Memphis should matter to candidates
Both candidates in the Tennessee governor’s race now have plans promising a greater focus on under-served Memphis and Shelby County.
Following in the footsteps of Republican candidate Bill Lee, who in the GOP primary earlier this year released a list of 10 commitments to the region, Democratic candidate Karl Dean on Tuesday made a number of commitments.
Perhaps most noteworthy, he pledged to establish a Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development office in Memphis and that the department’s commissioner would spend time in the city every month.
In a separate release Tuesday, Dean — similarly to Lee — also promised to “do what it takes” to fill the Memphis Regional Megasite. Dean also pledges: ❚ to improve procurement programs to make it easier for minority-owned, women-owned and small businesses to compete for contracts;
❚ to invest in completing the Memphis Regional Megasite so it will be shovel-ready for a major employer bringing thousands of jobs to the area;
❚ and to increase funding for workforce development so more Memphis and Shelby County residents can develop needed skills.
“The poverty rate in Memphis is unacceptable,” Dean said. “So we’ve got to invest in making sure Memphis residents are getting the skills training they need so they can get good-paying jobs that will support their families.”
Whatever your political views, it’s nice to feel wanted. And Dean and Lee are exactly right: Memphis and Shelby County matter, and not just for their votes — the at-times prejudiced opinions of some state legislators be damned. Would that GOP Senate candidate Marsha Blackburn, who has declined to debate Democratic opponent Phil Bredesen in Memphis, take note and follow Dean and Lee’s example.
If you want to represent the state, you should represent all of the state — not just Nashville and Knoxville.
Should benefits? commissioners forego
Freshman Republican Shelby County Commissioner Mick Wright stirred up controversy yesterday when he announced his decision not to accept county benefits.
His announcement comes after thenmayor of Shelby County Mark Luttrell vetoed a commission resolution Friday that would have reduced the service requirement for lifetime county health and life insurance benefits from 15 to eight years, making 2,500 employees eligible — including two-term commissioners.
But Wright’s decision didn’t sit well with local journalist Wendi Thomas. She tweeted:
“The idea that it is noble to not be compensated for your time is some bs. It speaks to your privilege and it’s disrespectful of public workers/servants to imply in any way that their labor should be unpaid or low paid.”
Of course, if you work for the county, there’s nothing wrong with fair compensation: Wright didn’t have to pass on benefits. If he didn’t, no one would think less of him.
But if someone voluntarily gives up their benefits in an attempt to avoid burdening taxpayers, that’s no slap in the faces of public workers. Being a public servant means putting the county above your own welfare. Wright’s principled decision was above and beyond what was required — and for that reason, it was a commendable decision.
The Review: Most people have probably never heard of “Love Never Dies,” Andrew Lloyd Webber’s sequel to the smash musical “The Phantom of the Opera,” even though it’s been around since 2010.
And no wonder. If you’re a rabid “Phantom” fan, you should go to the musical — which made its Memphis debut Tuesday and is at The Orpheum through Sunday — if only to say you went. But, like most sequels, it falls disappointingly short of its predecessor.
The play opens on the Phantom (played with raspy commitment by Bronson Norris Murphy), who — 10 years later — is still living in the basement of his adoptive mother, Madame Giry (Karen Mason), and is still pining for Christine Daaé (Meghan Picerno).
Not everything is the same, though. Madame Giry and her daughter Meg (Mary Michael Patterson) fled France with the Phantom to Coney Island, where we’re told that Meg “plied” politicians (they don’t like to talk about it) to get the Phantom his own freak show.
Christine and Victomte de Chagny Raoul (Sean Thompson) have also changed. Although she’s a star, married life hit the couple like a theater sand bag. Once a dreamboat to audiences, Raoul is now a degenerate gambler and heavy drinker. And they have a son. Remember that “Music of the Night” number in “The Phantom,” the one where the Phantom brought Christine into his lair? Well, the song meant exactly what we all thought it meant. And Christine still harbors feelings for the serial killer as well.
The music’s thin premise is that the Phantom decides he can no longer live without Christine, whom he lures with her family into coming to America. He sends a couple of his show’s Beetlejuice-inspired goons to pick her family up from the boat — and they go. And then she’s put in a room with a big mirror, perfect for someone enshrouded with fog to walk through to electric guitars. And I’ll bet you never guess what happens next.
The acting was pretty darn convincing and the sets were gorgeous. The music itself wasn’t that bad — although the lyrics were groan-inducing at times, especially during the Phantom and Christine’s duet “Beneath a Moonless Night” (”Cloaked under the night / with nothing to suppress / a woman and a man / no more and yet no less.” Ugh).
Even more egregious, perhaps, is Webber’s reinterpretation of the original story. Christine rejected the Phantom because of his face, after all, and not because “It’s in the soul the true distortion lies,” as we were previously told. Raoul wasn’t the prince charming he seemed. The motherly Madame Giry is venomous. The innocent Meg slaps the tushes of her fellow male dancers. The characters have become caricatures.
But if that doesn’t bother you, go. It’s still a dazzling show, even without the chandelier.