Raleigh Little Theatre Cancels Production of BLOODY BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON

The INDY Week's Arts Blog reported today that Raleigh Little Theatre has canceled its planned production of Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson based on discussions with the area's Native American community this fall.

The satirical musical presents Presidet Andrew Jackson as a populist rockstar. Despite its critical success at the Public Theatre and on Broadway, the show's rockstar treatment of Andrew Jackson, who was responsible for the Indian Removal Act and Trail of Tears in the 1830s, has created controversy. Other productions have faced protests and cancelations as well.

Raleigh Little Theatre's new artistic director Patrick Torres, who came to the theatre after the season had been decided, initiated conversations with local Native Americans. He told INDY Week that he found "No matter how the play is executed, the Native American community feels that it comes at the expense of historical facts and atrocities that [Jackson] instigated against their ancestors and family. There was no accurate and clear way to engage them in the process; as an institution, we would be excluding them from the production."

Torres and company president Charles Phaneuf said that the cancelation is not censorship, but "an idea of living out our mission" to welcome, enrich, an engage the community.

The May production will be replaced with a run of Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

Read the full original article here.