www.broadwayworld.com: Plays and musicals that include Abraham Lincoln as a character abound in theatre history. Some feature Mary Todd Lincoln as well. These include but are not limited to Abe Lincoln in Illinois (which won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama), Asylum (a musical about Mary Todd Lincoln’s time committed to an asylum), Honestly Abe (a recent off-Broadway entry), If Booth Had Missed (a play about what Lincoln would have done next had he lived), Prologue to Glory (a Federal Theatre Project hit), The Last of Mrs. Lincoln (about Mary Todd Lincoln’s years following the president’s assassination), and The Young Abe Lincoln (a 1960s family musical). There have been at least 40 other shows on Broadway alone that include Abraham Lincoln as a character.
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After reading this article, I am starting to think about depictions of presidential figures on stage and even in media in general. To depict a character on stage is truly a craft. One can try to depict someone on an unbiased and neutral level, however, this is usually not the case. The character comes off as ‘bad’ or ‘good’ sometimes, well-liked or hated. Characters have traits and stage acting is all about exaggerated actions and expressions, characters sometimes come off as caricatures. To depict a US president on stage would mean choosing a side, even choosing a political party. If I were to depict Donald Trump in a piece of theater would mean casting a large man, with strands of hair and orange skin, making his actions extreme and idiotic and the actor would have to mock his voice. As you can see, it shows my bias towards the president. This is controversial and many would not want to deal with the backlash, no matter what it may be. A musical like Hamilton shows multiple sides to Alexander Hamilton, which is interesting.
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