The Dustin Lance Black (Milk) play, 8, featuring Glee stars, Matthew Morrison, Chris Colfer, Jane Lynch and a slew of A-listers was streamed live last night on You Tube.
The play chronicles key sections of the federal trial of California’s Prop. 8 back in 2010. The live reading will be up online for a week.
Christine Lahti, Jamie Lee Curtis, Matt Morrison and Matt Bomer played a lesbian and gay couple respectively, who sued the state of California to get Prop 8 overturned. George Clooney and Martin Sheen were the attorneys for the plaintiffs and Kevin Bacon for the defense. Sheen was especially powerful in his role–his closing argument was incredibly moving. Brad Pitt was wonderfully droll as the judge.
Also moving was Chris Colfer as a young man recounting on the stand how his parents forced him into conversion therapy when they learned he was gay (ngl. I was crying during his testimony). Jane Lynch was hilarious as an extremely strident “pro marriage” crusader. Ditto John C. Reilly as a hapless witness for the defense.
The short of it–the case the defense mounted for Prop 8 totally crumbled under scrutiny. Nobody could offer any credible evidence that gay marriage would harm children, straight folks or the institution of marriage, as the proponents of Prop 8 claimed.
By the way, fellow gleeksters, Darren Criss and Ashely Fink were in the audience!
The entire production was TERRIFIC. If you’re looking for something to watch on a Sunday afternoon, I recommend it, highly.
Watch it here:
