‘Godspell’ composer Schwartz allows Mormon students to use works; but Showbiz LDS feeling the heat over Prop 8 [video]
”I have not withdrawn the use of my songs by the BYU Young Ambassadors and do not intend to do so.They are a student singing group….. fair-minded Mormons to reconsider their position and come to support the right of homosexuals to marry the person they love … I continue to believe that the most important tenet of any religion is ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”’
Portion of an email from composer Stephen Schwartz who, it has been rumored, had been considering pulling licensed rights to his music from Mormon organizations such as those at Brigham Young University because of the Mormon church’s leading role in the overturning of gay marriages in California through Proposition 8. Schwartz work includes the stage musicals ‘Wicked,’ ‘Godspell,’ ‘Pippin’ and a number of animated films including ‘The Prince of Egypt.’ (Salt Lake Tribune)
”I was really fearful when I came back to the theater after the election,” said Natalie Hill, who is a lead in a current Broadway revival of “Grease.” “People who worked in the hair room who had been seriously my friends became hostile. It was not like we could ever have a real dialogue about it. They didn’t want to know what I thought and didn’t care. I would never go to a place that my gay friends consider sacred and protest. One gay friend told me that drastic times call for drastic measures and that might mean violence against Mormons. You can’t reason against that kind of thinking.”
Natalie Hill, an actress who is a Mormon and the current lead in the Broadway revival of ”Grease.” She reportedly supports civil unions but also supported Proposition 8. (Salt Lake Tribune)
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