Music: March 2008 Archives

The winner of this year's GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding New York Theater – Off–Off Broadway is headed for a three-month off-Broadway run in June. BASH'd is a gay hip-hop opera that began in an Alberta gay bar and toured the fringe festival circuit in Canada before hitting the NY International Fringe Festival last summer.

Performed by Edmonton actors Chris Craddock and Nathan Cuckow, BASH'd! chronicles the tale of a pair of lovers, one of whom is bashed, prompting the other to take revenge. It is told entirely through rap, spoken word and poetry. The show is loosely based on the real-life spike in hate crimes in Alberta during the national debate that resulted in the legalization of marriage equality. Though the topic is serious, the play is high energy and full of laughs.

"Originally, hip-hop music was used to draw attention to the social and political injustices against minorities, specifically African Americans," note performers and writers Craddock and Cuckow. "We think that using this form of music for gays to express their frustration with the current social climate is a natural evolution of hip-hop music, and an interesting and complex way to tell our story that will challenge the preconceived notions of what 'gay' is."

In an interview found in the current issue of Spin magazine, R.E.M. lead singer Michael Stipe came out. Though he had been open about his sexuality with his family and his band for nearly three decades, Stipe had been reluctant to publicly come out, telling Spin that he "didn't always see" how coming out could help others.

"Now I recognize that to have public figures be very open about their sexuality helps some kid somewhere out there," he says.

Stipe first hinted at his sexuality in a 1991 interview with Time magazine, in which he described himself as a "queer artist," but had not officially discussed his orientation, telling Spin, "I thought it was pretty obvious."

The Spin interview hits newsstands today. R.E.M. releases their 14th studio album, Accelerate, on April 1.