Salt Lake City.
"One
song will be eliminated and a couple scenes will be rewritten," said
Steve Dunham, a district spokesman. "I don't know the exact [song]. It's
not the song All Shook Up."
School officials, the Deseret News reported,
said a community member had complained that the musical, which is based
upon Elvis songs, violated the district's new drama policy.
District
spokeswoman Sandra Riesgraf said the officials decided to reverse the
decision after getting permission from the publisher of the play to
remove a song and tweak some scenes, the Deseret News reported.
"We're
going to make the adjustments necessary to meet community standards,"
Dunham said. "The publisher is working with us on that."
The musical, the paper noted, has been performed in a number of Utah school in conservative communities in recent years.
The
Associated Press reported that there was also concern about a scene in
which a girl dresses up as a boy and kisses a boy, which apparently has
raised objections by some that this promotes homosexuality.
"I'm at a loss," Jill Fishback, whose daughter worked on the production, told The Salt Lake Tribune.
"They're singing Elvis songs. A girl dresses up as a boy and kisses a
boy. ... It's not promoting homosexuality. It was supposed to be a
farce."
All Shook Up brings a modern twist to Twelfth Night,
which portrays a female castaway who dresses as a boy to evade
detection in ancient southern Europe, said Martine Green-Rogers, a
theater fellow at the University of Utah.
"There's a
misunderstanding about the plot of the play," Green-Rogers said. "It
happens a lot in theater. Artists push boundaries."
Here are the songs, including the unidentified "risque" tune, that are used in the musical:
"Jailhouse
Rock," "Heartbreak Hotel," "Roustabout," "One Night With You," "C'mon
Everybody," "Follow That Dream," "Teddy Bear/Hound Dog," "That's All
Right," "It's Now or Never," "Love Me Tender," "Blue Suede Shoes,"
"Don't Be Cruel," "Let Yourself Go," "Can't Help Falling In Love," "All
Shook Up," "It Hurts Me," "A Little Less Conversation," "The Power of My
Love," "I Don't Want To," "(You're the) Devil in Disguise," "There's
Always Me," "If I Can Dream" and "Fools Fall in Love"
USA Today