NEWS STORY: Play about a gay Jesus begins previews amidst protest, plaudits

c. 1998 Religion News Service NEW YORK _”Corpus Christi,”the controversial new play featuring a gay Christ-like figure, has opened for previews under unprecedented security as it draws protests from traditionalist Catholic and other religious groups over its content and sighs of relief from New York’s arts community that the show did, indeed, go on. While […]

c. 1998 Religion News Service

NEW YORK _”Corpus Christi,”the controversial new play featuring a gay Christ-like figure, has opened for previews under unprecedented security as it draws protests from traditionalist Catholic and other religious groups over its content and sighs of relief from New York’s arts community that the show did, indeed, go on.

While audiences are getting their first look at Tony-award winning playwright Terrence McNally’s new work, the five-month-long clash continues between free speech advocates who waged the effort to save the show and religious groups who want it shut down.


The clash shows no sign of abating before next month’s official opening.

Protests have been staged over plays with controversial religious themes here before, but few if any have reached the level displayed over the story of a young gay man named Joshua from Corpus Christi, Tex., and his spiritual journey with the 12 disciples who follow him.

The fury began in May when a few sketchy details of the play’s plot were published in a New York newspaper. Opponents, led by the New York-based Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, launched a massive letter-writing campaign urging the show’s producer, the Manhattan Theater Club, to cancel the production.

Threats of violence, including suggestions of bomb attacks against the theater and promises to”exterminate”the audience, cast and the playwright, did cause the theater company to cancel the play.

The two leading protest groups, the Catholic League and the York, Pa.-based American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP), have condemned the threats and said their protests would be legal and peaceful.

An outcry from the artistic community followed, including the announcement that other playwrights would pull the rights to produce their plays from the Manhattan Theater Club. The producers reversed their decision a week later. “Corpus Christi”opened for its three-week preview run Sept 22.

Theatergoers that night were met by some 200 protesters, led by the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, who gathered behind barricades across the street. Another 400 people from TFP turned out the following Saturday to sing hymns, chant, and wave signs reading,”Stop Blaspheming our Lord.””People think Catholic bashing is okay,”said the Rev. Andrew Apostoli, a regular guest on the Eternal Word Television Network.”We’re here to tell them it’s not.” Preston Noell III, a spokesman for TFP said,”If this were a play denigrating blacks or Jews or homosexuals it would never see the light of day, but because it denigrates Jesus Christ it’s open season.” None of the protesters nor the officials with TFP questioned had seen the play and contend they would only”glorify it”by attending _ a position not unlike that of Cardinal John J. O’Connor, New York’s Roman Catholic archbishop. They said they learned all they needed to know from the news reports.”We don’t need to drink polluted water to know it’s bad for us,”Noell said.

Harry Woolston, a retired insurance salesman from Warminster, Pa., said he had never protested against anything before, but traveled the 120 miles to New York because he was a Roman Catholic who believed strongly in his religion.”When God’s son is blasphemed and ridiculed like this, our country is in big trouble,”he said.


For its part, the Manhattan Theater Club said McNally’s play _ its eighth staging of a work by the popular playwright _ should speak for itself. McNally, a familiar presence on Broadway, has written such hits as”Master Class,”and”Love! Valor! Compassion!”as well as the books for”Ragtime”and”Kiss of the Spider Woman.” The theater club”supports his right to express his artistic vision freely,”and the First Amendment rights of the protesters to oppose it,”said theater spokesman Chris Boneau.

The Catholic League has scheduled its protest for opening night, Oct. 13. The League, which says it is the nation’s largest Roman Catholic civil rights group, called the play”a frontal assault on Christianity while promoting a radical gay agenda.” For his part, O’Connor, who was outspoken in his opposition to the movie”Hail Mary,”devoted part of his column in Catholic New York earlier this month to explain why he would refrain from voicing direct opposition to”Corpus Christi.” O’Connor said when he lobbied against”Hail Mary”several years ago, tickets sales increased. He said he didn’t want to do the same for”Corpus Christi,”despite letters from worshippers urging him to denounce the play and call for protests.

Still, he wrote that if the story line is as reported,”in my judgment, it condemns itself. If viewers want to see it, I suppose that is their problem. I would simply hope they would understand they are not seeing a portrayal of the Lord Jesus Christ by any stretch of the imagination.” On a recent night a handful of demonstrators stood waving banners outside the theater. Two police officers guarded the theater entrance. Inside the lobby, additional security guards wielding scanning devices checked patrons at random for weapons and all theatergoers had to pass through metal detectors and place their bags in an X-Ray machine before entering the theater.

Theatergoer Martin Goodman called the play”innovative and entertaining.”When asked if the plot or the depiction of the Jesus figure, crucified for being a homosexual, offended him, he said,”It would have to take a lot more than this to offend me.” Others in the audience gave it more lukewarm reviews, but none appeared disturbed by the play’s content, which includes profanity and sexual suggestion, but no nudity or graphic violence.

Nevertheless, opposition groups vowed to continue to stage their protests against”Corpus Christi”as long as the show’s curtain continues to rise.”We will protest as long as it’s on. We will not cease being out here until the play stops,”said Apostoli.

DEA END RNS

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