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| Author | Topic: Smoking in Gypsy |
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 Chip1012
Registered User
Registered:
7/13/2003
From:
Boston | posted: 7/27/2003 at 5:28:29 PM ET
I just read on All That Chat there is to be no more smoking allowed on the New York stage. Do June and Herbie still smoke in the show?
| BroadwayBabyGal
Registered User
Registered:
5/8/2003 | posted: 7/27/2003 at 5:30:46 PM ET
That is WONDERFUL! 
|  Jean
Registered User
Registered:
6/7/2003 | posted: 7/27/2003 at 6:19:33 PM ET
Yes, they do smoke-I assume they will (or already are) using fake cigarettes.
(Not to start another war, but...another blow against individual rights and responsiblities. And I am a non-smoker--ask me how many disability claims I saw with advanced lung cancer when I worked.)
J
|  UCFGuardgirl
Registered User
Registered:
6/15/2003
From:
New York City | posted: 7/27/2003 at 9:48:30 PM ET
Agreed with Jean. You know what what you said reminds me of? The claim I read about in People Magazine awhile back, where a young obese girl was suing Mc Donalds because the food (big shock here) made her fat. Just when, I want to know, does personal responsibility figure in? Not that I agree with Cigarette marketing to young kids, but as far as the legal-aged folks go... it's not like people are shoving this crap down their throats. The choice to poison onesself is an individual one.
Back to the topic, though. What does this new "ordinance" mean for the theatre? It seems rather silly, the way it's described. If there's anyone smoking on stage it's because the cigarette is a prop and therefore part of the production. Besides this, they're candy cigarettes -- not real ones. Saying the performers can no longer smoke on stage is like saying performers can no longer smoke in movies. It's ludicrous. Gypsy takes place during the 20's, for crying out loud. Cigarettes were a large part of bourgeois society back then. That's what they DID. *sigh* I mean, I'm all for political correctness, but there is such a thing as *too* much political correctness, which IMO is never a good thing -- especially when it concerns what can and cannot be done by performing artists.
***************
"I'm not good I'm not bad I'm just right. I'm the witch; you're the world. I'm the hitch; I'm what no one believes, I'm the witch. You're all liars and thieves...oh, why bother?"
-- Into the Woods
| BroadwayBaby123
Registered User
Registered:
6/25/2003 | posted: 7/27/2003 at 10:54:14 PM ET
I agree, UCFgirl...That is so stupid. As you said, smoking was just what people did back then...they shouldn't have to alter the script to fit the political correct obsessiveness of our time! IMO everyone is WAY too politically correct these days. You can barely say anything without it offending someone.
| Elmo
Registered User
Registered:
6/9/2003 | posted: 7/28/2003 at 12:15:49 AM ET
I'm a reformed smoker, but I think this gets into artistic integrity.
When June lights up, it gets one of the biggest laughs of the evening. Not because it's a sight gag, but because it so beautifully shows that June is becoming a woman, and an adult.
I don't think that the second-hand smoke is hurting anyone in the audience or the cast or crew. The Shubert is a BIG barn of a theatre and any smoke just goes up to the rafters. IMHO.
| bliss
Registered User
Registered:
4/5/2003 | posted: 7/28/2003 at 8:44:14 AM ET
Hello all...well, now I am truly appalled by this. When the first smoking ban came into being, I thought how wrong that all was, and how fascist. It should be up to the owners and employees of the bars, not the government, and now they are all suffering income wise especially those that the law was meant to protect. Yes, smoking is bad but so is drinking, so is driving cars that produce much more damage to the air we breathe than second hand smoke. And, NOW, they are FORCING their ideals INTO THE ARTS. My god, now that is fascist, imaging a play about Winston Churchill without a lit cigar, or FDR without his famouse cigarette holder, I could go on, but my god, this is wrong, the government has no business WHAT SO EVER, telling artists what they can or cannot not do on the stage or in any other facet of the arts. I myself will fight this, don't know how, but I will.
| dededarlin
Registered User
Registered:
6/11/2003
From:
new orleans, LA | posted: 7/28/2003 at 10:23:17 AM ET
hmmm i have to agree with bliss and the others on this one....most of the time, smoking is part of the character...the government shouldnt take that away, its not their right. do you really think someone is going to be influenced into smoking by this? i think not. i dont think i made any sense just now but oh well i tried
anything that leaves a footprint that large is no who
| BroadwayBabyGal
Registered User
Registered:
5/8/2003 | posted: 7/28/2003 at 10:59:27 AM ET
Hmm, y'all do have good points.
|  Krasm
Registered User
Registered:
3/29/2003
From:
Brooklyn | posted: 7/28/2003 at 11:55:40 AM ET
I think that banning people the right to smoke is so Anti-American. I mean this country was built on basic freedoms and people have the right to smoke if they choose too. I think it is a very sad day when we allow the government to decide whether or not a person should be able to smoke or not. I am a non smoker and I always have made the choice if I wanted to stay in a smoking section or not. Why are we treating smokers like outcasts?
Bliss may be correct, are we becoming Fascist?
Keith
"To each his Dulcinea
That he alone can name..."
|  MsPetersFan1
Registered User
Registered:
6/25/2002
From:
Long Island, New York & Boston, | posted: 7/28/2003 at 2:59:44 PM ET
I can't believe this. At first I thought that the smoking ban may be a good idea to those who don't want to be in a bar where there's smoke, but then I realized that that's where people who smoke go to enjoy themselves and be on the social scene. By forcing businesses to not allow smoking is causing a great deal of harm to their profit. If people don't want to be in a smoky room, then leave and go somewhere else. And now that they are forcing a ban on smoking in the arts, it is absolutely going against individual rights and freedom of expression. You just can't force a change of the script like that. As someone said earlier, if you ban smoking on stage, why is it not banned in the movies? More people go to the movies anyway. Smoking is such an important character trait of June as she grows throughout the plot and its such an important element to the story. Like Bliss said, how could you ever make a movie about Winston Churchill and not have a cigar? The little bit of smoke that is used during Gypsy isn't going to kill anyone in the audience and I'm pretty sure its not going to influence many audience members to start smoking. The government just can't tell artists what they can or cannot do. It goes against the constitution. Maybe this is just the beginning...who knows in twenty years the government could be forcing authors to write about certain, politically correct things and force them to take offensive things out of their books. Maybe the government will start to reform all the music ever written and destroy songs that have a lyric that offends someone. Maybe paintings such as The Last Supper will be destroyed because someone in the government doesn't believe that that happened and therefore it offends them. I think Bliss is right, I think we are leaning towards fascism and it needs to end before it gets out of hand. Hope that made sense.
~* Megan *~
|  Christine-NYC
Registered User
Registered:
3/23/2002
From:
New York City
Fav. BP Song: With So Little to be Sure Of
Fav. BP Show: Gypsy
Fav. BP Character: Marie (insert last name) lol There's a few
Fav. BP CD: Bernadette Peters Loves Rogers and Hammerstein
| posted: 7/28/2003 at 3:39:48 PM ET
I am not a smoker by any means. I think cigarettes and cigars are disgusting, but I was much happier when people were smoking in the bars. Now they stand right outside the doors of the restaurants and office buildings, and I'm more prone to the second hand smoke than before!
I can't stand Bloomberg! Just for the record.
Now, as far as them banning the FAKE cigarettes on stage.....how ridiculous! They are only used when they are necessary for the character or plot of the show.
What's next, banning people from smoking in movies!? Oh no! They're sending the wrong message to kids, better stop that. It's ok that those same kids have parents, Aunts, Uncles, Older siblings and cousins who smoke.
UGGG!  I too could go on all day about this, but I have to go to work.
<3CMH<3
|  moljul
Registered User
Registered:
4/2/2001
From:
New York
Fav. BP CD: I'll Be Your Baby Tonight
Fav. BP Song: Dublin Lady
| posted: 7/28/2003 at 3:45:03 PM ET
There is no ban on fake cigarettes used on stage. The ban is for anything containing tobacco. If actors want to use herbal cigarettes, that is fine.
| UCFGuardgirl
Registered User
Registered:
6/15/2003
From:
New York City | posted: 7/28/2003 at 4:20:15 PM ET
Well, I'm not sure how many states adopted the "no-smoking in restaurants" ban, but I can tell you that Florida has also adopted the law. And this is what the law here states about smoking in public places:
If a bar or restaurant gains 70% of its income from the sale of alcoholic drinks, smoking is permitted. If a bar or restaurant gets 70% of its income from the sale of food, smoking is not permitted. This is where all the so-called "smoking bars" come in. (Lounges where people gather to smoke and drink. And I'm sure we'll see more of them now.)
Aside from the feeling that disallowing smoke in restaurants is fascist, there is also an economic pratfall: restaurants that were previously "sports-bar" themed (that is, places that served food in sit-down style while packing happy hours) are going to suffer in the long run. They'll lose the business they once got from smokers who ordered food and drink. And given how bad the economy already is, this is not a good thing.
However, there is also an upside to the no-smoking ban (at least here in the subburbs, where it is much less crowded and the restaurants are a hell of a lot smaller.) IMO, people should not be allowed to smoke in small restaurants anyway. The smoke carries, and if the space is really small, and there is enough smoke, the smoke smell gets into the food. It's repugnant. It hurts those of us who chose not to smoke. But like I said, this law really only works outside of large cities, where people who really and truly want to smoke are not packed in by the hundreds, and therefore are not a problem (when they smoke outside the restaurant.) Also, it's more feasible to to enforce this law for smaller restaurants (as opposed to larger ones, where, if you think about it, it really doesn't matter if people smoke or not -- you'd never know.)
So maybe if there was a square-footage clause in the law? I think that might work a bit better.
***************
"I'm not good I'm not bad I'm just right. I'm the witch; you're the world. I'm the hitch; I'm what no one believes, I'm the witch. You're all liars and thieves...oh, why bother?"
-- Into the Woods
| Krasm
Registered User
Registered:
3/29/2003
From:
Brooklyn | posted: 7/28/2003 at 4:59:04 PM ET
I hate to disagree with you, but I will.
I think that it should be the restaurants choice if it will allow smoking in it's establishment. If the restaurant chooses to allow smoking, then individuals who do not like the smoke should eat in a different restaurant.
Keith
"To each his Dulcinea
That he alone can name..."
| bliss
Registered User
Registered:
4/5/2003 | posted: 7/28/2003 at 5:35:31 PM ET
Herbal cigarettes, that's fine, but I doubt that they do any less damage, and how do you go about getting a herbal cigar? Anyway this isn't about herbal or non, it's about the government banning things on the stage, that is WRONG! Telling artists what they can and cannot do, what sort of props they have to use, is a scary, scary thing. I smoke in the show, half a cigarette, and I will keep smoking that real cigarette.
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