Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson

Saturday, October 2

2:00pm performance

The immersive set design hits you as soon as you enter the theater and definitely piques interest and anticipation.  Except of course for the inane comment Trish overheard from a woman entering next to us (please add thick Long Island accent), “Ooh, it looks like an Indian Wedding.”  Um, yeah, if the aforementioned wedding’s theme happens to be “Western Hoedown at the Local Brothel.”  The theatre is completely engulfed in thick red draperies, neon lights, old saloon-type chandeliers, faux wood paneling, red Christmas Lights and a couple of taxidermy horses.  Yup, exactly like an Indian wedding.

Anyhoo, it’s hard to imagine how the life and presidency of Andrew Jackson could be reduced to a one-act, emo rock Broadway musical.  But hell, you could say that about nearly any show Sondheim’s ever written (minus the "emo" and "rock" discriptives) and he always seems to make it work.  I guess the tone of the show can be summed up in the opening line, spoken by the hunky Ben Walker as Andrew Jackson.

“Are you ready?  I’m wearing some tight, tight jeans and tonight we’re delving into some serious, serious shit.  I’m Andrew Jackson.  I’m your President.  Let’s go.”

 I enjoyed the opening song and energy, but about 15 minutes into the first scene I thought, “This is going to be a very long 100 minutes.”  It was like an extremely good Saturday Night Live skit that’s gone on just 5 minutes too long. 

Luckily, things turned around sharply when the play got to Jackson’s acquisition of lands for the U.S. - by literally killing anyone (Indian, Spaniard, Brit) standing in his way.  This ain’t the glossed up portrait we read about in High School.  Jackson’s several presidential campaigns and his time in office are historical periods most enlightened by the ironic, modern-vernacular dialogue.  It really is shocking to see that the same problems - immigration, terrorism, plight of the working class versus ruling elite - have yet to be resolved a century later.  The show breaches some sensitive subjects like racism and class struggle, making you laugh at some racially insensitive comment and then instantly catching yourself the next. 

A lot has been written about how the show is trying so hard to be hip.  But I think those critics are watching the show with a much too literal eye.  I think the writers are actually making fun of the hipster set and their often better-than-you attitude; blatantly showing us how ridiculous hipster posturing looks by having everyone on stage act like a whining Park Slope emo teenager (Though I’m grateful for the tight t-shirt and skinny jeans Walker sports through the play which I doubt are historically accurate).

If anything, the play (it’s billed as a musical, but it’s more play with music) makes you realize how the revisionist history taught in our schools might be stifling real social reform in our country.  We like to think we’ve come so far, but in fact, we’re not that much more enlightened than our fore-fathers. There was an audible gasp from the audience when the narrator offered that some modern-day historians regard Jackson as “America’s Hitler.”  Yeah, I know.  That’s some deep shit for a musical.

(left) Ben Walker's Andrew Jackson, (right) the real Andrew Jackson.  Hmmm - they do have similar hair.