A Very Great Lady

Due to some technical difficulties, I haven't been able to blog lately. I'm glad my laptop has finally decided to cooperate.As you all probably know by now, Natasha Richardson passed away on Wednesday. Coincidentally, that was the day Lenora and I went to see Guys and Dolls, which does not deserve all the negative reviews. That, however, is beside the point. The sad reality is that she is gone and she will be missed tremendously. Above is a picture of Natasha during her days as Sally Bowles (my absolute favorite musical theatre character) in the Roundabout's revival of Cabaret. It was a brilliant performance in a brilliant show. Below is a picture of her when she played Blanche DuBois (another one of my favorites) in the Roundabout's revival of A Streetcar Named Desire. It was a brilliant performance in a not-so-brilliant show.Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to see her play Desiree in a concert version of A Little Night Music. Instead, I saw August: Osage County. Let it never be said that I regret seeing August, but I do regret missing what was to be her final appearance on the New York stage. This is one shining star that left us far too soon. So I'm dedicating this post to the memory of a wonderful actress, and as Rhett Butler would say, "a very great lady."

And now for some pure, unnecessary ugliness. Sorry I couldn't make the pamphlet bigger. Actually, I 'm not sorry at all. The Westboro Baptist Church has decided to disrespect Ms. Richardson and her family and make utter fools of themselves by showing up at her funeral to picket. This flier would be hilarious if it weren't so utterly disgusting. My personal favorite part is "Thank God for the bunny slope of cursed Quebec, Canada!" Oh, beware the bunny slope, friends! Unspeakable horrors await ye there! I don't know about you guys, but I was not aware that God appointed the bunny slope to ensnare the simple sluts of doomed America. Now, I haven't read the Bible cover-to-cover, so I'm sure you guys will take this with a grain of salt, but somehow I'm fairly certain that there is no passage that states, "God hates fags and fag enablers!" I just hauled my Bible off the top shelf and looked up Romans 1:19-32 to see if it says that. And guess what, folks. It DOESN'T. Notice that it says that this will be an "educational religious picket." Oh, okay. That's different. For a second there I thought it would just be a congregation of loonies screaming about how incredibly screwed we all are. Where do these people get the nerve to say "NATASHA RICHARDSON IS IN HELL!"? So much for peace and love to everyone. Apparently, her greatest sin was supporting AIDS research. How DARE she?! Doesn't she know that AIDS is God's way of cleansing America of the "feces-eating fag beasts?" I have some bad news, friends. Last September I attended the flea market for BC/EFA, which raises money for AIDS research. I guess that seals it. I'm doomed. Do you think they have wireless internet connection in hell? Maybe I can blog and tell you guys what it's like. (Personally, I firmly believe that hell is a never-ending production of Rent. With Idina Menzel as Maureen. Oh, yes. I went there.) Anyway, people like Fred Phelps and his inbred congregation make me ashamed to be a Christian. I can assure you, we're not all like that. No Christian I know has ever shown up at the funeral of soldier killed in battle and praised God for killing him. No Christian I know thinks Virginia Tech was a blessing. No Christian I know runs a website called http://www.godhatesfags.com/. Well, Bible-thumping Nazis aside, I hope Ms. Richardson will rest in peace, and my heart goes out to her family during this difficult time.

On a trivial and unrelated note, an amusing little anecdote I heard last night. Peter Griffin: "Jeez, if you wanna do a bad show, why didn't we just do Rent?" I knew there was a reason I loved Family Guy so much. Just more evidence that Seth MacFarlane is the greatest stroke of genius since Stephen Sondheim.