Free Republic

Bottom Line: Theatrical version of Green Day's acclaimed concept album will need to attract all of the band's fans it can muster. For all of the rock musicals that have appeared on Broadway in the decades since "Hair," "American Idiot" comes the closest to providing a theatrical equivalent to the music of the moment. This adaptation of Green Day's critically acclaimed and huge-selling 2004 album stays pure to its inspiration, musically and aesthetically. But in terms of dramatic impact, it falls far short of predecessors like "The Who's Tommy," and it might prove a tough sell for audiences not predisposed...

The Who guitarist Pete Townshend, behind rock operas "Tommy" and "Quadrophenia", is writing a new musical "Floss", about getting old. "As a 19-year-old, with 'My Generation', I wrote the most explicitly ageist song in rock," Townshend wrote on his band's website... The 1965 hit song includes the line "I hope I die before I get old". "At 64, I now want to take on aging and mortality, using the powerfully angry context of rock'n'roll." Floss will be designed for outdoor performance and arenas and Townshend expects it to be ready for a concert premiere in 2011, probably in New York....

SOMETIMES tragic occurrences force us to stop and think – those are the moments that crystallize our perceptions of human relations. I found myself in such a state with the passing of a constituent, friend and fellow conservative who also happened to be gay. Our conversations convinced me that my beliefs in limited government can be shared across the chasms that liberals and conservatives perceive to separate us – ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation. That conclusion is not popular on either side of the left-right spectrum: Liberals don't believe gays should be conservative and conservatives don't believe gays can be...

"Churchill mobilized the English language and sent it into battle." - Edward R. Murrow Give Frank Rich credit for this: he doesn't run from his theater-critic past. Like a mirror-image Churchill, the man now paid by the New York Times to think great thoughts rather than to laugh till he cries mobilizes theater metaphors in his pay-per-view, anti-war opus of this morning, He’s in the Bunker Now.Rich begins by informing us that President Bush has morphed from Harold Hill in "The Music Man" into Willy Loman from "Death of a Salesman." And we all know what that means.Rich next...

BE HERE, OR BE NOWHERE!

BE HERE, OR BE NOWHERE!

BE HERE, OR BE NOWHERE!

Hillary Clinton is running in a phantom race for the Senate, pitted against an unknown, unqualified opponent. In the unlikely event that New Yorkers ever learn what John Spencer’s views are, most would find them far too conservative. It’s a measure of the haplessness of Mr. Spencer’s campaign that the Republican nominee has been dogged by rumors that his real aim is to prepare the ground for an attempt to regain his old job as mayor of Yonkers.

Borders!!! Language!!! Culture!!!

EXCERPTS FROM MY FAILED MUSICAL (IH Bigups to the great Mike Wallster of Ipso Facto for the illustration) ACT I Split stage. On the right, a group of immigrant street toughs mill outside a bleak suburban banlieu. On the right: President Jacques Chirac’s office in Elysee Palace, where Chirac is toasting another French diplomatic victory with Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin (who is a man). CHIRACIt’s great to be part of the UN… the EU’s a marvelous thing… VILLEPINIn our little cloister the world is our oyster…TOGETHER‘cuz – we – get – to – pull – all - the -...

Give me one reason why "judicial extraordinaire" Harriet Miers is qualified to sit on the highest court in the land, the Supreme Court. One.

It's time for politicians to protect the film industry and implement stiff anti-piracy laws. According to the Motion Picture Association of America, "pirates are costing the film industry billions of dollars each year." Thank you, J. Scott Davis

My friend just called me 10 minutes ago. There is something going on the city. They've evacuated couple of blocks??? I can't find anything online. Anybody?