In a modern re-interpretation of Aristophanes' Lysistrata, the girlfriends of the basketball players of "Athens University" give up "giving it up" to their boyfriends until the latter break a 30-year losing streak...Coming soon (May 2011) to Off-Broadway, it's Lysistrata Jones...As Patrick Healy reports (NYTimes), there's been a change from the original script, in that the women were originally cheerleaders, and now they're to be simply girlfriends:
One factor in dropping the cheerleader angle, Mr. Beane said, was that there was already a major musical looking to come to New York that many people were more likely to associate as “that cheerleading show” — “Bring It On: The Musical,” which was based on the popular movie starring Kirsten Dunst that was released in 2000. “Bring It On: The Musical” is set to start performances next month in Atlanta.
Mr. Beane said that as he thought over his musical, he decided that the cheerleading angle was unnecessary to set up the sexual and power dynamics between the women and their basketball-playing boyfriends. “It’s really about sex and relationships and basketball, not cheerleading,” he said. “Though we do have one cheerleader. And a mascot.”
A review of a prior run in Dallas probed the logic and message as follows:
Their rationale doesn't quite ring true in the update. Does anybody actually know any jocks who don't play to win? Although Beane sometimes creates witty parallels to his model, he's really after something else entirely. Ultimately, this is a dual love story about finding something deeper than sexual attraction in a mate. And about making us laugh, which the show does often and heartily.
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