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Out of Town Protesters Make Threats Against Austin's City Theatre

A wave of threatening emails and phone calls have plagued The City Theatre this past weekend, making anonymous threats if the regional theatre does not cancel its upcoming production of the farce The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told. Artistic Director Andy Berkovsky tells Austin On Stage that he does not intent to bow to the threats, since they seem to be coming from a religious source outside the Austin community.

Berkovsky said the emails appear to be

a form letter, with different name at signed at the bottom of each, and appear to be an organized attack from a small group outside the Central Texas area. He reports receiving about twenty emails since Friday, and around a half-dozen phone calls during the weekend.

The emailed form letters state "Mankind will suffer greatly if this display of immorality is allowed to be presented even the fact that it is fiction it is still abhorant (sic) to Christians all over the world." One email threatened that "If you continue with this presentation, Catholics will oppose it in one of the largest and loudest peaceful and legal protest ever seen."

Written by multi-award winning playwright and screenwriter Paul Rudnick (I Hate Hamlet for Jeffrey for stage, Addams Family Values and In and Out for film), The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told is his comical retelling of the Bible with Adam and Steve and Jane and Mabel beginning in the Garden of Eden. After being banished, the quartet survives the centuries - including time on the ark, slavery in Egypt, and finally life in contemporary New York - with their one-liner-spitting tongues firmly planted in their cheeks.

New York Times critic Ben Brantley described the original New York production by noting "While a work that retells the Bible from a flamboyantly gay perspective might seem to be only an exercise in impiety, there's reverence in Mr. Rudnick's irreverence, and an earnest warmth beneath the frivolity…Line by line, Mr. Rudnick may be the funniest writer for the stage in the United States today, and he confirms that reputation with Fabulous." The City Theatre production runs June 10th through July 4th.

City Theatre's current production, Agnes of God, plays April 29th through May 23rd. Performances will run Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m., and Sundays at 5:30 p.m. Tickets are $15 to $20 for general admission, $25 for front and second row reserved seating, and $12 for students. All Thursday seats are $10.

The City Theatre is located at 3823 Airport Blvd., on the east corner of Airport Blvd. and 38 ½ Street. For more information and reservations, call (512) 524-2870 or visit www.CityTheatreAustin.org.

(Image courtesy Amazon.com)