In late January, the musical Sweeney Todd was chosen over Hairspray by the Kennedy Theater Department for the spring production.
The original announcement of Hairspray created a stir among the students in the theater department. Actors believed they didn’t have the cast to perform the show and live up to Kennedy’s production standards. A common thought was that the show would be controversial and hurtful due to its heavy topics on race, gender, age and body shape/size.
“There were a lot of issues with doing Hairspray at Kennedy,” senior Raiya Hurt said. “We don’t currently have the cast to do it and it’s not something that the people in the theater department desired.”
Students hesitated to be in a show that would include stressful themes that would cause discomfort for the cast and audience.
“When I heard the news about it being the choice for the spring musical I was shocked and honestly quite disappointed,” senior Ami Jacobo said. “Unfortunately, we don’t get a lot of diversity with our casts for theater. It’s really only me and a couple others.”
Hairspray is centered around themes of racism, body image, individuality and bias to name a few. The thought of performing that at Kennedy concerned students.
“A good amount of people in the theater community were very uncomfortable with the idea of doing Hairspray because we don’t have the cast,” senior Caelan Cummins said. “We don’t feel comfortable handling something as serious as racism here on stage, especially with the community we have.”
Racism is the main theme driving the casting of the show. Students believed they could not handle the complex themes with the people who are currently involved in the theater community at Kennedy.
Director Nick Hayes found that the actors did not want to do the show at all due to the issues of casting and messages in the show.
“Furthermore, it was a story they didn’t want to tell,” Hayes said. “Hairspray suffers from a heavy dose of the “white savior” trope and that was not wanted by our students and that’s ok.”
Hayes decided that Sweeney Todd would be a better choice.
“Not only is the story something we could do that is challenging to act and sing,” Larson said. “But it is a show where anyone can play any role.”
Kennedy’s Sweeney Todd will open on April 18 at 7 p.m. in the auditorium and run through the weekend.
