Gay rights opponents in Northampton,
Massachusetts are attempting to shut down a production of Paul
Rudnick's The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told.
Rudnick, who is
openly gay, is best known for writing the plays Jeffrey, I
Hate Hamlet and The Gay
Marriage Plays and the screenplays for In & Out,
The Stepford Wives and Addams Family Values.
Pioneer Valley
Performing Arts (PVPA) Charter Public School's upcoming staging of
The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told is being protested by
Christians who say Rudnick's version of the Book of Genesis, which
includes gay characters, offends God.
“Foremost, it
offends God,” a woman said in a voicemail received by the school.
“And I protest that you folks will even consider this play.”
School officials
said they have received more than 4,000 emails asking them to cancel
the performance.
“Some of them
were rather concerning and hateful,” Debra J'Anthony, executive
director of the Academy of Music Theatre in Northampton, the play's
venue, told ABC affiliate WGGB. “Addressed toward, you know,
anti-gay speech.”
In a statement,
PVPA Principal Scott Goldman said canceling the show was not an
option.
“Allowing this to
happen would very much go against the grain of our unique, artistic,
and intellectually rigorous PVPA community, and the larger Pioneer
Valley community,” he said. (A video report is embedded on this
page. Visit
our video library for more videos.)
The school's
staging of the play opens Friday, March 15.