The sanctimonious left apparently has no qualms about labeling Sarah Palin’s views as hate speech while offering up her beheading as suitable fare for children.  The difference when such violence comes from the left is that . . . well, we know it’s just in good fun.  Everyone is supposed to recognize that liberals are nice people who would never resort to violence, while conservatives are disturbed and imbalanced and armed to the teeth.

But why stop with Palin?  Why not invite a whole bunch of conservatives to The Last Supper and kill them all?  The director of this play says it’s just a way for liberals to voice some of their frustrations.  You know, it’s therapeutic, and therefore it’s part of what keeps those liberals such sweet, fun-loving people.

To be fair, The Last Supper apparently suggests that killing conservatives is wrong, although this reviewer says that conclusion is muddled:

“If you had the chance to kill Hitler or Stalin when they were young men, would you have taken it?” That’s the hypothetical at the heart of “The Last Supper,” the latest production from Rising Sun Performance Company. What’s good about Dan Rosen’s play, which is based on his screenplay for the 1995 movie of the same title, is that it provides an answer. What’s bad is that the answer is confused.

Of course, when your premise equates run-of-the-mill conservatives with Hitler, you have a long way to go if your stated goal is to provoke rational political discourse.  If you equate them with Stalin, it’s not surprising that you never get there.

Or is it Ars gratia vomitus? Art comes in many offensive forms these days, and there is certainly an audience that delights in being offended. I suspect that audiences drawn to offensive art usually retain some deniability, presuming that the offensive stuff is really directed at others – those too close-minded to patronize this art or maybe just the guy in the next seat.

But the offensiveness is hard to shake off when the performer vomits in your lap.

Not metaphorically, mind you, but with all the stink and bile of half-digested bouillabaisse and cheesecake.

Unless you’re Susan Sarandon, in which case you will profess to enjoy the experience – nay, find it aesthetically profound:

A transsexual cabaret performer named Rose Wood engaged in projectile vomiting on stage and hit Sarandon with it.

Standing nearby were Scarlett Johansson and Liev Schreiber.

According to Wood it was not intended as an affront to the actress and she didn’t take it that way.

“Apparently [Sarandon] got a big kick out of it. She squealed with surprise and loved it when several handsome gentlemen wiped it off of her. She had a ball! I saw her assistant downstairs afterward, and he was moved by it! She was in great spirits,” Wood told the New York Press.

Wood explains that vomiting on people is fitting is this establishment.

Yes, there is something terribly fitting about it, and it tells us all we really need to know about both the performer and the audience. It’s enough to make you puke.

The arts community remains a hostile environment for conservatives. Consider the case of Scott Eckern, until recently the artistic director of the California Musical Theatre. He committed the unpardonable sin of supporting traditional marriage and contributed money to the Proposition 8 campaign.

Scott is now looking for a new job. The board of the California Musical Theatre reportedly planned an emergency session when it learned that it would be on the receiving end of a boycott. It was spared having to make a principled decision when Scott resigned.

“I am leaving California Musical Theatre after prayerful consideration to protect the organization and to help the healing in the local theatre-going and creative community,” he said. “I am disappointed that my personal convictions have cost me the opportunity to do what I love the most.”

He goes on to say this is “a highly emotional issue and the accusations that have been made against me are simply not true. I have now had many conversations with friends and colleagues, and I am deeply saddened that my personal beliefs and convictions have offended others. My choice to support the proposition was personal, and does not represent the views and opinions of California Musical Theatre or the many people associated with the organization.”

The California Musical Theatre claims that it does not “involve itself in political issues or ever impinge on the rights of its employees to engage in political activities of their choice.” Nor does it stand up for the rights of its employees to have conservative views.

But that doesn’t tell the whole tale. In fact this supposedly apolitical theater sought immediately to associate itself with the other side. Bizjournals reported on Tuesday:

“This is a crisis,” said Chris Bower, spokesman for the theater company, which puts on Music Circus shows, presents the Broadway Series at the Community Center Theatre and has just launched the musical Forever Plaid at the new K Street performing arts venue Cosmopolitan Cabaret.

“Any political action or opinion of Scott Eckern is not shared by California Musical Theatre. We have a long history of appreciation for the lesbian gay bisexual transgender community and are truly grateful for their long-standing support. We acknowledge the dedication, patronage, and hard work of the many members of the LGBT community who have played a crucial role in our success. Our only mission is to present quality theatrical productions to enrich the cultural life of the community,” the company said in a prepared release.

The people opposing Proposition 8 have the same right to voice their opinion and organize as anyone else. Let’s be clear: it is not censorship or McCarthyism (labels frequently applied to conservatives) when private citizens exert political pressure. This crowd, however, is not offended by the theater, but rather by one of its employees, and the threatened boycott is aimed purely at causing the organization to retaliate by firing him. They will use the public reports of campaign contributions to create a blacklist, and their actions are ugly, and despicable, and very intolerant.

Forty years ago today, the musical Hair opened on Broadway.

It was a phenomenon, to say the least, and became an artistic icon of its very peculiar and self-obsessed generation (of which I am one). Whatever opinions you hold of that generation, and whatever memories or fantasies you have about those times, it was a generation with its own music, and Hair was a major element in its repertoire.

I made a comment recently in another context that seems applicable here:

We could teach the history of the 20^th century through the pop music that gave voice, for better or worse, to every social whim and cultural upheaval. But young people today share music primarily in the technological sense. Music does not give them a common voice; they all have their individualized playlists.

Jim Rado maintains the official web site for Hair with lots of pictures, history, and some sound files.

HAIR was created as an original idea by Gerome Ragni (Jerry) and, myself, James Rado (Jim). We collaborated on the story, text, characters, dialogue and lyrics over the years 1965, 1966 and 1967. From the start, I envisioned that the score of HAIR would be something new for Broadway, a kind of pop rock/showtune hybrid. At first we had considerable difficulty, and we rejected several composers, until finally, in early 1967, we found the music for our lyrics. It was a case of love at first hearing. The composer was Galt MacDermot. It was more than a fulfillment of a dream. I would call it a clear illustration of a marriage made in heaven.

HAIR has played pretty much continuously ever since its opening at Broadway’s Biltmore Theatre on West 47^th Street in 1968, and it was translated into many languages and produced around the world, from Japan and Australia to South & Central America, from Europe to Israel. Once the initial popularity waned, it seemed for a spell that HAIR was not an especially viable commodity; there was a major slump of interest in it from around the mid 1970s into the early 80s, to my recollection. But then, in the mid-80s, a new interest arose which took hold and grew.

Visit the site and reminisce.

The Erfurt Opera charts new lows.

We have become painfully aware lately that you can’t poke fun at Islam, but you can still demonstrate your sophistication in Europe by satirizing victims of radical Islam. The rubble of ground zero and some 3,000 dead souls make a trendy setting for Verdi’s A Masked Ball and a great occasion for pointing out the flaws in democracy and capitalism. (It was our fault, you know, and the operatic chickens have come home to roost.)

Austrian director Johann Kresnik’s version of Verdi’s opera, complete with naked cast wearing nothing but Mickey Mouse masks, debuts tomorrow at the Erfurt Theater. The Telegraph reports:

“It will be a different, a provocative masked ball on the ruins of the World Trade Centre,” [Kresnik] told reporters before Saturday’s premiere. “The naked stand for people without means, the victims of capitalism, the underclass, who don’t have anything anymore.”

As for those who do not belong to the underclass, for instance people who fly on airplanes or work in New York skyscrapers . . . well, who cares? Kresnik’s production will sell tickets and insure that Kresnik himself does not sink into the lower economic echelons.

“One has to introduce new elements,” he said. “Otherwise it is difficult to attract new theatregoers.”

No American capitalist trampling on the less fortunate could say it better! Kresnik has apparently succeeded; the production is nearly sold out. Those “new theatergoers” will line up to see fat naked men in Mickey Mouse masks.

“It’s a very beautiful, poetic scene,” said Guy Montavon, the theatre’s general manager.

We can only hope that a few in the audience will notice the contrast between the beauty of Verdi’s music and the hideous vision of the director.

Kresnik’s critique of American society makes one relieved to be an American.

Amanda Shaw reviews Macbeth in First Things.

The director, Rupert Goold, masterfully depicts the evil of power and, more terrifying, the power of evil-yet he doesn’t go about this in any traditional, warty-nosed-witch sort of way. His production, starring Patrick Stewart and Kate Fleetwood, debuted last year in England and, after finishing its run in Brooklyn, will be moving on to Broadway.

* * *

[T]his production is somehow both awe-full and terrifying. Bestial behavior and violence can cause us to feel pity or disgust. It is when they are shrouded in feigned ignorance and quotidian merriment-when they wear human faces-that they become truly horrible. Stars, hide your fires, says Macbeth. Let not light see my black and deep desires: / The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be, / Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see.

I am skeptical of the Stalinist setting; I find such anachronisms frequently distracting. But the review suggests that the setting may have been put to good use here and offers other good reasons to keep an eye on this production.