NYC Dems Vote Tuesday - Support Liu & De Blasio

Tomorrow, New York City Democrats should go to the polls to vote in two contested elections: Comptroller & Public Advocate.

In the race for Comptroller, I’m voting for Councilman John Liu. He's progressive and damn smart. He majored in Mathematical Physics and spent years working in finance at PriceWaterhouseCoopers. He knows how to handle the city's money. Liu has been a real leader in the City Council, constantly standing up for what's right regardless of political consequences. He has also lived the classic New York immigrant experience and if elected would be the first Asian American to hold a citywide office.

Check out his short YouTube documentary on John.

In the race for Public Advocate, the clear choice is Bill de Blasio. Bill has run a strong, impressive campaign. Taking down the former front-runner Mark Green, who ran a campaign based exclusively on name recognition. He didn't bother to show up to debate, after debate. Green's campaign is largely funded by real estate and his interest in Public Advocate stems from his never-ending desire to be elected Mayor. Bill is forward looking and seeks to take the office in a new direction. I'm happy to support him in this race.

Check out Bill's runoff ad here to see the wide range of endorsements he's received.

Find your polling location here.

Both Liu & De Blasio have also been endorsed by Brooklyn's Lambda Independent Democrats, where I currently sit on the Executive Board.

Street Lights @ NYMF Press Conference

On Tuesday NYMF had its annual press conference at New World Stages and Street Lights was there. Kevin Curtis performed the song Georgetown and got some buzz going.

Time Out NY critic Adam Feldman raved: "Thumbs Up - 'Georgetown' from Street Lights: A solid song about an aspiring young lawyer-to-be from the projects, with several smart, surprising rhymes ("impartial/Thurgood Marshall”) and a knockout delivery by star-to-be Kevin Curtis."

WNET's Theater Talk Tweeted that Kevin's performance was the highlight of the preview and to watch out for his name.

We don't have any video from the actual press conference yet, although NY1 & Broadway.TV both filmed it. But, you can see Kevin perform Georgetown at an earlier concert version of Street Lights.

Get your tickets for the NYC production here.

Photo by Michael Portantiere for Broadway Stars.

The Street Lights Set

We're performing Street Lights at the American Theatre of Actors (ATA) on 54th Street, a unique space where Urinetown and Bare premiered Off-Broadway. The stage has a U-shaped catwalk surrounding it, that's totally perfect for our urban setting.

Hilary Noxon's design smartly incorporates all the elements in the space. I love the focus on the windows. Above is the concept sketch from earlier in the process and below is the brand new 1/2" model. Our lighting designer, Brian Tovar, is putting these little lights in a handful of windows so they'll really pop. It should look awesome.

Tickets are on-sale and selling well, and you can get yours at our official website.

ACLU Settles With O.C. School District

This spring I blogged extensively on Corona del Mar High School's censorship of the musical RENT. As it turned out, it wasn't just musicals they were censoring - there was an atmosphere of hate and fear throughout the school.

The ACLU went after the district for failing to protect a young girl from violent threats. They finally put the school district on the defensive. From yesterday's LA Times:

An Orange County school district where varsity athletes threatened to rape and kill the lead actress in a student production of the musical "Rent" has agreed to provide harassment and discrimination prevention training to Corona del Mar High School students, teachers and administrators and other district officials, according to a legal settlement announced Wednesday. The Newport-Mesa Unified School District will also apologize to the former student.

I wish they'd have been able to fire their Principal, Fal Asrani, who seemed completely uninterested in protecting her students. Fal herself is one of the bigots that needs discrimination prevention training.

Update: Fal Asrani has been replaced as principal.

Please Support My New Show, Street Lights

I've been hard at work developing Street Lights, a new musical that I'm directing & co-producing at the 2009 New York Musical Theatre Festival. It's a pretty big deal and I'm really excited about it. But, I won't be able to do it without your help.

Street Lights centers on a group of young people who come together to make their community better. It's themes were inspired by Barack Obama's historic Presidential Campaign. (Seriously, read about it on The Huffington Post.) In that spirit, we'd like to raise our production budget like Obama, small donations from many people.

This is a fully not-for-profit production, and we cannot bring it to life without the support of our friends & family. You can be a part of Street Light's history by making a tax deductible contribution today. No amount is too small (or too big!), $10 or $20 brings us that much closer to raising the curtain.

To donate with credit card (truly tax deducible), visit:

https://www.nymf.org/donatetostreetlights

Wanna send a check? E-mail me.

Tickets are now on-sale and we open on October 13th in New York. For more information, visit the Street Lights website.

In these difficult times, we need art that inspires and brings hope. A contribution from you can go a long way to making that happen. Thank you so much for all your support.

Photo by Cassie Corrigan, from Street Lights For Obama benefit at The Zipper Theater.