The conceit behind The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told is easy to grasp. Instead of Adam and Eve frolicking naked in the Garden of Eden, it's Adam and Steve who are the primordial couple. When they meet up with an equally primordial lesbian couple and decide to start a civilization, hilarity ensues.
The sacrilege was deliberate and gleeful, but what reviewers homed in on when the play debuted off Broadway in 1998 was the compassionate spirit that was layered underneath. As The New York Times' Ben Brantley put it at the time, "there's reverence in [playwright Paul] Rudnick's irreverence, an earnest warmth beneath the frivolity."
Religious conservatives, particularly in the south, however, prefer their "earnest warmth" to be Biblically accurate and free of homosexuality, which is why they have protested the play in the past and continue to do so as it makes its way through the nation's heartland.
In Oklahoma City, dozens of pastors have objected to the presentation of the play, calling it "obscene" and "an affront to Oklahoma City community standards." Here in Dallas, the Uptown Players' scheduled production at the Kalita Humphreys Theater will be picketed this weekend by America Needs Fatima, which describes itself as a "nonprofit campaign made up of Catholic citzens united in a common goal: To win the heart and soul of America for Mary, our Blessed Mother."
Robert Ritchie, the group's executive director, penned an outraged call to action on Sunday, alerting Dallas Catholics that "They will call Our Lady a lesbian in your city!!!"
"This is blasphemy," Ritchie writes. "I ask -- will God bless those who allow His Holy Mother to be dragged into the dirt of lesbian insults? Will He allow the Immaculate Conception to be turned into a homosexual party game?"
Considering that the play is 15 years old and has been shown countless times in New York and elsewhere, the answer seems to be yes. Whether he will allow the Uptown Players to stage their version remains to be seen, though it's doubtful that they will be stopped by ANF's Rosary of Reparation.
(h/t Right Wing Watch)
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