Democracy Dies in Darkness

The culture war’s latest casualty: The high school musical

Schools are canceling student shows with LGBTQ characters.

By
May 2, 2023 at 6:00 a.m. EDT
An empty set awaits the Cardinal Local School District performance of "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee," which drew school board opposition partly for its LGBTQ content. (Mandi Matching)
10 min

The crew had built most of the set. Choreographers had blocked out almost all the dances. The students were halfway through rehearsals.

Then in late January, musical director Vanessa Allen called an emergency meeting. She told the cast and crew of 21 teens that their show — the musical “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” — was off. Board members in Ohio’s Cardinal Local Schools disliked some features of “Spelling Bee,” Allen explained, including a song about erections, the appearance of Jesus Christ and the fact that one character has two fathers.