Students and Parents Protest After Wisconsin Superintendent Blocks High School Production of FLASHDANCE

Students, parents, and community members in Watertown, Wisconsin rallied outside their school district offices this week after the interim superintendent blocked Watertown High School from staging Flashdance as its spring 2027 musical. The news was first reported by WPR.

Between 85 and 100 people gathered ahead of the September 28 school board meeting, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Several students and parents also spoke against the decision during public comment.

Wisconsin Public Radio reports that interim superintendent James Feil, who started August 1, told families in a letter that the musical itself is not canceled, but that he had directed the school to choose a different show. Feil found no wrongdoing by choir teacher Ryan Moldenhauer or the principal, both of whom had approved the selection. He told the Watertown Daily Times that he has not seen the 1983 film, which he described as X-rated. The film was rated R.

Students say the planned production was not the movie. They told Channel 3000 that their director had edited the script to make it more school friendly, and theater students told TMJ4 the nightclub theme had been removed.

Moldenhauer has declined to direct the replacement show, and WPR reports that his production team stepped down with him. School board members said the matter is not theirs to vote on, and Feil plans to stand by his decision, per NBC 26.

The dispute follows a May vote in which the school board barred the high school’s wind symphony from performing “A Mother of a Revolution!”, a piece tied to LGBTQ+ history, at a spring concert.