Seth Rudetsky, author, actor, musician, and comedian, has one of my favorite weekly columns posted at Playbill.com. It's called Onstage and Backstage and usually includes the juiciest, funniest, or most inspiring moments from his week's interviews on Sirius Radio or at the Chatterbox. Last week, he shared the following:
Freddie Gershon...the CEO of Music Theater International which licenses Annie...talked about licensing the show down South but then getting all the material back in the mail a week later. He called the principal of the school to see why it was returned. The principal said that "Annie" was Satanic. Huh? Freddie asked what was Satanic about it (besides the E flat that Star-to-Be has to sustain which obviously requires a deal with the devil) and the principal says that the script mentions…Hells Kitchen!!! Freddie explained the misunderstanding:
FREDDIE: Hells Kitchen? Satanic? Hells Kitchen is the name of a neighborhood in New York City.
PRINCIPAL: I rest my case.
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