In The Future

If you feel the necessity to vent your spleen about anything other than Broadway, write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper or send a private message to anyone on the board. Rob was right in locking the thread. It was filled with some of the most hate filled bilge I have seen in awhile.

The other boards died because of posters like this. We must not let them do the same here .

Politics & social issues have no place on this board. There are other boards for that purpose. Long Live Broadway

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Updated On: 10/15/03 at 10:10 PM

I would just like to point out that I, branded the number 1 trouble maker of all time by many on this board, completely missed the locked thread.

I would also like to point out that Rob locked the thread, effectively to end it. And Roxy actually manages to get the whole thing opened up again, which is interesting, to say that Rob was right in locking the thread. Well, why not let the topic stay over and done with instead of starting a new thread to say it was right to lock the old thread?

I think certain people should take a good long look in the mirror before labeling others troublemakers. A LOT of people (well, about six people) on a LOT of sites (well, two sites) talk with absolute certainty about who or what actions caused a certain other site to get shut down. But unless you are Paul Worontek, you have no idea why that certain other site's message board was shut down.

Buuuuut, pretending you have moral certainty is good enough for some folks.

And, I have said it before and I will say it again, ALL art is inherently political.

Many Broadway shows and other theatrical endeavors confront social and political issues. Long may discussions of them reign.

Having said that, did anybody see The Art Party production of Jean Genet's "Elle," starring Alan Cumming and Stephen Spinella? For those who don't know about it, Elle is about a photographer sent to the Vatican to photograph the Pope and create an image the world will identify with. The Pope then tells the photographer that he is not that image, that he in fact does not exist. It ran Off-Broadway.

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Updated On: 10/15/03 at 10:37 PM

Again, I would like to point out how willfully irony seems to escape you. My point was that you starting this thread was a clear case of you flogging a dead horse.

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I would also like to point out that Rob was absolutely correct in censoring your Britney Spears thread. (Gee Roxy, it IS fun speaking for Rob!)

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Well I'll jump in and add that politics and social issues AND religion are the stuff of some GREAT theater. But since those plays don't usually have a tune that you can dance to or sing in the shower, they tend to be forgotten here.

And no one knows what caused the "downfall" of another board. Perhaps it was the politics, social, or financial issues involved in its upkeep. And without the ability to read minds, why speculate.

But any thread in which someone wants, waits, and wishes for the death of another, be it the pontiff, any religous leader, or John Q. Public, is beyond distasteful.

Did anyone see Alan in ELLE? Please, Namo, did you need to ask? I thought you knew me so well.

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"Again I said do not try & read minds. I know why I started it. If it suits your purpose to think otherwise, feel free."

And my point was, you should really stop claiming to read minds about who, why or what got another board shut down. Only Paul Worontek knows why it happened. But it suits your purposes to think otherwise. (Again, the irony escapes you.)

That's right, etoile! You did see Elle. How fantastic was Alan Cumming as the Pope in Vivienne Westwood frocks????

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Imagine! A play about a leader being picked because of an image! And a Pope at that! Genet was one smart cookie. Cumming, too.

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I should like to be number 3. If it helps me achieve that status, I would suggest a musical about the people who have attempted (and in some cases succeeded in) assassinating US Presidents. Oh wait, someone else already had that idea.

Did it banish discussion of Sondheim from this board?

Religion, politics (though maybe we'll do a presidential election poll when that rolls around), and > PG-13 sexual comments are the only general issues to avoid on the site whenever not directly related to something in, on or about a show. That's the vague general rule that I've got in my mind at least when I get a slew of complaints asking me to kill a thread. I'd have explained the thought process more last night, but am fighting the end of a head cold so sleep came first.

I've tried to stay out of this but I really feel compelled to say something since this topic continues.

What thsi comes down to is that some comments made on the other thread went beyond "I don't like the Pope's views" to comments that were insulting to Catholics and basically lumped the entire church in with a handful of men who had done something criminal. That's just plain wrong. It amazes me that so many people on this board are inacapable of admitting that they may have said something they shouldn't have.

I personally do not follow any organized religion but I realize that many people do and are very devoted to those religious beliefs. To insult them for it is wrong.

The Catholic Church has a terrible track record when it comes to it's treatment of gays and lesbians and a handful of it's clergy are perverts who molested children. However, let's not forget the fact that there are gay and lesbian memebers of this church working from within it to chnage the attitudes toward homosexuality and that the majority of members and clergyu were outraged by the molestation reports and demanded that the perpetrators be punished. Some of the comments made were hurtful to these people. It started off as a funny joke thread about a fictional musicala nd quickly deteriorated into something it shouldn't and something that doesn't belong on this forum. That's it, plain and simple. It was wrong, it needed to be stopped and some people said things that they shouldn't have. Why continue the fight? Why not be big enough to say "My comments may have been out of line and I apologize to anyone I may have insulted"? I don't understand why it's so hard for so many people here to take a look at themselves objectively and admit that sometimes, even inadvertantly, they say the wrong thing.

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