Pinklisting The Mormons

Ex-Mormon Jon Powell wants all of Broadway to refuse to license their work to the Mormon Church.

Powell has talked with one artist in particular, Stephen Schwartz, the composer of the musical “Wicked” which the Young Ambassadors wants to use in their show. Powell says, “For me that material is so blatantly hypocritical... the use of it in the Young Ambassadors show.” Part of an email Schwartz wrote to Powell says, "I'm looking into it, and if this is truly a Mormon "promotional" group, rather than just student singers, I will try to do something about it."

Randy Boothe, Artistic Director for the Young Ambassadors says they are rehearsing other numbers in case wicked is pulled. Boothe says, “At this point we have not received any response yay or nay.” He says everyone has a right to express their opinions on Prop 8, but questions if this call for a boycott will shake the group. Boothe says, “I don't know if this will impact us greatly, we'll certainly be sad not to be able to include any of the artists that Jon might contact whose music we might be interested in.” The Young Ambassadors have had to deal with material being pulled in the past, but not for this reason. They had an incident with the licensing of “Tarzan” last year. Powell says this goal of his isn't geared toward only the Young Ambassadors, but to any group affiliated with the LDS Church.

(Via - AmericaBlog)