Jenifer Lewis - I Know Where I've Been

On Monday night Carnegie Hall hosted a tribute to Broadway's powerhouse gay songwriting duo Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman. Among the performers were Patti LuPone, Martin Short, Andrea Martin, Kerry Butler, Megan Hilty, and Jenifer Lewis, who brought down the house with I Know Where I've Been from Hairspray.

Cast Of Prop 8 - The Musical On Olbermann

There's a bit of silly banter for the first three minutes, then Hairspray composer Marc Shaiman gets in some good lines. Shaiman expresses guilt that Prop 8 - The Musical came out "four weeks too late", but says that he's doing what most fathers teach their sons to do. "Get up after you've been hit by a bully and continue to fight back."

Prop 8 - The Musical

An all-star cast performs Proposition 8 - The Musical.

UPDATE: Towleroad has the breakdown on the cast.

Hairspray composer Marc Shaiman (whose boycott lead to the resignation of Sacramento's California Musical Theatre creative director Scott Eckern following his donation to Prop 8) wrote and conceived this hysterical short piece (presented with a wink and a nod by the 'Sacramento Community College Players'), which was directed and staged by Hairspray director and choreographer Adam Shankman and features plenty of folks you will recognize.

Shaiman plays the piano. Jordan Ballard, Margaret Cho, Barrett Foa, J.B. Ghuman, John Hill, Andy Richter, Maya Rudolph, Rashad Naylor, Nicole Parker star as 'California Gays and The People That Love Them'. John C Reilly as a Prop 8 leader, and Alison Janney as his wife. Kathy Najimy as his second wife. Jenifer Lewis as a riffing Prop 8'er. Craig Robinson as a preacher. Rashida Jones, Lake Bell, Sarah Chalke as Scary Catholic School Girls from Hell. Katharine "Kooks" Leonard, Seth Morris, Denise "Esi!" Piane, Lucian Piane, Richard Read, Seth Redford, Quinton Strack, and Tate Taylor as The Frightened Villagers. Jack Black stars as Jesus Christ, and Neil Patrick Harris is billed as 'A Very Smart Fellow'.

Hairspray Authors On Prop 8

Hairspray coauthors Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman appeared on local NYC show Theater Talk on Friday night to discuss Proposition 8 and the resignation of musical theater artistic director Scott Eckern in Sacramento. (This clip does not cover the Eckern portion of the discussion - if anybody has that, please send it to me.)

Eckern left his job of 25 years after it was revealed that he'd personally donated $1000 to Yes On 8. Prior to Eckern's resignation, Shaiman had called to chastise him and then announced to the press that no Shaiman-Wittman shows would play his theater again. Since then, Eckern's situation has been used by the right-wing press as an example of "gay witchhunts" and how anybody in the arts that opposes marriage equality will have their careers wrecked by gay activists.