I am pleased to say that today's video clip is becoming an anachronism. It's not all the way there yet but things are moving in the right direction…
Back in 1996, there was an acclaimed off-Broadway revue called When Pigs Fly, conceived by Howard Crabtree and Mark Waldrop. Mr. Waldrop wrote the lyrics, a gent named Dick Gallagher wrote the songs and Mr. Crabtree designed the outrageous costumes. Though the cast was great, a lot of critics said the costumes stole the show.
The show was about being gay — and just about everyone involved in the show was. The songs 'n' sketches dealt with discrimination, gay relationships, coming out of the closet, staying in the closet and many other such topics including AIDS. The AIDS part became especially meaningful when Howard Crabtree, who was more or less the main creative force behind the show, died from that awful disease less than two months before the show opened.
Still, it was a huge hit with audiences both gay and straight, running 840 performances, which is a helluva lot for any kind of show, especially a revue. (Just as a point of comparison, that's six performances more than Ragtime lasted on Broadway.)
But there weren't as many subsequent productions of When Pigs Fly as you might expect. Why? Because, as it was explained to me by someone involved in one of them, it cost a fortune to duplicate Crabtree's costume designs. That one I saw was using the original New York outfits and it was even costing a lot of money to keep repairing them and to alter them to fit actors when roles were recast.
This is a video of the closing number from Act One as it was performed, not in a production of the show but at a benefit to raise dough to battle AIDS. So you won't see the amazing wardrobe the actors wore in the formal revue.
The official name is "A Patriotic Finale" and it's a nice little tune that I'm not sure was ever heard by people who need to learn its message; that there are a lot of gay people around and they fit in fine with society. Looking at the increasing number of folks in America who are fine with the Gay Marriage, that message is getting across — maybe not as fast as some would like but faster than some of us once thought it would…