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.