150 Animals to Star in Massive 'Ark' Musical

Multiplatinum American Idiot a coming-of-age story

(NEWSER) - Green Day’s multiplatinum album American Idiot is taking the stage as a 75-minute rock opera that will “challenge the very definitions of punk, theater, and musical,” writes David Downs in the East Bay Express. A 19-member cast will showcase a “Fight Club-esque story of self-discovery through death and destruction,” using only the lyrics from the album. More»

Production can be uneven, but still enjoyable

(NEWSER) - The highly anticipated revival of West Side Story on Broadway opened last night to solid reviews, with critics applauding an unusually tender interpretation in which the women rule. Highlights:

• “Even when they’re flashing switchblades and kicking people in the ribs, the teenage hoodlums who maraud through Arthur Laurents’s startlingly sweet new revival of West Side Story seem like really nice kids,” writes Ben Brantley in the New York Times.

Marx's treatise gets some much-needed singing and dancing

(NEWSER) - Karl Marx's Das Kapital offers hundreds of pages of dense German prose on class struggle and modes of production—so why not add some singing and dancing? That's the idea of several Chinese producers who are mounting a Das Kapital musical, which promises a live band and Vegas-style theatrics to liven up the communist's magnum opus. As the Guardian notes, the team will be adding a barebones plot to make the economic treatise stageworthy. More»

'Carrie' to open off-Broadway tomorrow

(AP) - When the musical Carrie had a sudden early death on Broadway in 1988, few were as unhappy as three men who worked hard to give it life. Lawrence D. Cohen, Michael Gore, and Dean Pitchford, who wrote the script, music, and lyrics, clearly were not happy with the final product, which closed after five regular performances, lost $8 million, and became the most expensive flop in Broadway history at the time. Despite offers to produce the show elsewhere, the trio refused—until now, 24 years later. More»

They can attend services, but can't be members

(NEWSER) - Yes, it is the 21st century … but apparently not in Pike County, Kentucky, where a small Baptist church has barred interracial couples from becoming members or participating in certain church activities. It all started back in June, when Stella Harville, who is white, brought fiancé Ticha Chikuni, who is black, to Gulnare Freewill Baptist Church, where they performed a song. Harville's father is a longtime church member and she was baptized there, but is not a member. After her appearance with Chikuni, the you-know-what hit the fan. More»