Free Republic

Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, offered the following comments today on the popularity of Catholic-bashing plays: “The Helen Hayes Theatre in New York must be experiencing hard times these days, otherwise it wouldn’t be home to ‘Kiki & Herb: Alive on Broadway.’  According to Variety, the play claims that the Catholic Church is run by the Nazis and that ‘the devil really does wear Prada’; the devil is the pope.  To show how timely they are, the play’s producers manage to squeeze in a smack at Mel Gibson, dropping the line ‘now he wants the Jews to treat him...

Since May, we've had a lot of fun examining Rev. Al Sharpton's would-be, could-be talk radio career. Because announced plans never seem to pan out, it's mostly involved a lot of head-scratching. With a new deal now reportedly signed, the Sharpton saga takes an especially puzzling turn: he's apparently a talk radio two-timer! That's right, with the Boston Globe's Clea Simon revealing his new agreement, he's got a bit of a mess on his hands:

Just returned from attending Rush on Broadway. Vintage performance by El Rushbo, but nothing terribly new, if you are a regular listener. Sean Hannity (who looked VERY young) handled the introduction with skill. The actual highlight was seeing THE GREAT ONE, Mark Levin ensconced in the Emperor's box, with David Limbaugh. "Hold On Now" was greated with wild applause upon several occasions.

Edited By Barry A. Jeckell. September 16, 2005, 10:25 AM ET 'Lennon' Musical To Close On Broadway "Lennon," the musical about the life and music of John Lennon that earned dismal reviews, will close just six weeks after it opened on Broadway. Created with the help of the former Beatle's widow, Yoko Ono, the show had a troubled road to Broadway that involved major rewrites after it was first produced in San Francisco. Critics slammed it for what The New York Times called its "Ono-centric" view of Lennon's life, and audiences have dwindled since its Aug. 15 opening night, falling...

America's most listened to talk radio host Rush Limbaugh will hit Broadway next month with a one man show to fund relief efforts for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. "Rush on Broadway" will open for a one-day-only performance on Tuesday Oct. 18 at the New Amsterdam Theater on 42nd Street. The show will feature a special introduction by ABC Radio host Sean Hannity. Tickets go on sale Tuesday, Sept. 6 at 10am. Plans for Limbaugh's Broadway debut were apparently finalized late Thursday - the top talker made no mention of the production during his regular midday broadcast. However WABC -...

A musical based on the sex scandal that turned Bill Clinton into the first elected president ever impeached is set to debut next month on Broadway. "American Idol" veteran Frenchie Davis will play the role of Clinton's White House secretary Betty Currie in "Monica! The Musical!" - which premieres Sept. 21 as part of the New York Musical Theatre Festival. Actress Christine DiGiallonardo plays the thong-snapping intern, with actor Duke LaFoon potraying Bill Clinton in all his cigar-savoring glory. "Monica! The Musical!" reportedly has its own "toetapping" signature song - "Blue Dress." Other characters featured in the Clinton Sexgate extravaganza...

Not long after an affirming treatment by Hollywood, the life of the "father of the sexual revolution," Alfred Kinsey, is about to be feted on Broadway. The musical "Dr. Sex" is scheduled to run Aug. 26 to Oct. 30 at the Peter Norton Space in New York City, according to BroadwayWorld.com Production notes call "Dr. Sex" the "cleanest show about sex in the history of musical comedy." The movie "explores the loving relationship between Dr. Alfred Kinsey, his wife, Clara ... and their handsome boyfriend (and lab assistant), Wally Matthews." Brian Noonan of "The Phantom of the Opera" and "Les...

Television talk show host and actress Rosie O'Donnell will return to Broadway in September in a production of "Fiddler on the Roof," the show's producers said on Monday. O'Donnell will star opposite actor and playwright Harvey Fierstein in the musical running at the Minskoff Theater in Manhattan. Fierstein who is playing Tevye, a milkman, will be joined by O'Donnell as his wife Golde, according to a statement. "As a twenty year friend of Rosie's, I couldn't be happier that we will finally share a stage together," Fierstein said in the statement. A previous O'Donnell Broadway venture, "Taboo," which she produced,...

'Spamalot' Receives 14 Tony Nominations NEW YORK - "Monty Python's Spamalot," a madcap medieval musical loosely based on the zany British troupe's film "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," led the field with 14 Tony nominations Tuesday, including best musical and bids for its King Arthur, Tim Curry, and Lancelot, Hank Azaria. "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" and "The Light in The Piazza" got 11 each. The Pulitzer Prize-winning "Doubt," John Patrick Shanley's drama of uncertainty set against the backdrop of a Catholic school in the Bronx, received eight nominations. Kathleen Turner picked up a best actress nomination for her role as...

A “universal recipe” for building a “dream team” has been devised by scientists studying the make-up of the groups behind hit Broadway musicals and successful science projects. The perfect creative team contains just the right mix of veterans and rookies, suggests the mathematical modelling study, carried out by Luís Nunes Amaral at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, US, and colleagues. “All the best teams seem to have a certain number of newcomers,” says Amaral, who works on complex systems and network analysis. But he adds: “The successful teams also have a fair number of people who are established.” Taking completely...

NEW YORK – A maniacal self-delight has been a keynote of John Lithgow's comic performances – a silvery glee like the silvery toupee that crowns him in the new Broadway musical, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. He stars as a con man-count who fleeces wealthy women on the Riviera, and Mr. Lithgow's own joy in his preening and seducing shifts easily into camp vanity ("Breeding is important – but lighting is everything"). Yet he is actually supposed to be the more debonair of the two frauds in this free adaptation of the 1988 Michael Caine-Steve Martin film. If the effortless Mr. Caine...

Sara Krulwich/The New York Times Jackie Seiden, left, Kate Reinders and Janet Dacal in "Good Vibrations." Even those who believe everything on this planet is here for a purpose may at first have trouble justifying the existence of "Good Vibrations," the singing headache that opened last night at the Eugene O'Neill Theater. But audience members strong enough to sit through this rickety jukebox of a show, which manages to purge all catchiness from the surpassingly catchy hits of the Beach Boys, will discover that the production does have a reason to be, and a noble one: "Good Vibrations" sacrifices...

1010 WINS has learned that "Law and Order" star Jerry Orbach has died of prostate cancer at the age of 69. His manager, Robert Malcolm confirmed Orbach's death this morning. Tony Award winner Jerry Orbach (“Promises, Promises”) earned a reputation as the quintessential New Yorker through his work in such films as “Prince of the City” and “Crimes and Misdemeanors,” as well as for his roles in Broadway’s “42nd Street” and on NBC’s “Law & Order.” Orbach has been honored with the Crystal Apple Award from the New York City Mayor’s Office of Film, Television and Broadcasting for his contribution...

Tony-Nominated Playwright Bryony Lavery Accused of Plagiarism Sam Dolnick/ Associated Press Writer Sep 25, 2004 NEW YORK (AP) - English playwright Bryony Lavery has been accused of plagiarizing passages from a criminal psychiatrist and a magazine writer in her Tony Award-nominated play about a serial killer and his psychiatrist. Dr. Dorothy Otnow Lewis and Malcolm Gladwell of The New Yorker said they had found at least 12 instances of plagiarism in "Frozen," which earned a Tony nomination for best play this year. Biographical and thematic details had also been taken from a New Yorker profile Gladwell wrote about Lewis in...

I've pulled an earlier post from today, because I could not verify some supporting statements from an earlier Reuters report. Evidently some words may have "disappeared" from a report they made regarding protesters attacking Republican Convention Delegates, in particular a mention of an attack on African American Delegates. I have no saved copy, so until I can verify the report I'll pull it. I have some experience with the Democrat party and the hate they can heap upon those who leave the fold, and I intend to expose them for what they are. But unlike the Old Media, those of...

Hollywood may dazzle the world with its cinematic special effects, but New York thinks it is the nation's real capital of culture. It has the art galleries, the opera, the jazz clubs, the great publishing houses and most of all, the theater. New York is trying to offer this cosmopolitan cornucopia to the arriving delegates of (as well as the ragtag armies of professional protesters to) the Republican National Convention. But some productions aren't exactly on the Grand Old Party wavelength. The producer of an off-Broadway musical called "Naked Boys Singing" is accusing the Republican National Committee of "censoring" the...

August 27, 2004 -- THOUSANDS of Republican dele gates are planning to take in a Broadway show Sunday afternoon — but will the actors show up for work? There is a campaign, fanned by anti-Republican groups on the Internet and being discussed informally among the actors themselves, encouraging performers to boycott the Republicans by calling in sick on Sunday. That's the day the Republican National Committee has bought up blocks of tickets to such shows as "Fiddler on the Roof," "42nd Street," "Wonderful Town," "The Lion King" and "Aida." It is impossible to know how effective the campaign is at...

Pink Floyd's Wall Broadway bound Harvey Weinstein will help bring the Wall to Broadway Harvey Weinstein will help bring the Wall to Broadway Pink Floyd's seminal album The Wall is the latest piece of popular rock to be turned into a musical. Its storyline, portraying the fictional life of anti-hero Pink who withdraws into a fantasy world, will be staged on Broadway in New York. The band's live performances of the album were among the most ambitious spectacles attempted in rock music. Since its 1979 release, the album, which features hit track Another Brick in the Wall, has sold 23m...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Gay puppets, transvestites, assassins and a pedophile child killer piled up Tony honors on Sunday but those shows will be shunned by Republican delegates at the political party's convention in New York this summer. Reuters Photo With thousands of Republicans set to descend on the Big Apple to nominate President Bush (news - web sites) for re-election, convention organizers decided to treat delegates to the glitz of Broadway before they knuckled down to the business of politics. But Republican organizers, selling themselves as the family-values party, decided to buy tickets to tame shows like "42nd Street"...

UNLESS I acquire some unexpected clout around here in the next 48 hours, Times readers will wake up on Tuesday morning to read a prominent story announcing the nominees for an artistically meaningless, blatantly commercial, shamefully exclusionary and culturally corrosive award competition. Let me put it another way: unless Times editors have overcome several decades of their own inertia, readers on Tuesday will find a prominent story serving the pecuniary interests of three privately controlled companies whose principals have earned the right to convene in what Damon Runyon once called "the laughing room." That was Runyon's term for the sound-proofed...