See: Same-sex couple prompts backlash to Catholic schools’ musical
Sydney Catholic Schools billed its production of School of Rock as taking school musicals “to a whole new level”. For the first time, about 3000 of its students came together for a “once in a lifetime” extravaganza in front of an estimated 20,000 students and parents.
It was a huge hit – or so it seemed.
The success of the show has been overshadowed by a backlash from parents, some of whom are upset about the language (one song contained the words screwed and pissed), the disrespect for authority (the choir sang Stick it to the Man), and by a scene in which students prayed to the God of Rock.
But the biggest controversy, representing the largest share of complaints to the schools’ boss and archbishop, was a brief scene in which two male students played a same-sex couple.
School of Rock, an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical based on a film of the same name, is about a down-and-out musician who pretends to be a teacher to get a job at a strict private school, and turns his class into a school-uniformed rock band in the tradition of AC/DC.
He refuses to teach “boring” maths and English, and instead encourages the students to embrace rock music, to the consternation of their parents – two of whom are in a same-sex relationship.