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Great Minds Think Alike -- Or Do They? |
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Written by Oliver Manning
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They say that great minds think alike -- but do they really? That is certainly not the case when Garry Trudeau's fictional Doonesbury and fictional U.S. Congresswoman Sherri Davis -- a cameo character in the hot new teen musical "In Your Dreams" -- go head-to-head on the burning issue of the need for a Constitutional Amendment to protect the U.S. flag.
In an online discussion, Davis, an IYD alumnus and Yale graduate who is troubled by the knowledge that four American flags were burnt in the U.S. during the past year, provides a Congressional point of view on the recent attempt to pass a Constitutional Amendment to protect Old Glory from burning and other forms of destruction at an IYD-sponsored forum on Youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJ1GTXO0U14
And Trudeau, a Yale graduate who takes the opposite point of view in his widely distributed political cartoon “Doonesbury,” says that the Flag Amendment is losing traction because so few Americans actually set the Stars and Stripes aflame anymore.
http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/index.html
“In his most recent strip, Bush is asking political guru Karl Rove why the White House is not getting more of a bounce out of the flag-burning amendment,” says Miramax-linked Zeke Farrow, creator of the hot new teen musical “In Your Dreams” and an avid follower of the flag burning debate. “And Rove explains that the only graphic display of flag-burning is grainy footage of protesters now as old as 60. Which is funny -- because President Bush’s 60th birthday is actually tomorrow, July 6.” Bush is a graduate of Yale University, notes Farrow.
To celebrate its recent success, Farrow’s “In Your Dreams,” the underdog competitor to Disney Channel’s billon-dollar “High School Musical” tween musical franchise, is sponsoring a series of forums featuring the fictional Congresswoman Davis. In the weeks to come, the “In Your Dreams” web site will air interviews with Ms. Davis on such hot-button political topics as illegal immigration, the minimum wage, the Marriage Amendment to the Constitution -- and Ms. Davis’s own proposed legislation, mandatory portion control.
“What remains so wonderful about our country is our divergent points of view -- even on an issue so outwardly simple as the four flags that have been burnt in America in the past year,” says Farrow, also a graduate of Yale. “In our country, every issue, no matter how small, receives a wide and full discussion. That’s even more true in the day and age of the Internet."
Farrow's “In Your Dreams” is a large-scale, splashy, teen musical –- with just a dash of political satire. The stage version of “In Your Dreams” will see a showcase production at Ars Nova, the famed Manhattan performance incubator, in early October. http://broadwayworld.com/viewcolumn.cfm?colid=9263
What is helping to fuel the “In Your Dreams Express” are its 13 ingeniously lyrical songs, performed by a number of top Broadway singers, including “Trailer Park’s” Drama Desk-nominated Leslie Kritzer, “Wicked’s” Laura Bell Bundy, “Les Miserable’s” Jodie Langel, “Little Shop of Horror’s” Kerry Butler, “Thoroughly Modern Millie’s” Gavin Creel, “Hairspray’s” Jackie Hoffman, “The Full Monty’s” Sloan Just, and Anika Larsen, Danny Rocket and Anthony Rapp from “Rent.” Rhythm and blues artist Shayna Steele is also a contributor. http://myspace.com/inyourdreamsthemusical
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