What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that tweens and teens who like musicals, American Idol, and Beyoncé will be eager to see this much-hyped Broadway adaptation. Several scenes of drug abuse are used to symbolically link excessiveness, addiction, and depression in "show business." Images include snorting lines of cocaine and smoking marijuana. Characters also drink heavily (often to drunkenness and sometimes hidden from others), smoke cigarettes, argue loudly, and engage in a fight or two. Some relatively mild -- but quite colorful -- language (mostly, several uses of "s--t" and "hell").
- Families can talk about the film's messages about the entertainment industry. How do the characters change when fame arrives? How does the movie link drug use with the difficulties of the music business?