The Beck Center’s new production of The Producers is its most surprisingly enjoyable show of the year.

It’s not surprising in that the Beck Center does produce good work (although the show closes out what has been an uneven season). No, it’s surprising because of why it’s enjoyable.

You see, the much-heralded Producers — which won about every Tony Award possible in 2001 — is best known for its outrageous plot, comedic score and lowest denominator jokes. It requires a cast with a talent for gamely tackling super-broad humor. And in that regard, Beck’s acting troupe is good but not great.

What’s so surprisingly fun is this version is perhaps the best sung Beck Center production I’ve ever attended. In a show that doesn’t necessarily require the best singers, in this instance it’s the music that’s the selling point. And Beck closes that sell with a deep pool of talent.

After nearly 22 years, fave women's joint the Five Cent Decision (also known as the Nickel) closed its doors this past weekend.

In an open letter to the community, owner Patti Harris said debt brought on by the closing of her other business, Alice Paul Direct, was the cause. Harris, who's also had her hand in the Gay People’s Chronicle and Cleveland LGBT Pride over the years, had this to say about her decades in the bar biz: “We no longer HAVE to have a gay bar to hang out in when we want to spend time with our lovers or our friends. The world is opening up to us and I'm thrilled to have been a part of that journey.

“So, I challenge you to keep making your world a safe place for women, to keep making bars and restaurant owners covet your business, to keep holding your heads high about who you are and who you love. And if you want another women's bar, then make it happen. And then love it and support it as you have loved and supported me and all of us at the Nickel over the last 22 grand and glorious years.”

Photographer Rachel Catherine was on hand to capture the closing weekend spirit; she later confessed her camera was on the fritz in the dark lighting. But we loved the ghost-like feel of her images, giving the occasion a wispy feeling of a lost era.

Click here for a Spangle-exclusive photo gallery from Friday night.

Updated with July 19, 2010, statement from Cleveland Synergy Foundation.

What’s going on with Cleveland’s Gay Games?

It doesn’t take Carl Monday to figure out something is going on behind the scenes with Cleveland’s 2014 Gay Games organizing effort.

Despite assurances on Friday from Cleveland City Councilman Joe Cimperman and Federation of Gay Games spokesman Kelly Stevens that the event is still coming to town in four years, that is definitely not the entire story.

Over the weekend, an anonymous e-mailer sent around (to an undisclosed list) a PDF document that appears to be from a Cleveland official informing the Cleveland Synergy Foundation that its city funding is suspended. The letter also states that on July 6, 2010, the Federation of Gay Games “notified Synergy that FGG was exercising its right to terminate the license agreement with Synergy for the 2014 Gay Games in Cleveland and agreeing to pursue voluntary mediation within fourteen days to attempt to resolve the outstanding issues.”