www.broadwayworld.com: Theatre has always intersected with politics, and the presence of American presidents in Broadway, off-Broadway, and regional theatre plays and musicals is a major part of this. Did you know that all of our heads of state have been featured in shows, whether as characters or as plot points that are part of the action?
2 comments:
I did not really know what I was getting into when I clicked this article, but I was surprised to see that every president has shown up in a musical somewhere, even in tiny roles. I clicked because I had just watched Hamilton and assumed the first few examples would all be from that show, but they did not cheat and did not list the same musical twice.
I also recently watched the Netflix version of Merrily We Roll Along, and I am pretty sure the song “Bobby and Jackie and Jack” is about the Kennedys: Jack (JFK), Jackie (Jacqueline Kennedy), and Bobby (Robert Kennedy).
It also surprised me that Joe Biden already has a character in a musical. I used to think musicals took ages to make, but then I remembered he was elected back in 2021 and it is now 2026, so there has actually been some time.
Maybe one day every president will not just appear in a show but have an entire musical named after them.
The most interesting aspect of using presidents in the shows is how diverse their roles can be within productions. On the one hand, we have a president fully featured in a typical musical like 1776 or Hamilton. On the other hand, there is Millard Fillmore acting off-stage in Pacific Overtures. And, my most favorite of all Oh Mary! Centering around Abraham Lincioln and his wife in a completely inaccurate historical adaptation of what their life was. Even in theatrical representation of relatively unknown presidents, like Zachary Taylor in 43 Plays for 43 Presidents, the idea of putting presidents in shows proves to be highly adaptable when creating enthralling portrayals of historical figures and events. The theatre and political history have a lot more in common than we expect. In a way, tracing every president in American history gives us a good understanding of how flexible the form of theatre is. When I look at examples of theatrical portrayals of presidents, it’s surprising what a variety of approaches writers take to create real-life characters.
Post a Comment