August 10, 2005

This afternoon I stopped at a newsstand in the Port Authority bus terminal and found several copies of TV Guide, each with a different Beatle on the cover to commemorate the band's historic concert at Shea Stadium forty years ago this week. I picked up three of them - apparently they were sold out of Ringo. While paying for them the cashier looked at the cover with John and then at me, and said, "Is that you??"

I said, "uh, yeah that's me." I wasn't going to argue with the man.

Do I really look like Lennon? I mean, I can if I really want to, with a little eyebrow enhancement and a few face muscle moves, but normally? I don't see it much. Personally I think it's just 'cause we're both kinda Irish.

John Lennon had a lot of enemies when he was alive, and most of them were from the right wing. Conservatives in Britain thought he was ridiculous and basically a distraction from matters of business and such. Americans on the extreme right saw him as a national security threat. Some actually believed he and his group were part of an elaborate communist plot to weaken our defense by corrupting America's youth (it was the height of the Cold War, after all).

So it comes as no surprise that our show's most strident opposition just happens to come from, you guessed it, right wing publications. The New York Post and FoxNews.com not only have the same ownership (Rupert Murdoch) and the same political stance (the GOP platform), but both have launched major attacks against Lennon in recent weeks. The Post, as I've mentioned, has been assailing the show since before it opened in San Francisco. Bear in mind that these assaults do not come from critics, but rather from columnists whose job is not to provide an educated assessment of a show's quality, but to stir up controversy. They'll do it any way they have to, even if it means jumbling the facts, gross exaggeration or even total fabrication (One of these guys said we never mentioned The Beatles in our show; we got a good laugh outa that one). I can't decide if these lying liars model themselves after Albert Goldman or Karl Rove; maybe both. Their motives are anybody's guess, but there's no denying their ultimate goal, which is to see Lennon close in its first month on Broadway. But with audience response at an all-time high and the growing buzz on the street, it doesn't appear likely. Sorry, fellas. Nice try, but the bells of love always drown out the howls of hate (pain).

Meanwhile, back in the world of the light entities, cousin Sandy is back in town to help usher in maximum vibe during the run-up to Sunday's opening gala. The cast is all in good health, so I'm not scheduled to perform this week, but I am scheduled to smash a guitar for charity at the Hard Rock on Friday morning at ten. That should be interesting. Stay tuned.

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