Stop The Music! But Not With a Heckler's Veto at a College Fer Chrissakes!

I hate musicals in real life that way Marlow hated lies in Heart of Darkness; there's a taint of death in both (except death doesn't have dancing too!). So when I see a story about a musical being shut down, part of me wants to break out into…song?!?!

But here's a video put out by the good folks at The Foundation For Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), which is fighting for free speech on campuses all around the country. The case involves a consciously offensive play staged at Washington State University in 2005 that managed to rile up Mormons, Catholics, feminist groups, the local police, and the university itself, which already makes it better than, say, Once Upon a Mattress, Bells Are Ringing, or Grease.

The video, which features FIRE's honcho, Greg Lukianoff, is part of a promotion for the just-out collection New Threats to Freedom, edited and introduced by Adam Bellow and featuring essays by Reasoners Katherine Mangu-Ward and Michael Moynihan. Check it out here (and watch this space for news of a Monday DC bash in honor of the book).

And now, on with the show: