The song "Rock Star" (the cast we saw here in full, although it looks like a rehearsal rather than a live night) includes Jackson leaning out to ask someone in the audience, "Would you be interested in seeing my . . . stimulus package?" It was a recurring motif. The actor did not, for me, have the raw sex-god strut I want from a populist rock star, but he worked his angst very well. The musical leaves something of the impression that Andrew Jackson was our first bro president. That sounds even more terrifying when I type it out.
The whole thing sounds like the most glorious sort of trainwreck.
I think "trainwreck" is a little harsh—when it works, it's not just faux-lowbrow clever, it's smart and it stings like satire should. Having thought about it for a couple of days, I may even have an idea of what they were trying to do with the later, darker scenes of the show (a sudden drop out of cartooning into realism without changing Jackson's actual behavior, so that what played as larger-than-life facepalm a few scenes ago is abruptly, facing the historical implications of the Indian question, horror—even if I still think it didn't work). It just really doesn't end so much as stop, and not in an structurally meaningful way. You should still, if you get a chance, see it.
no subject
The song "Rock Star" (the cast we saw here in full, although it looks like a rehearsal rather than a live night) includes Jackson leaning out to ask someone in the audience, "Would you be interested in seeing my . . . stimulus package?" It was a recurring motif. The actor did not, for me, have the raw sex-god strut I want from a populist rock star, but he worked his angst very well. The musical leaves something of the impression that Andrew Jackson was our first bro president. That sounds even more terrifying when I type it out.
The whole thing sounds like the most glorious sort of trainwreck.
I think "trainwreck" is a little harsh—when it works, it's not just faux-lowbrow clever, it's smart and it stings like satire should. Having thought about it for a couple of days, I may even have an idea of what they were trying to do with the later, darker scenes of the show (a sudden drop out of cartooning into realism without changing Jackson's actual behavior, so that what played as larger-than-life facepalm a few scenes ago is abruptly, facing the historical implications of the Indian question, horror—even if I still think it didn't work). It just really doesn't end so much as stop, and not in an structurally meaningful way. You should still, if you get a chance, see it.