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Is a Burlesque show genuine theatre?

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Norm
Jul 03 2002
06:18 am

Good topic.

Well, Grant, to begin an attempt to answer your question, let me preface by saying BBC is right. Theatre (or theater) is art.

What determines whether it is good art or bad art?

Once can take that question two ways. Firstly: What determines whether this spectacle is “Christian” or not, and secondly: what determines how good (e.g. on a scale of 1 to 4 stars) it is.

Art that is Christian can be horrible art on the star scale.

Art that is non-Christian can be a wonderful 4 stars.

To really determine what category art, and more specifically theater, falls into, one must examine the message it is trying to get across.

Once that overall message (or messages intertwined within) have been evaluated and analyzed, Christians should ask the question, “Does this art [message] display God’s order in a world filled with chaos? Is this conveying truth” (Boerman-Cornell, DeVries 2)?

Les Miserables, likely the best musical in the world today, says “shit,” “bastard,” takes Christ’s name in vain at several points throughout the show, and has a little child screaming “What the hell, let’s go to our deaths” in the first act. He then dies, along with many others, in the second.

Les Miserables is one of the most Christian spectacles of theater in the world. It shows (among other things) that God is your help in ever-present struggle, that true love is a decision, and that mercy and grace triumphs over the law. Sounds pretty Christian to me.

I’ve seen some skits at church that have said all the right, Christian things, but it wasn’t reality. It wasn’t truth. People don’t really talk like that. And on top of that, it was poorly prepared and performed. It was Christian, all right, but the message it gave to me semed fake or false—like a lie.

In Christian art there also is a struggle for excellence, meaning when Christian artists are making art, they strive to make it the very best and most excellent as a pleasing gift of sacrifice and thankfulness to God. If something has been thrown together quickly (like the skit I mentioned above) without any care and without even an attempt at making it good, this also does not glorify God, and I would call it unchristian art.

BBC, could you back me up and fill in my holes? I have to leave for a moment.

Thanks, guys.