Larry Litt
Laughing Around Town
"Bush Is Bad"-Impeachment Edition
Concept, Music and Lyrics by Joshua Rosenblum
With Janet Dickinson, Neal Mayer, Michael McCoy
Directed and choreographed by Gary Slavin
Opened Sept. 28, Unlimited run
Thursdays and Fridays at 9 pm: Saturdays at 7 pm
The Triad Theatre, 172 West 72nd St., NYC
Tickets: 212.279.4200 Use code "BUSH" for 30% discount
url: bushisbadthemusical.com
By Larry Litt
We went to the opening of "Bush Is Bad"—Impeachment Edition on Oct 28th. Seeing this updated version of Joshua Rosenblum's political cabaret at the Triad Theater on West 72nd Street convinces me that not every political idealist should or could be a progressive blogger.
Some people must get their message out there in their own very different way. Instead of offering his political opinions online, composer-lyricist Rosenblum serves up his anti-conservative, anti-Bush commentary in this highly sophisticated, yet totally accessible New York cabaret.
In last year's original "Bush Is Bad" cabaret we heard "How Can 59 Million People Be So Dumb?" and that there's "New Hope For The Fabulously Wealthy" among 24 other wildly funny and stylized songs. While laughing we also knew these songs were telling the truth about American politics, always from a liberal, progressive perspective.
A year later with this new edition about the Bush Presidency, its many deceptive players and sideshow characters, we learn that "Anyone Can Grow Up To Be President" and "You Can Never Have Enough Bush" especially if you're a patronage political appointee who's doing "A Heck Of A Job".
Caricatures of conservatives and their supporters are greatly exaggerated as they can't be in real life. We spend hilarious satirical time with Katherine Harris, Wally O'Dell of Diebold fame, Jack Abramoff, Accident prone Harry Whittington who was shot by VP Dick Cheney, heck of a job Michael Brownie, Don the Bully Rumsfeld, Draconic Dick Cheney, contemptuous Condi Rice, and most importantly the Bush Big Mama, Barbara the Ball Breaker. Alberto Gonzales opines that "Torture Has Been Very Good To Me" while George W. himself sings about clearing brush "Down In Crawford".
Still, the crux and point of this show is to prove to the converted that politics as theater doesn't have to be as depressing as the media would have us believe. Often we're led by political media to believe that all politicians are inimicably corrupt, hypocritical and venal. Because of this, a majority of Americans are disgusted with politics, which leads to apathy, alienation and frustration. They avoid participation. "Bush Is Bad" shows us that some pols are far worse than others. Yes Virgina, voting for the lesser of two evils is one of the considerations in the privacy of the booth.
"The "I" Word" is unleashed in a furious chorus. Indeed there's a way out of this quagmire, a way of getting rid of Bush. "Would somebody give him a blowjob please," the cast pleads. Here the corporate media's obsession with Clinton's sex life is taken to absurd ends. Meanwhile the wild and crazy Bush family children are brutally caricatured, as, well, the next generation of Bushes. Yikes!!!
There's plenty of sex in politics both straight and gay, revealed and closeted, and plenty of songs about political sex in this show. I'm hoping a new song will be added about Congressman Mark Foley's (R-FL) sudden resignation due to his emails to young and pretty boytoy pages in Congress. It's a "Bush Is Bad" delight, bad for the Republican hypocrites, but a very good moment for political cabaret.
What "Bush Is Bad" does best is juggle almost all the aspects of Republican politics, from values to corruption, from war to stealing elections, in one show that gives us strength and reason to carry on the fight against one party rule.
I can't wait to see the next version of "Bush Is Bad—The Jeb Edition"
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