While Forbidden Broadway has been merrily chugging along for over 40 years, the musical satire genre has not had many other successful offerings, particularly of the political variety. Perhaps it’s because our current political landscape is so ridiculous (the eating of cats and dogs is now a big issue) that parody would seem redundant. The 1960s and ’70s were rife with political comedies like Barbara Garson’s MacBird, Gore Vidal’s An Evening with Richard Nixon and Peter Ustinov’s Who’s Who in Hell. Selina Fellinger’s 2022 totally fictional POTUS was a rare recent exception. The last revue tackling real-life national issues I can recall was written by Forbidden Broadway creator Gerard Alessandrini in 2001 when he “politically corrected” and adapted Irving Berlin’s 1962 musical Mr. President to reflect the Bush-Gore election. The results were mixed. The same can be said for a new attempt at current-event comedy: Ghost of John McCain at SoHo Playhouse.
The basic idea by Grant Woods and Jason Rose, who receive a “Conceived by” credit, is intriguing. (Scott Elmegreen wrote the book and Drew Fornarola the songs.) After his death in 2018, John McCain (Jason Tam doing his best in a relatively straight role surrounded by caricatures) finds himself inside Donald Trump’s brain. The Orange One evidently can’t get the Arizona Senator and former Presidential candidate out of his mind. After encounters with Hillary Clinton, Lindsay Graham, Roy Cohn, a stand-in for Trump voters named Karen, and myriad others, McCain resolves to convince Trump to give up his authoritarian, scatter-shot ways and become a truly responsible conservative leader. Good luck with that!
The trouble is Elmegreen’s book and Fornarola’s songs push too hard and come too fast. One outlandish idea follows another in such rapid succession (Catie Davis is the speed-demon director), we scarcely have time to get the joke, let alone laugh at it. The gags and concepts are too often scattered and confusing. For example, Trump is represented by both his teenage image of himself (the energetic Lukas Kolbe Mannikus who is an able singer and dancer) and Trump’s actual brain (Aaron Michael Ray, reasonably funny).
Some insightful moments do spring up amid the chaos. Zoya Love does a marvelous job of delineating the alienated Trump voter Karen in Fornarola’s surprisingly moving song, “Invisible” in which the motivations behind the MAGA movement are movingly explained. Lindsay Nicole Chambers provides several incisive portraits including a justifiably enraged Hillary Clinton (her song “I Told You So” is a highlight), Trump’s bubbled-headed daughter-wife (a combination of Ivanka and Melania), and a Sexy Lady Fox News Anchor. When the latter is asked her name, she replies “It doesn’t matter.” Ben Fankhauser completes the cast with an over-the-top Lindsay Graham in black-mesh and as Joe Biden as a doddering janitor.
Mieka Van Der Ploeg does have fun with the costumes including garments representing the COVID-19 virus, an actual brain for Trump and, for some reason, a giant dancing cheeseburger. Set designer Lawrence E. Moten III efficiently uses the small Soho Playhouse space to create the illusion of a second-rate hotel lobby.
The point of Ghost of John McCain is that Trump’s mind is a jumbled mess, but unfortunately, so is the show. However, there are some laughs to be had. Ironically and sadly, our current election season is much more absurd than the events depicted onstage.
