Jersey Boys: No Smoking

[FilmFan720]

They may not use real cigarettes (why would they endanger their cast and crew). They probably use what filmmakers do and use fake cigarettes that approximate smoking but have no harmful effects.

Uh, no. From what I understand from the Chicago theatre buzz around here, they had to cut the smoking out entirely from the production.

[Zahveed]

I assume they see smoking in a film or theatre production as a way of advertising, which is ridiculous. People don't brutally torture people because of Hostel nor do they do drugs if they watch Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, though the people that do those things may enjoy those movies. Advertising only works on people who have been subjected to the things being marketed to them. Most people are swayed by food commercials because everyone eats. Kids like toy commercials because their parents give them to their children to amuse them. I've never seen, or heard of, anyone who has never smoked, looking at a cigarette ad, and saying, "Man, I could really go for a smoke right now". Unless, of course, they were just being a smartass.

[OscarGuy]

They may not use real cigarettes (why would they endanger their cast and crew). They probably use what filmmakers do and use fake cigarettes that approximate smoking but have no harmful effects.

[Big Magilla]

Haven't the Jersey Boys producers ever heard of stage props? Why is it necessary to use real cigarettes that pollute the air?

[OscarGuy]

Here's a separate update that speaks to a larger issue.

Chicago Smoking Ban Could Affect Movies
8 July 2008 10:35 AM, PDT

Smoking has been banned in the Chicago production of Jersey Boys in order to comply with the city's strict new anti-smoking law, raising the possibility that scenes showing smoking in movies and television shows shot in Chicago will also be barred. Writing in today's (Tuesday) Chicago Tribune, theater critic Chris Jones writes that Michael Mann's Public Enemies, which was filmed in Chicago, is bound to show smoking,. He then remarks facetiously, "Seize the print! Consider this an official complaint." Finally, Jones urges the city's aldermen to write "an exception for artistic purposes. A waiver. An understanding. Whatever. Heck, it doesn't even have to be for tobacco. It just has to allow Chicago's great artists to tell the truth."

[OscarGuy]

Jersey Boys Banned From Lighting Up
9 July 2008 12:13 PM, PDT

The Chicago, Illinois production of hit musical Jersey Boys has been slapped with a smoking ban - following a complaint from an irate theatre-goer.

The play, which focuses on the rise to fame of 1960s pop group the Four Seasons, sees several characters light up on stage throughout the story.

But now the state's Public Health Department has cracked down on actors smoking on stage - and banned the production from featuring cigarettes.

Bosses behind the show have reacted angrily to the order, insisting it is detrimental to the reality of the play.

Bernard Stone, a member of Chicago's city council, was also disappointed by the news.

He says, "When you take it out of the production, you're changing history. If you want to be true to the times, you'll allow them to smoke on stage. To do otherwise is like blue laws in the Puritan times. That's what life was like then. You're denying those times existed."