The issue of Gay Marriage will be decided by the United States Supreme Court
On Friday, the Court issued an order to review Hollingsworth v. Perry (formerly Perry v. Brown), the federal constitutional challenge to California’s Proposition 8.
The Supreme Court also granted review in United States v. Windsor, a challenge to the constitutionality of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).
Maryland joined Maine in making history on Tuesday as they became the first states to ever pass gay marriage by referendum.
Prior to 2012, every ballot issues involving gay marriage shot down the chances of bringing marriage equality to a variety of states. That all changed on Tuesday.
Similar gay marriage ballot issues were on the ballot in Washington and Minnesota but the numbers were too close to call on Tuesday night.
Maine and Maryland will join six other states and Washington DC that have already legalized gay marriage.
Voters in Maine made history on Tuesday night becoming the first state to legalize same sex marriage by referendum.
This reverses a 2009 vote that banned gay marriage in that state.
Maine now joins six other states as well as the District of Columbia who allow same sex couples to tie the knot.
Mainers United for Marriage, a group hoping to pass gay marriage in Maine, says they hope a higher voter turn out coupled with voters who have changed their mind on the issues can push a marriage equality referendum over the top.
In 2009, Maine voters overturned the state legislature’s decision to allow same sex marriage. However with a Presidential race on the ballot, Maine is expecting more voters this time than in 2009.
They’re basing their hopes on numbers from the past. The 2009 election drew out about 570,000 Mainers voted in 2009 compared to the year before when more than 730,000 voted in the 2008 presidential election.
Gay marriage supporters say they’ve had more than 200,000 conversations with residents, on the phone and in person since the 2009 to find that many people have actually changed their mind and now support marriage equality.
When Tuesday’s election results come in, the group will know whether or not their hard word was enough to bring gay marriage to Maine.
Ann Hampton Callaway is a multiplatinum-selling pop and jazz singer/songwriter best known for writing and singing the theme from the TV hit The Nanny. She also has the distinction of writing three songs for Barbra Streisand, and that is the inspiration for her latest cabaret act “The Streisand Songbook” (Ann is also an out lesbian, who gave me the honor of being the journalist to do her “coming out interview” – you can read that here).
La Streisand influenced La Callaway long before Barbra sang Ann’s songs – Funny Girl exerted a strong influence on the young singer (long before she was a songwriter). Some of the most powerful – and powerfully sung – moments in Callaway’s show are from Funny Girl, including a rafter-shaking “Don’t Rain On My Parade”, and “People” artfully mixed with one of Sondheim’s greatest (I won’t give it away, the surprising combination is one of this show’s greatest pleasures).
Ann remarks that Barbra was one of two great influences on her – the other was Ella Fitzgerald. So it’s completely natural that the feel of this show should be Barbra’s beltiness mixed with Ella’s sumptuous jazziness. Indeed, Ann’s interpretation of the song that Barbra co-wrote with Paul Williams, “Evergreen”, is the jazziest take I’ve ever heard of that particular song.
Other high points include Ann’s renditions of the songs she wrote for Barbra “At the Same Time” and “I’ve Dreamed of You” – dare I say it, Ann’s heartfelt interpretation of “I’ve Dreamed of You”, dedicated to her fiancee Kari Strand, was even stronger than Barbra’s recording (though who knows what Barbra might do with it if she sings it on October 11).
Callaway successfully covers all five decades of Streisand’s multi-faceted career, crafting a loving musical portrait of a brilliant, conflicted artist driven to seek pop music perfection. Callaway herself achieves a kind of jazz-pop perfection, a kissing cousin of Streisand’s, and every bit as shimmery and rich.
For tickets, click here.
For more reviews and interviews by Jonathan Warman, see dramaqueennyc.com.
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