Freakonomics Theater?

In a performance art experiment that would certainly interest Steven Levitt, Annie Dorsen, the director of Passing Strange, offered online patrons to contribute to the script for the play Democracy in America—for the right price, of course:

And for 40 minutes three game actors — Tony Torn, Okwui Okpokwasili, Philippa Kaye — perform the submissions as puckish, avant-garde vaudeville: they move in slow motion ($15); mimic the zombie dance from Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” ($50); and recite an ad for Joyce SoHo ($100). Polling may produce bland, conventional art (and politicians), but when you put things up for sale, the results are more unpredictable, awful and interesting.

In addition to being an antidote for theater columnists bemoaning the lack of American political theater, the play serves as an interesting barometer for the tastes of the New York SoHo crowd. While I won't get to see it, it's a fascinating experiment both from a social science and dramatic perspective.