Reuters: Bush-bashing takes center stage in NY theaters

[PhilipShore]

Reuters
By Claudia Parsons
Jan 30, 2006

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=entertainmentNews&storyID=2006-01-30T164504Z_01_N26390713_RTRUKOC_0_US-ARTS-LIBERALS.xml&archived=False

NEW YORK (Reuters) - It's not hard to spot the common theme in three New York theater offerings this season that go by the titles "Bush is Bad," "Bush Wars: Musical Revenge" and "Laughing Liberally."

The Web site for "Bush is Bad" features a grand piano falling on the head of President George W. Bush.

"Bush Wars" promises what it calls a counterattack on "the disgraceful agenda of the Bush administration." It features a dance number with Bush and Osama bin Laden taking their mothers to lunch at the same restaurant, and another with New Orleans residents singing as they await help after Hurricane Katrina, in a dig at the Bush administration's slow response.

There is also a spoof romantic duet between Bush and his chief adviser Karl Rove, and a naughty bedroom scene which has Vice President Dick Cheney literally in bed with a pair of scantily-clad women named after oil companies.

[bliss_eternal]

1. This isn't new

I'm surprised the paper seems to think it is.

Tony award winning play, Avenue Q features a line during their final song about * . A song about making the most of the moments we have and how so much in life is temporary. The lyric is something to the affect of "...George Bush is just for now..."

When they sing that part, I lost it! I couldn't stop cheering! So cool that they acknowledge how miserable we've all been under him/it.

[Radio_Lady]

6. New to me.... (and perhaps to YOU, whoever you are...)

Frankly, I need something to boost me today. Kicked and recommended.

PS. The article says January 30, 2006, but there is no time stamp on it.

[bostonbabs]

12. new to me too....kicked n/t

[bliss_eternal]

18. My point

which seemed to escape you, was with the article, not the post or poster. Great art comes out of difficult times. THAT is what is not new--which I thought was clear in my post. Included in that art frequently are pieces that specifically lampoon those in power.

I thought my example demonstrated that. Sorry it apparently did not.

I wasn't trying to diminish the original posters sharing of this article,if this is what you(and others) thought. I was merely sharing that the 'trend' the article mentions is not new... I'm not at all sure why you are taking exception to a random comment about AN ARTICLE. That was what I commented on--not the post or the poster's choice to utilize it.

I find your comment here 'frankly' rather rude:

Quote:
(and perhaps to YOU, whoever you are...)

*I* am a member of this board, just like you.

[MODemocrat]

17. Maybe it isn't new, but it still fits

I'd love to go see those plays. George is a big joke, and it's good that it's all coming out "in song."

[bliss_eternal]

19. Again--

I was not attempting to take away from this post in any way. See my post above for clarification.

I merely thought it interesting that the article failed to mention or even explore some of the other pieces that explored the 'big joke' in song and dance on the stage in the last few years. Having prior knowledge of those works and failing to see them mentioned, it wasn't 'new' in that respect.

Not a big deal really. Just sorry it seems my post was construed as somehow knocking the original poster's choice to share this. I was not.

[marmar]

2. I'm in a New York State of Mind...

Great titles, especially "Bush is Bad."

[Radio_Lady]

5. Kicked and recommended.

[Supersedeas]

23. another and seconded

[MaryRN]

3. Reuters has already removed it.

[Radio_Lady]

4. MaryRN, the link is still working -- what do you mean "removed it"?

CONTINUED from ORIGINAL -- MORE of link at:

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=entertainmentNews&storyID=2006-01-30T164504Z_01_N26390713_RTRUKOC_0_US-ARTS-LIBERALS.xml&archived=False

Both have been attracting enthusiastic audiences to small venues in Manhattan but in a city renowned for its liberal ways the shows may be preaching to the choir.

The organizers of "Laughing Liberally," a one-off evening of stand-up comedy at the 1,500-seat Town Hall on February 4, say their show has broader ambitions.

"It's not going to be an evening of Bush-bashing because that's very easy to do. Hopefully there will be some actual ideas in it," said Jim David, one of the more established comics on the bill with 19 years in the business. The comedy night is an extension of a drinking club founded by political campaigner Justin Krebs who now boasts 130 chapters of "Drinking Liberally" in 41 states and Washington, D.C., under the slogan "Promoting democracy one pint at a time."

Krebs' father, Eric, a theater producer who is planning an off-Broadway run and a national tour for "Laughing Liberally," said his motto was "Saving democracy one laugh at a time." He said the initiative was aimed at countering the likes of Rush Limbaugh, whose brand of conservative humor and anti-liberal commentary is hugely successful.

He was also inspired by "The Blue Collar Comedy Tour," a group of comedians who poke fun at Middle America from the inside, in an act that became a movie and a popular television show, and who are most famous for a series of jokes called "10 Ways to Tell You're a Redneck." Continued ...

[EuroObserver]

7. Yeah, Reuters may supercede, but it doesn't remove.

Nice to see this!

[MellowOne]

8. kick and recommended n/t

[twaddler01]

9. I wanna see!

Put this on public television! :evilgrin:

[MisterP]

10. Mackie Messer redux?

[chat_noir]

11. Laughing Liberally

[chat_noir]

13. Bush Wars

[Cha]

21. I would love to see that!

THanks!

[EVDebs]

14. "Life imitates art..." Oscar Wilde quote

Life imitates art far more than art imitates Life.
--Oscar Wilde

[chat_noir]

15. Bush is Bad

[izzybeans]

16. Reuters with a sense of history, though oxymoronic, might rewrite

their headline to read "Theatre and Power: At odds Again, and Again, and Again, and Again."

[Democat]

20. People don't "question" or "criticize" Bush, they only "bash" him

That liberal media.

[EndElectoral]

22. Are any of these shows touring in Texas?