Rivalries & rituals / School theater, ten days in January · 2014
Dalton's Middle Schoolers Rewrote "Thoroughly Modern Millie" in Ten Days
In January 2014 Dalton canceled its middle school musical over its stereotypes and offered a song revue and an academic forum. The cast had another idea.
On January 17, 2014, the head of the Dalton School and two other administrators emailed middle school students and parents. The middle school production of Thoroughly Modern Millie, weeks into rehearsal with students from sixth through eighth grade, would not go ahead as planned. Several members of the community had raised concerns about the show's use of racial stereotypes and references to human trafficking, and efforts to change the script had proved, in the email's word, "insufficient."
Instead, there would be a revue of the show's songs, plus "a forum featuring leading academics and practitioners" to discuss race and theater.
I recognize this instinct, because it is mine. Whenever something goes wrong in our house, I propose a family meeting. I have proposed family meetings about the thermostat, the dog, and the time the middle one used my razor on a tennis ball. Nobody has ever come.
The cast, according to The New York Times, did not want a forum. There was an outcry from students. Then some members of the cast did something better than complain: they recrafted the script themselves, with the playwright's permission. The new version, the Times reported, dropped the references to Asia, changed the names of the two Chinese characters, and described the human trafficking subplot as simple kidnappings.
The show's lyricist and co-book writer, Dick Scanlan, told the Times that he and the composer, Jeanine Tesori, had approved the revised version and suggested new lyrics and ideas. He was also candid that something was lost: the original creators had made a deliberate political choice to portray Asian stereotypes in order to challenge and bust them, and that choice was now gone. And he explained why he said yes anyway. "I have given my blessing because, while I understand angry parents, for me heartbroken kids trump angry parents."
"For me heartbroken kids trump angry parents." I have had it framed for the kitchen. The middle one points at it whenever I say no to anything.
On Monday, January 27, Dalton announced the revised production. Performances would begin that Thursday, as originally planned. Ten days, from cancellation to curtain, with a script rewritten by middle schoolers and approved by Tony-winning writers.
Dalton has its own way of marking a year's end. On Arch Day, a tradition since the late 1920s, students, faculty and administrators walk through a flower-covered arch to show they have finished one year and are going on to the next, with songs, many composed by the students.
The students, that January, wrote their own way through. I have since proposed a forum at home, about the razor. The middle one says he'll attend if there are songs.
Sources
The public records, school pages and published accounts this story draws on. Where the story imagines a scene or a line of dialogue, that is the column’s telling, not a quotation.
- The New York Times: After Complaints, Millie Gets Thoroughly Modern Makeover for Dalton School archive.nytimes.com
- Dalton: Arch Day—2011 dalton.org
- Dalton: Grade 3 Farewell—The Class of 2026 Celebrates on Arch Day dalton.org
- Dalton: First Digital Arch Day Celebrates Students dalton.org