Ned Donovan - Ithaca ‘12

Hey everyone,

I was procrastinating doing my homework and I wanted to find some solo songs from obscure musicals which I could use for auditions.  This led me to google “Musical Theatre Audition Songs from Obscure Shows”.  One of the things to come up was a blog written by Chris Caggiano, who is a professor at the Boston Conservatory.  He asked his students to write papers defending choices as to what is the most Underrated Musical of all time.  Their answers were widely varied, which is interesting, and with the exception of a couple shows that truly don’t make sense (Wicked, The Last Five Years, Spelling Bee) all of which have great acclaim, and have either been successful in professional production, or in being listened to and appreciated by most theatre people.  Their other answers were: Bat Boy, Scarlet Pimpernel, and Children of Eden, among others.  His blog can be read here.

City of Angels Playbill

It got me thinking about this question, as it is something which we talk about frequently here at IC.  Shows and songs are thrown around talking about what should be appreciated more.  Many people bring up Mack and Mabel, Title of Show, and others.

I’ve been trying for a couple weeks to address this issue here at IC.  Some background.  A piece was written by a member of the class of 2008 named Emily McNeil.  She wrote about her experience being a volunteer helping people in the West Bank, specifically she was supporting the Palestinian civilians who are being wronged by the Israeli citizens and military.  Her piece was published in the IC View, a monthly send out to parents, students, and alumni of Ithaca College.   Many alumni rose up claiming this was an anti-jewish piece, a pro-hamas piece, or many other awful things.  This pressured the President into writing a formal apology in the next IC View, as well as forcing the IC View editor to do the same, and creating a new review board for IC View submissions.  Many members of the student body have risen up about how this is essentially censorship.

The piece can be read here.  Please read it, it’s a great piece which really closely examines the awful circumstances these people are placed in.  There is also nothing inflammatory about it.  You can read the President’s apology here, and the editor’s apology here.  

I was torn as to how I felt about the piece, my first problem being that her point has been made moot.