Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Legal Commentary Blogs -> Althouse

Legal Commentary

: Althouse

You can't be the artistic director of a musical theater company and oppose gay marriage.

Even if your religion tells you so. That's what Scott Eckern found out.

His donation [of $1,000 to support Prop 8] was brought to light by online activists angry about the measure?s success at the polls....

[T]he swift resignation was not met with cheers by those on either side.

Marc Shaiman, the Tony Award-winning composer (?Hairspray?), called Mr. Eckern last week and said that he would not let his work be performed in the theater. ?I was uncomfortable with money made off my work being used to put discrimination in the Constitution,? Mr. Shaiman said. He added, however, that the entire episode left him ?deeply troubled? because of the potential for backlash against gays who protested Mr. Eckern?s donation.

?It will not help our cause because we will be branded exactly as what we were trying to fight,? said Mr. Shaiman, who is gay. ?But I do believe there comes a time when you cannot sit back and accept what I think is the most dangerous form of bigotry.?...

The sense of disappointment over the vote extended to Broadway. Jeffrey Seller, a producer of the show ?Avenue Q,? which is scheduled to be part of the 2008-9 season at the California Musical Theater, said he had been shocked when he heard about Mr. Eckern?s donation.

?That a man who makes his living exclusively through the musical theater could do something so hurtful to the community that forms his livelihood is a punch in the stomach,? [said Jeffrey Seller, a producer of the show "Avenue Q."]

So theater -- musical theater, anyway -- will be reserved for people who think the right thoughts or keep their mouths shut about what they think. Great idea! Make theater more narrow and exclusionary. Not many people want to go to the theater already. Why not turn more people off? You never wanted to speak to those religious folk anyway, did you? Theater is a place where like-minded people congregate and remind each other of the good thoughts they think together.

Full post as published by Althouse on November 13, 2008 (boomark / email).