What conservatives just don't get, and probably never will, is the deep hatred of Bush from the majority of the country. Not just liberals. 3/4 of the electorate hated his guts by the time he was gone. Therefore, 3/4 of the electorate is a bunch of raving leftists? I don't think so. If Avenue Q decided to put "Barack" in the place of Bush, it just wouldn't get a very good reaction, not right now with the majority of the country behind him.

All these articles about liberalism in the theatre are interesting. It is true that most professional theatre people are liberal, at least socially liberal. It's one of the only professions where being gay could actually be a career move. But the fiction that they only create shows with leftist ideas that are contrary to 50% of the country is just nonsense. "Hairspray" was one of the biggest hits in years, a family show if there ever was one that will be done in high schools for years to come, and it was created entirely by liberal gay people. Ditto just about any other musical of the last 30 years, including "West Side Story," currently in revival. These are not shows with an "agenda," other than to entertain. Interesting note: "South Pacific" is a smash in NY right now, and a song in it, "Carefully Taught," about how racist attitudes are learned, not inborn, was almost removed from the original because of protests from conservatives. Rodgers and Hammerstein refused, and the musical is still one of the greats.

Certainly, there are plays that upset some people in the audience with a point of view they don't like, but a good play is a good play and a bad one is a bad one. If conservative writers would just write decent plays, they would have no trouble getting produced. Horton Foote is one of the most produced playwrights in the world, and all of his work reflects "traditional values." Conservatives should quit complaining about art and create some decent art themselves, but this is difficult since the conservative mind is not inherently artistic.

You claim that no one in your camp is substitiuting Obama as a god image and almost every shot you see of him up to the election had him in a halo and looking messianic. But I am sure you never noticed, the obvious is normally over looked by the left.

And Lefties assumed that Bush was Pol Pot, Hitler, and Mussolini all rolled up into one.

Topical joke lines are the first to go stale, as well as topical shows. How often do you see "How Now Dow Jones?" revived. The whole song itself is substandard writing quality for a closing number, with a simple recycle of "Sucks to be Me" to boot.

But the "George Bush" line isn't funny. All it is there to do is get cheap applause, ala The Daily Show, and it does.

And to hell with the prizes for the rewrite, I want percentage points!

I don't think anyone would be the least bit troubled had the "contest" never happened and had the playwrights just decided to leave the lyric as is. Like you said, it's their intellectual property, they can do with it as they please. But they opened the door. They decided that the original lyric was no longer appropriate (I disagree; I think it would still be funny, and I voted for Bush twice and McCain in '08) and they SOLICITED suggestions, and proceeded to ignore the obvious replacement. And trust me – The One may only have been President a few weeks, but you can be sure that at least half the country wishes he'd go away already.