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Past Reviews Off Broadway Reviews |
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Part of this is due, unavoidably, to the stale subject matter and its unadventurous treatment that consume most of the show's 90-minute running time. The conceit of the show, which is set during the 1990s, is that the newly elected president wasn't really one man, but two: WJ (Tom Galantich), the serious-minded policy wonk, and Billy (Duke Lafoon), the party boy, neither of whom got along with the other, despite being trapped in the same body. And the problems that arose—with WJ's pursuit of major social changes, and Billy's of anything in a dress—did so because they just couldn't learn to work together. Once they do, magic happens. In theory. In reality, there's not much magic to be found in this part of Clinton: The Musical. Atom-thin and politically deaf, it makes no serious attempt to take its subjects or their travails seriously, or to explore—however comedically—the nuances behind either the president's or his opposition's positions. Whitewater is, at best, a punch line. Some ominous names (Gennifer Flowers? Juanita Broaddrick?) are not mentioned. And among those that are, Newt Gingrich (John Treacy Egan) is a rotund grotesque, Kenneth Star (Kevin Zak) is a literal stripper with a prosecution fetish, Monica Lewinsky (Veronica J. Kuehn) is an opportunist, Linda Tripp (Kara Guy) is mannish and manipulative. This is a burlesque, not a musical in the traditional sense, and succeeds, if flatly, on those basic terms. The songs (by Paul) are mostly energetic but indistinct, tackling familiar issues in familiar ways that won't tax anyone's memory or opinions. The jokes and plot turns (calling them twists would be too generous) in the Australian brothers' joint book tend to play off existing stereotypes, caricatures, and wordplay, with the equally greasy Gingrich and Starr providing the closest thing to genuine humor. (Egan and Zak also appear to be having fun with their roles, which is true of few others in the cast.) The direction and choreography (Dan Knechtges), sets (Beowulf Boritt), and costumes (David Woolard) play into the down-and-dirty, anything-for-a-laugh theme as well. It's all frothy and instantly forgettable—with one critical exception. Hillary narrates the story from her present-day vantage point, and is depicted as a power-hungry ladder-climber who sees everything about her position, and her marriage, as another step on her own path to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Constantly communing with her idol, Eleanor Roosevelt (a very funny Judy Gold), from whom she receives pointedly useless advice ("I once had a rose named after me and I was very flattered. But I was not pleased to read the description in the catalogue: no good in a bed, but fine up against a wall"), she sees herself, and insists that we see her, as the only one around who matters. Given that she's played by Kerry Butler, it's difficult to disagree. Butler (Bat Boy, Hairspray, Xanadu) plows into Hillary with a crazed fervor and tackles quips and staging alike with such brio that she can elicit roof-shaking laughter from the most inane bits (speaking into her hand to pretend someone else is encouraging her to run, for example). And when she sings, whether encouraging her Bills to fuse into one ("Both Ways") or expressing fed-up rage with her husband ("Enough"), Butler does so from a place of such unerring honesty that you're captivated even more than you are cut up. Even the most devoted Tea Partiers would be hard-pressed to resist a Hillary as commanding as Butler. Was that the point? Since the American premiere of Clinton: The Musical at NYMF last year with a mostly different cast (it was also seen at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2012, and then in London), the Hodges have drastically rethought and rebalanced it, and smothered what good-natured charm it had, to turn it into a 95-minute, live-action infomercial for the as-yet-undeclared supposed Democratic front-runner. Personally, I found the earlier incarnation more clever and tolerable (if no more insightful), though this version is unquestionably more entertaining. This show may not be a great platform for anyone to run on, but if Butler keeps doing what she's doing, she can count on my vote.
Clinton: The Musical
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