Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Madea Goes to Jail (play)


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was   merge to Madea Goes to Jail. Black Kite 19:26, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

Madea Goes to Jail (play)

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Delete fails general notability guidelines. No significant coverage in secondary sources. It almost but not quite looks like a vanity piece. It has been around since April 2006 and the only reference is imdb. --Bejnar (talk) 22:11, 5 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Merge both this article Madea Goes to Jail (play) (about the play) and the separate article Madea Goes to Jail (film) (about the movie) into Madea Goes to Jail, which is currently a disambig page listing the play and the movie. The film is highly notable with reviews in major papers like the NYT and the Boston Globe. The play, not so much. The play/film combination is clearly notable, but it doesn't need three articles. --MelanieN (talk) 04:34, 11 March 2010 (UTC) I'm changing my vote to Keep. The research below by Arxiloxos is persuasive. The play is clearly notable. And while I find it clumsy to have separate articles for play and movie with a disambig page, there is plenty of precedent here for doing it that way - both with Tyler Perry's work and with many other situations where there was a play or book as well as a movie. --MelanieN (talk) 15:17, 15 March 2010 (UTC)
 * P.S. If the decision is to simply delete this page, then the disambig page Madea Goes to Jail should also be deleted - or better it should become a redirect to the film. Whatever the decision is about this page, I believe we should end up with just one article. --MelanieN (talk) 17:20, 11 March 2010 (UTC)

 Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, JForget  00:33, 13 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Agree with User: MelanieN. Merge everything into Madea Goes to Jail, mention both in the lead of the article, and have a separate small section about the play.-- Pink  Bull  15:10, 12 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion so consensus may be reached.


 * Merge The play did inspire a movie...merge the play and movie was one page per above.  C T J F 8 3  chat 04:31, 13 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Merge As per Melanie's suggestion. The play is the inspiration for the famous film, so there is no reason to delete this outright. Warrah (talk) 12:27, 13 March 2010 (UTC)
 * I agree with the idea of a merger, but I disagree with your reasoning. Notability is not transferred, and there is no need for a redirect with the tag "(play)" if there is only one article. So merge and delete. --Bejnar (talk) 19:09, 13 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Keep. This play, like all of Perry's "Madea" theatrical productions, was massively successful, toured widely, and was extensively covered and reviewed.  A search of <"Madea Goes to Jail" play> at Google News produces hundreds of hits, and while many of them aren't about the play, here are some that are: Philadelphia Inquirer; Syracuse Post-Standard; Call & Post; Chicago Sun-Times ("his play "Madea Goes to Jail" is selling out in theaters across the country"); Boston.com; Monsters and Critics (review of Newark performance); Minneapolis Star-Tribune("The mighty `Madea' visits Minneapolis; As in other cities, Tyler Perry's mostly black fans are flocking to his show, mixing soul concert, sass, song, sermon and sweet inspiration." . . . "Now he is making his Minneapolis debut in "Madea Goes to Jail," which opened to whoops and hollers Thursday at the Orpheum Theatre.") ; Dallas Observer.  I can keep going, but I think the point is made.  If the editors decide it's better to deal with each Perry property in a combined article about the corresponding play and movie, that might be a legitimate editorial decision, but it sure as heck isn't because the plays aren't notable.--Arxiloxos (talk) 06:33, 14 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Since most, if not all of the articles that Arxiloxos cites, discuss the "Madea" plays together, with emphasis on Diary of a Mad Black Woman, rather than this one, putting them in one article seems appropriate. Since the author's article is not too long, and currently does not mention his plays, Merge to Tyler Perry would seem to be appropriate, ensuring only "concise plot summaries" WP:PLOT in the process. The level of coverage suggested by Arxiloxos comments above are not quite borne out by the texts of the articles, please do read them.  For example, the article in The Boston Globe reads in its entierty:
 * "Madea comes to Worcester"  Over the past six years, Tyler Perry has become an industry. His success began with plays, such as the new Madea Goes to Jail, which is at the DCU Center in Worcester this weekend. Madea, Tyler's popular character, has spawned smash films, such as Diary of a Mad Black Woman. Madea began as a tribute to Perry's mother and aunt and was never intended to be the franchise it has become. But after the first production, Madea was too popular for Perry to put on the shelf. Perry says he will retire Madea after Madea Goes to Jail, at least for a couple of years while he works on other projects. He begins production on Daddy's Little Girls next month, which he will produce and direct from his own screenplay, before moving on to Jazzman's Blues, another of his scripts. Madea might return after that, but for now, Perry will be happy to have a break. I want to step back for a minute and take it all in, he says. Madea Goes to Jail runs tonight through Sunday at the DCU Center in Worcester. $52.50-$55.50. 617-931-2000, www.ticketmaster.com. --Bejnar (talk) 16:29, 14 March 2010 (UTC)
 * The articles I selected were taken from the first few pages of search results; they were all written in connection with a production of "Madea Goes to Jail." Some are straight reviews, some are background, some are brief, but it's not true to say that they all place "emphasis on Diary of a Mad Black Woman", and there are many, many more pages of search results, bearing in mind that many of them are at pay sites so you can usually see just a few lines.  But this is a little bit beside the point.  Merging the articles for each Madea play/film, or even merging all the Madea articles into one, as a matter of editorial discretion, is one thing, although I certainly don't think it would be appropriate to do this at Tyler Perry since he is now connected with considerably more that just Madea.  The key point is that a merger decision for one property in a big, hugely popular series, shouldn't be done via a narrowed AfD based on a nomination claiming, contrary to the evidence, that the subject had "no significant coverage in significant sources" and was akin to a "vanity piece".


 * Perry's Madea plays have been a massively successful, very long lived project, with significant impact in African-American popular culture, and they deserve thorough encyclopedic treatment. Currently, it appears that each of Perry's plays has its own article, and and any substantial change in this structure ought to be discussed with reference to the whole corpus, not just one small part of it. --Arxiloxos (talk) 16:55, 14 March 2010 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.