Review: Andrew Rannells, John Mulaney, Nick Kroll, and More Reject Donald Trump's Plea for Antiseptic Theater in A SAFE AND SPECIAL PLACE Benefit

By: Dec. 24, 2016
Get Access To Every Broadway Story

Unlock access to every one of the hundreds of articles published daily on BroadwayWorld by logging in with one click.




Existing user? Just click login.

Early on the morning of November 19, Donald Trump took to Twitter (as he has a tendency to do) to make the assertion that "The Theater must always be a safe and special place."

The claim came after Vice President-elect Mike Pence had taken in a performance of the Broadway super-smash-hit HAMILTON the night prior. Following the show, less than two weeks after the election and lead by HAMILTON's Brandon Victor Dixon, the cast made a statement to Pence from the stage, about the hope that his administration would "work on behalf of all of us." Pence momentarily paused his exit from the theater to hear what the actor had to say.

The incident and the sequential tweets set the internet ablaze and the cable news cycle running a mile a minute, discussing the validity of Trump's insistence. Amongst the theater community, however, there was less room for debate. Since the beginning of the dramatic arts, theater has been marred in despair, death, heartbreak, betrayal--- all of the facets which make humanity at times unbearable. When, Mr. Trump, has the theater ever been a "safe and special" place?

On December 19, one month to the day after Trump's Broadway-fueled Twitter deluge, Liz Meriwether and Shira Milikowsky put on A SAFE AND SPECIAL PLACE, an evening of works written and performed by some of the theater's best and most promising talents. The event, held within the atmospheric walls of the McKittrick Hotel and which benefited The Trevor Project and Kids in Need of Defense was, as you could guess, anything but what Trump would deem "safe and special."

The show consisted of several short vignette-like sketches, scenes, or songs, each of which was derived with an eye towards social or political consciousness. The first full piece, for example, was a short two-hander called "Fetal Funeral," that title surely explaining the gist. Written by Rachel Shukert and performed by Ari Graynor and Chris Gethard, it took a biting and too-close-for-comfort but still funny look at what may lie ahead for reproductive rights under President Trump (one such stipulation being that arrests will be issued for offering booze to a woman without first inquiring about the contents of her uterus).

Other highlights included FALSETTOS star Andrew Rannells reading a simultaneously devastating and hilarious monologue by Sam Hunter titled "An Actor Prepares," in which he looked back on his time as a gay teenager in Iowa and recalled his religious school's administration learning he was gay, but refraining to transfer until after its production of LES MISERABLES. "Harriet and Her Heroin Children," written by Christopher Durang, featured a delightfully frazzled Julie White as a fake news conspiracy theorist, and "Voicemails" depicted the imagined phone calls between Chelsea Clinton, Ivanka Trump, Tiffany Trump, and Steve Bannon (who, for this sketch, was wearing a demon mask) and starred heavy hitters Zosia Mamet and Natasha Lyonne.

A special treat came in the form of a brief appearance by Gil Faizon and George St. Geegland (also known as Nick Kroll and John Mulaney), currently starring in OH, HELLO on Broadway. Nothing was off-limits for the Upper West Side duo who, as they said, "like Trump have unnatural confidence despite irrelevance." They also called out Trump's almost-was Secretary of State and former Mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani, who truly was the hero of 9/11, "because no one else was mayor that day!"

The evening culminated in an unnerving and powerful performance by the Playwrights Horizon Theater School and the NYU cast of NOISE, who joined together placed throughout the venue to sing an uplifting and haunting tune which assured every person in attendance of their wholeness and inherent strength.

The evening was, altogether, moving and funny and a prescient reminder that we are not alone in the fear and the anger that has ravaged the nation since November 8. It was only a matter of time before Trump went after theater. That it was 11 days after his election to the highest office in the world may even have been for the better, because it has allowed the theater to preemptively arm itself for what will be four years of fighting, with art serving as our most detrimental weapon.



Videos