You know what’s funny about Broadway? Nothing’s funny about Broadway. At least not anymore. A quick glance at the current lineup for the grand reopening of New York theatre will indicate more drama than in the male ensemble dressing room at “Kinky Boots.” And not “fun” drama like “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” or “The Sopranos,” I mean angry, political, “important” drama. The upcoming theatre season in New York makes “Nomadland” look like “Ace Ventura.” That’s not to say there isn’t anything lighthearted happening on the Great White Way. “Mrs. Doubtfire” is an unabashed farce, the hit musical “Six” is more upbeat than not, and the long running Disney commodities aren’t exactly Eugene O’Neill plays. Still, one can’t help but notice a palpable dearth of the good old-fashioned comedy on the Broadway stage. And it’s not just big budget productions either. Many Off-Broadway houses have announced programming that looks more like the Democratic National Convention than theatre seasons, tackling every issue known to man from gay rights to racism to abuse–scripts intended to “raise awareness” or push every agenda other than comedic escape or generalized merriment. While I am happy to report far more comedy happening in places outside of New York–regional houses and even community theatres seem more intent on bringing happy shows to people–it might be time for the New York theatre community to deal with topics other than gun control and the Trans-Alaska Pipeline.
This begs the question: why is theatre so serious? I don’t necessarily think that there is a shortage of desire to make people laugh. Television still, thank God, is producing regularly hilarious content. But a cursory dive into the arts scene reveals that Broadway is fundamentally averse to the idea of humor in 2021. It’s not just us, it’s happening in film too. Of the 2020 Best Picture Oscar nominees, there wasn’t a single comedy. “Requiem for a Dream” would’ve looked hilarious next to these films. Why are we scared of comedy right now? Is it because we think we aren’t allowed to have any fun because of the grim year and a half we’ve just experienced? That’s precisely the reason we need to laugh. It is the job of the cast of “Puppetry of the Penis” to provide a counterbalance to the drab, horrible world we live in.
So why can’t we laugh, then? Like most problems, it starts at the top. Producers and investors are so reluctant to live on the edge, overwhelmed (understandably) by both the fear of being irreverent and the fear of being canceled forever (#FOBCF). Of the producers that are brave enough to try to make someone laugh in 2021, their writing sessions are taking place within a “woke pressure cooker” with creatives paralyzed by anxiety of what they can and cannot joke about. Word has it that “Mrs. Doubtfire”, based on one of the most financially successful films of the 1990s, is undergoing changes so as to not be transphobic. And now GLAAD (the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) is making appearances at many pre-Broadway workshops letting the authors know what jokes they can and cannot make. Because what could be more hilarious than a self proclaimed “media-monitoring” organization writing your jokes. Coming to Broadway next spring: a new comedy from Moms Against Drunk Driving.
Book of Mormon, one of the most uproarious and brilliant comedies to ever grace a Broadway stage, just recently announced a reopening date in November. Their creative team convened after twenty cast members across different companies wrote to address what they felt was “problematic” language in the script. Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the writers of this as well as ‘South Park’, are inarguably two of the smartest, most sophisticated comedic minds that planet earth has to offer. As the composer Robert Lopez said, “They would rather close the show than make it politically correct.” While I know the show well, I don’t know first hand which specific moments of the script were called out as problematic, but I will certainly give these cast members my full respect and attention due to the fact the show was written over a decade ago and, yes, comedy itself evolves. Things that were funny in the early 2000s sometimes just objectively don’t warrant a laugh in 2021, and it’s not the fault of anything other than human evolution. And maybe, perhaps, some of “Book of Mormon” needs a second look not because it’s “problematic” per se, but rather the world we are watching it in has changed. Here’s what I do feel confident in saying: the point of the show is that it’s supposed to be overtly racist. It’s ironic. Sometimes “problems” are a good thing in art, and in the case of “Book of Mormon” it’s problematic on purpose. I would posit that the authors’ very offensive depiction of Uganda isn’t intended to be a literal representation of the country onstage, but rather used as a vehicle to mock what ignorant Americans’ view of Africa is: it’s to poke holes and de-escalate the real problem of our cultural short sightedness. The reason it is poignant is because of the problematic language, not in spite of it.
We cannot, as artists, allow our knee jerk reactions to personal discomfort necessitate the forced rewriting of someone else’s show. By having to rewrite comedy as a response to feeling uncomfortable, we are catering to those who don’t understand irony, nuance, subtext, or deep thinking. As artists, why don’t we invite our audiences to rise to the intellectual level of people like Matt and Trey instead of asking writers to lower themselves to the level of people who don’t get it. How about we try really hard to see where someone is coming from and if we can learn from it head on, rather than crudely canceling something because of a setting or turn of phrase? The sanitization of art is not only going to be the death of comedy, but the death of culture and understanding of others. And while there is a well intentioned call for artists to feel “safe” in the creative process, it will be at the expense of both personal self-understanding and every show being boring as hell. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to watch “Joe Dirt.” -NP
