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City Pays $20K for Banning Gay Musical


NAKED BOYS SINGING X390 (PUBLICITY) | ADVOCATE.COM

The city of Milwaukee issued a check for $20,000 to the Milwaukee Gay Arts Center on Wednesday after a court rules a forced closure of Naked Boys Singing! was unconstitutional.

The city ordered that the musical close in August 2005 in the face of content complaints and licensing suspicion, according toPlaybill. City ordinances mandated that the Common Council of Milwaukee, which was not scheduled to meet until after the show’s run would have ended, review the license.

The Gay Arts Center’s nonprofit status, however, allowed for a settlement in its favor. Nonprofits are not required to undergo the same licensing procedures as for-profit organizations in Milwaukee. The city awarded the group a $20,000 settlement and clarified the licensing procedure for nonprofits.

"Requiring any theater to get a license before putting on a play comes dangerously close to the kind of 'prior restraint' on speech the First Amendment was designed to prohibit," said Larry Dupuis, American Civil Liberties Union Wisconsin legal director. "We are pleased that the city has clarified the process so that nonprofits will know they are not required to get a license. However, we continue to believe that the city should amend its ordinance to limit the time the city has to issue any theater license. It's too easy for the authorities to just delay giving the permit to performances they don't like."

The Milwaukee production was the fourth production of the show to be forcibly closed by local authorities. Previous closures include Atlanta; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Provincetown, Mass.

Naked Boys Singing! is currently running at New World Stages in New York City.

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Reader Comments
  • Name: Justin
    Date posted: 7/18/2010 6:45:04 PM
    Hometown: America

    Comment:

    Is it just me? The redheaded dude does look kinda crazy? I'm just saying......

  • Name: J Marc
    Date posted: 7/17/2010 8:13:41 PM
    Hometown: Vancouver, BC

    Comment:

    This play/musical has been mounted (in more ways than one) here in Vancouver, Good Ol' Canada, several times in the last few years. There is nothing erotic about it. At first it is a little titillating (I should save that for a Lesbian review, I suppose) when the guys undress to their first song :-o After that, you become more involved in the show. The songs are funny/sad, serious/frivolous, individual/ensemble. It's not the Folies Bergere; it's an enjoyable, gay-themed, fun, little piece of theatre - in the nude. My reCaptcha now is "jesuit impact" --- right after the Catholic church put out more twaddle (don't even think about my using that word for a different review) about its new handling of the Fathers of the Not-so-Holy Pedophiles....

  • Name: Frank
    Date posted: 7/17/2010 7:54:26 PM
    Hometown: Atlanta

    Comment:

    The show in Atlanta ran from August to December 2004 before it was closed by the police. However, it was reopened the following week after intervention by Mayor Shirley Franklin. Because the show involved only nudity and no real or simulated sex acts, it did not meet the criteria for requiring an adult entertainment license. I don't remember how long it ran, but there were at least two different casts for it. Good for Milwaukee to at least have compensation, if not the actual show. Many people saw it here, both gay and straight. I think it was popular for bachelorette parties.

  • Name: SteveMD2
    Date posted: 7/17/2010 6:27:36 PM
    Hometown: Baltimore

    Comment:

    Let them pay. You can bet that someones ass is going to be fired over this scene. And cheers to milwaukee. Fpr the bigots, I have one comment - if you get a boner or cum in your panties seeing nake guys, well, its so true for almost all the bigots. Sometimes I think the lack of direct control of a boner - eg like the control of raising a finger, is behind so much of the holmophobia - and the explanation for most of the bigots problems.

  • Name: jer
    Date posted: 7/17/2010 3:41:08 PM
    Hometown: LA

    Comment:

    I feel sorry for those bigots whose lack of respect for diversity made this payout necessary; those poor poor angry straight folks who taught me: there once was a lady from France; who took a train for a chance; the engineer f***ed her; and so'd the conductor; and the fireman shot a load in his pants.

  • Name: Paul
    Date posted: 7/16/2010 6:29:06 PM
    Hometown: St. Paul

    Comment:

    How I wish I was still working at city hall in Milwaukee so I could see the faces of some of the arch conservative alderpersons at this ruling.

  • Name: Rob
    Date posted: 7/16/2010 6:25:00 PM
    Hometown: Providence, RI

    Comment:

    There is no Provincetown in Rhode Island... It's in Massachusetts. The capital of Rhode Island is Providence.



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