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03.11.10 By: Michael Giltz

    "Yank!" Faces the Critics -- Incoming!

    The WWII gay romance musical Yank! faced some friendly fire in its off-Broadway debut. This charming show received mixed reviews, all of them couched in positive terms for actor Bobby Steggert and the promise the show still offers.

    The New York Times -- the only review that really matters -- said bluntly, "A delightful first act gives way to a muddled Act II." The New York Post gave it two and a half stars out of four and said, "Steggert brings a touching poignancy to his understated performance...but for all its good intentions, Yank! doesn't do its cause any favors."

    Variety on the other hand raved, "Yank! is the most exciting new American musical since Adding Machine." And TheaterMania was also positive, calling it "vibrant and entertaining" with praise for the score and Steggert. Virtually everyone liked Steggert, and about the best anyone could say about the Carousel-like ballet in Act Two was that it "almost seemed to work." (The choreographer is also an actor in a key role, and I think the creators just didn't have the heart to cut it.) If you're in New York, it's absolutely worth checking out.

    Another gay-themed work, The Pride, also opened recently to mixed reviews But thanks to the sexiest cast in town -- including Ben Wishaw and Hugh Dancy -- it enjoyed explosive box office and has been extended. Check it out and get a seat as close to the front as possible. Trust us.

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    03.11.10 By: Alonso Duralde

      "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse," or The Return of Emo Vamp, Blank Girl, and the Wolfboy With Pillow Lips


      The entire internet must grind to a halt today because we get our first look at the latest chapter in the franchise that makes 14-year-old girls and their middle-aged moms get all dreamy-eyed over the prospect of relationships with gorgeous, unattainable, supernatural, and emotionally-withholding dudes.

      That's right: It's The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. Drink it up, people, after the jump:

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      03.11.10 By: Dave White

        Downloading Your Dereon Dreams


        Any of you out there play Style Savvy? No? Oh dang, it's meant for little girls? Why does no one tell us anything?

        Well, let's say you actually do play Style Savvy because, who knows, maybe you're just that secure with yourself. If that's the case, then it'll please you to know that you have the opportunity to help Beyoncé beef up her personal brand by participating in a promotional activity. You may now, for free, download five pieces of Deréon Beyoncé-wear via the Nintendo DS's WiFi access, tiny digital outfits that include some Sasha Fierce Short Shorts and an "All Zipped Up" dress.

        We love Miss Knowles. We love her a lot. She teaches us things, like in Obsessed, where she demonstrated proper cellphone etiquette when you're interrupted during a life-or-death battle with your man's stalkery white bitch co-worker. But what you do with these items besides dress up your Style Savvy boutique lady avatar is a mystery.

        So when you find out let us know. We'll be busy playing Deadly Premonition while you conduct that research.

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        03.11.10 By: Dave White

          Your Art History Crash Course, Featuring Nipple-Tweaking

          1. Watch this video for the song "70 Million" by Hold Your Horses, a band that is not Band of Horses. Keep that straight.
          2. Consult someone who knows something about famous paintings, like their titles and who painted them
          3. Smirk when rattling off the references to less art-savvy friends. Say, "I thought everybody knew these already. I guess not." Feel great when you do that.


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          03.11.10 By: Dennis Hensley

            RuPaul's Drag Race 02.05: There Goes the Bride


            This week's matrimony-themed installment of RuPaul's Drag Race was like that movie 27 Dresses but without Katherine Heigl, which is a wonderful thing! I'm not sure when or why I turned on Katherine Heigl, but I have, and it's too late to turn back now, so screw her.

            So this week, it was all about weddings, with a package-wrapping contest, a wedding photo shoot, and bridal dress showdown-throwdown. Here's what I gleaned:

            Mad scrambles make me mad: You know how on some reality challenges, they have all the materials laid out in front of the contestants and then the host says, "Go!" and it's a free-for-all to get the best stuff? I never enjoy these scenes -- even when people fall over, which is usually money in the bank. I get uncomfortable because I know if I were one of the contestants, I'd be timid and wishy-washy and non-confrontational and end up with no stuff. I'd have to make a three-piece suit out of two gum wrappers and the lid off a Sharpee and it would suck. The queens had to scramble for wrapping paper and such this week for the box-decorating contest, which Raven won by putting a dead bird on her box and catching Ru in a dead bird mood, which probably isn't that hard to do.

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            03.11.10 By: Eliot Glazer

              Real Housewives Of New York, [Re]start Your Engines!

              With the third season of The Real Housewives Of New York City having started with a bang, we felt it necessary to head back to memory lane (2009), when YouTube genius KCSCougar posted a beyond-hilarious, animated recreation of the RHNY reunion moderated by Bravo's gay poster boy (and S.V.P. of Programming) Andy Cohen.

              Here's to hoping -- among all else -- that The Countess is finally revealed as a trannie this season. For heavens sake, the gal was dumped by her hubby over e-mail, and you know what they say: one you get dumped via e-mail, you never go back to not being a trannie or something. (They don't say that.)

              WARNING: Language NSFW.

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              03.11.10 By: Dave White

                After Washington Post Runs Soul-Searing Photo of Two Men Kissing, Subscriptions Are Swiftly Cancelled (You Go, America!)



                Activist judges legalized marriage for undeserving gays in Washington, D.C., where an uppity Barack Obama is currently acting like Hitler. Then the socialist Washington Post decided that the ruling constituted news, and an "inappropriate" photograph was taken and reprinted and delivered to houses where little kids lived. Those precious children had their innocence stolen and stomped on thanks to this revolting display of lust.

                Subscriptions were rightfully canceled but it was too late: heterosexual subscribers and even random people who happened to lay eyes on the soul-searing image found themselves spontaneously divorcing against their will, their faith in life shattered, their entire families addicted to heroin, grandmas turning to careers in adult films, churches set ablaze.

                Awesome!

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                03.10.10 By: Michael Giltz

                  Not so "Phan"-tastic: "Opera" sequel crashes like a chandelier



                  Love Never Dies
                  , Andrew Lloyd Webber's unanticipated sequel to The Phantom of the Opera, debuted to decidedly mixed reviews in London, though not viciously bad enough to make theatergoers in America anticipate a campy disaster. In this case, the general response seems to be a shrug.

                  Despite being the continuation of arguably the biggest musical hit of all time, almost no one seemed excited by this project. Even hardcore fans (who dub themselves "phanatics") complained it was a bad idea.

                  Taking place ten years after the original, Love is set in Coney Island, where the Phantom calls himself Mr. Y (!) and runs an extravaganza called the Phantasma. (See how awful that is? They were so close to genuine disaster.) Naturally, he tries to lure Christine back into his clutches.