Editor's Rant

Last week, I saw my first Broadway show in almost five years. Pretty sad, you might say; I live just 20 blocks from 42nd Street, that famous "entertainment capital of the world." But that's just the point. As far as I've been concerned, I've been entertaining myself just fine without all the flash and jazz of "the New Times Square." Until recently.

Goddamn if I know what changed me, but I finally caved and filed into that flashing bright-light eyesore called the American Airlines Theater. (Not the biggest eyesore on the block, or the brightest. But still.) But the thing is, when the lights dimmed and the show came up, it was nothing like what I remember always hating about Broadway theater. Instead of some silly, vapid line of chorus dancers chirping on about young love, there was a sparsely set stage with one poor bloke (Kevin Bacon, I'm embarrassed to admit) who went from calmly counting down the most religious moments of his life to screaming furiously at the heavens, "The hell with you!" Now, that's theater.

For some reason, I've been into this kind of thing lately. Maybe I'm growing more religious. But I doubt it. I still feel like too much of a heretic for all that. And I don't see a direct connection between "Damn the Heavens: On Broadway!" and religious revivalism. Or maybe. Because one set of lines has kept coming back to me all week long:

"Here's the deal. I think of God as someone I can abuse and who will abuse me back. Got it?"
"What do you call that thing you do?" (shouting at the sky, arms waving furiously)
"I'm praying."
"That's prayer?"

"I'm giving God my full attention. Isn't that prayer?"
A horrible butchering of the lines, but you get the point. Perhaps the playwright will forgive me. But it reminds me somehow of my more religious days. I remember this much from yeshiva: An old, bearded rabbi telling me, "Even running from God, you're still on the path. You're moving away, but so what? Better moving away than unmoved." So I've taken careful notes. I'm moving away. And I'm going screaming.

The hell with all of you,

Jeremy S. Davis
Editor, Bad Revivalist