Musical To Parody City’s Smoking Ban

Mayor Bloomberg is a longtime booster of the theater and the arts, but he is planning to skip a new musical that casts him as a villain and questions the constitutionality of the smoking ban he favored.The new and apparently raunchy production is called “Smoking Bloomberg” and is being billed as a musical satire and social commentary.The fictional story is set in 2003, shortly after the mayor’s much-touted smoking ban in restaurants and bars went into effect. A Korean dry cleaner goes on a “quest for revenge” against Mr. Bloomberg because of a dip in smoky clothing being dropped off at her business.The musical is scheduled to open next month at the New York Musical Theatre Festival, a three-week event in Manhattan.“It’s a platform for a more universal, fundamental, American-based issues about personal freedoms, personal rights, and where do you draw the line,” one of the show’s writers, David Cornue, said.Mr. Cornue said none of the writers are smokers and they all “love the smoking ban” and “love the mayor.” But, he said, “We’re just not sure that the smoking ban is completely constitutional.”The show songs include “Perchloroethylene and You” — a reference to the chemical used in dry cleaning — “Everybody’s a Dictator,” and several others that involve lewd references with no regard for political correctness.The nearly two-hour song and dance performance also depicts smokers puffing in sewers because they have no place else to go.Mr. Cornue said he plans to contact City Hall and extend an invitation to Mr. Bloomberg. “We have two tickets for him if he wants to come,” he said.When asked whether he thought Mr. Bloomberg would like the production, he said: “Do you know if he has a really, really good sense of humor? It is all fun, and we do definitely raise both sides of the issue.”Mr. Bloomberg’s press secretary, Stuart Loeser, said City Hall was not aware of the production and that the mayor is not planning to attend a performance.“The mayor doesn’t have that much time to go to the theater in the first place, and I don’t think he’s going to be spending the limited time he has at this play,” Mr. Loeser said.“Smoking Bloomberg” is not the only political satire to debut off-Broadway recently. In 2004, a show titled “John F. Kerry: He’s No JFK” went after Senators Kerry and Clinton.Mr. Bloomberg has taken on smoking and the big tobacco companies since taking office in 2002, and the smoking ban is one of the issues he has become known for in New York and elsewhere.The ban has been hailed by many public health officials, who say it is protecting millions from secondhand smoke, but it has been condemned by others, who view it as an overstep of government power.Mr. Bloomberg regularly dismisses critics of the ban and points out that after New York’s ban took effect, a number of other cities, states, and countries followed suit.Just last week, the mayor, a billionaire, donated $125 million of his personal fortune to start a worldwide anti-smoking initiative that will work with existing also organizations to lobby for more smoking bans and higher cigarette taxes. The money will be earmarked to monitor smoking worldwide and to educate people on the dangers of tobacco.The show, which Mr. Cornue described as similar to the cartoon “South Park,” is scheduled for six performances between September 13 and September 16. If the 99-seat theater sells out, roughly 600 people will see it.The show’s Web site is www.smokingbloomberg.com.

Musical To Parody City’s Smoking Ban

Musical To Parody City’s Smoking Ban

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