Ankeny High School administrators briefly rejected the selection for the school's spring musical last week, upsetting some students, parents and alumni who believed the school was censoring the play because of concerns about its LGBT characters.

But the school has decided to let the musical go on “as a result of further conversation," according to a statement from the district Monday.

The high school's selection, "It Shoulda Been You,” revolves around the wedding of a Catholic man and Jewish woman and includes multiple LGBT characters and themes about coming out. It also includes a kiss between two characters of the same sex.

Students learned of the school's decision to halt preparations for the musical on Thursday, two days after casting was finalized, said Ankeny senior Eli Wiklund, who had been cast as Brian, the play’s male lead.

“We were told that there had been a parent who was concerned about the sexual content of the musical,” he said. "It was very clear to us that (they were upset) because it featured prominently homosexual characters."

The director, Ankeny English teacher and drama instructor Courtney Vercauteren, had already tweaked the script to make the production more age-appropriate, Wiklund said, including removing a part of the play where a character walks in on two others having sex, as well as some suggestive portions of dialogue.

He said the resulting script was “honestly no more sexual than any musical” the school has put on in the past. The school has also performed musicals with LGBT characters in the past, he said, such as “Legally Blonde” in 2015.

Ankeny schools spokeswoman Samantha Aukes confirmed that the district canceled the production after receiving concerns from at least one parent and some students.

“I believe that the parent concerns were about the gay themes, as well as the overall promiscuity of the Broadway play,” Aukes said. “I think their initial concerns were just not really understanding what that was going to look like here.”

Aukes said some students had “apprehension” about playing certain characters. The school was concerned there wasn't a way to convert a script to make it appropriate for a high-school-aged audience without changing the story beyond recognition, she said.

The school now believes “it can be done, and in a way that everyone’s comfortable with," she said.

Part of the reason the musical was canceled and then reinstated, Aukes said, was that high school and district decision-makers weren't able to sit down and fully discuss the details until Monday.

Aukes said administrators are not requiring additional changes to the script's content after the review.

Wiklund said several students, including some who identify as LGBT and support the play’s depiction of the struggle of coming out to family and friends, were upset last week by the decision to cancel the production.

“It was a really big deal, and I thought it would really help the students and parents to learn to accept everyone for who they are,” he said.

A meeting had been planned for Tuesday to discuss a new musical, but Wiklund and other students wrote letters to the district asking it to reinstate the musical.

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News of the dispute spilled over onto social media over the weekend, and some alumni voiced their displeasure with the musical’s cancellation. Aukes said the district had received several emails Monday, many in favor of letting the students perform the musical.

Jonathan Brugioni, an Ankeny High alumnus and former assistant director of choirs, said he was disappointed with the district's initial decision but was pleased to see the reversal.

"I think it shows courage to put on a play like this, which could cause controversy," said Brugioni, now an actor living in New York City. "It's an important story to be told."

Last week’s events have additionally prompted Ankeny to consider changes to the way it selects its musicals, Aukes said. Traditionally, musicals have been selected solely by instructors or directors, but she said the school now wants to incorporate more voices in the selection process, which could mean involving more students, staff and administrators. The district is working on those changes.

Ankeny High School's spring musical will run April 5-7.