Rape Ballet
First live performance by The Fantasticks Cast (April 23, 1960)
First release by The Company [The Fantasticks] (1960)
- Music written by
- Harvey Schmidt
- Lyrics written by
- Tom Jones [US]
- Language
- English
- Comments
-
From the 1960 musical The Fantasticks and sung by the Company.
After the initial success of the musical it came under criticism for the repeated use of the word "rape" in the scene preceding the song "It Depends on What You Pay" and in the lyrics of the song. In the original production, when El Gallo offers to stage the phony kidnapping of Luisa, he refers to the proposed event as a "rape", although he makes it clear that he uses the word only in its traditional literary sense of "abduction".
To deal with changing audience perceptions the book is usually edited to replace the word "rape" with alternatives such as "abduction" and the similar-sounding "raid". In 1990 Jones and Schmidt wrote an optional replacement piece called "Abductions", which uses the music of the "Rape Ballet". - Published by
-
CHAPPELL-CO INC
GEMA
- Licensing
- Request a synchronization license
