Word: crowded
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...premiere earlier this month in Frankfurt, Hope - The Obama Musical Story received a standing ovation from a crowd of 2,000 mostly adoring Obama fans, proving that while the President's popularity may have waned in the U.S. during his difficult first year in office, he remains a larger-than-life figure in Europe. "Germans have a certain connection to Obama, which proved to be beneficial," American co-creator Randall Hutchins told TIME after the debut on Jan. 17. (See pictures of Barack Obama's family tree...
...overly pro-Obama feel of the musical - as well as the support he obviously still enjoys among those in the audience - was not lost on the critics. "Had Obama been running for President in Germany, he would certainly have gained more that just 53% of the vote. Among the crowd at the musical, he would easily have gotten 99.9% - a result that even East Germany's Communist Party would have been proud of," a reviewer for the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung noted. "The audience kept finding reasons to cheer on the black Messiah." (See a TIME video...
...Still, the producers of the musical, the Michigan-born Hutchins and Italian-German director Roberto Emmanuele, say they didn't want to create a tribute to Obama or pander to the crowd by playing up his star appeal. Instead, they aimed to tell the story of the people who were inspired by his message of change - themselves included. "This musical is not about politics but about the effect Obama has on people," Hutchins says. "Making the musical resembled Obama's story in a way. We had very little in the beginning, meager means, a meager budget ... Obama inspired...
...giving candy to children seemed like a pretty innocent way to lift spirits. These days, however, his warning seems prescient. Just last week, soldiers inspecting a project outside of Jalalabad stopped to toss candies to kids who were swarming around their humvees. Minutes later, an explosion tore through the crowd, killing five Afghans, including two boys, and wounding nine U.S. soldiers. The crowd quickly turned on the Americans, blaming them for the deaths. (See pictures of the war in Afghanistan...
...Rumors that U.S. soldiers had desecrated the Koran sparked a violent protest in the southern province of Helmand last week. Rioters turned their fury on the local offices of the National Directorate of Security (NDS), whose intelligence officers then fired on the crowd, killing eight. The Americans were blamed - just a few hours after the event, many residents claimed to have seen U.S. soldiers alongside the NDS officers who fired on the crowd. The U.S. military says none of its personnel were present at the scene. Most likely, the local Taliban shadow governor promulgated the rumors of a desecrated Koran...