This spring's biggest downtown hit was undoubtedly Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. The New York Times called it "the season's best musical” and audiences flocked to The Public Theater to see what the daring young creative team Alex Timbers (writer/director) and Michael Friedman (composer/lyricist) had cooked up. Now, by populist demand, their bloody brilliant show is packing up its tight, tight jeans and heading to Broadway!
In Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, rising star Benjamin Walker reprises his role as America's first political maverick. A.J. kicked British butt, shafted the Indians and smacked down the Spaniards all in the name of these United States -- who cares if he didn’t have permission? An exhilarating and white-knuckled look at one of our nation’s founding rock stars, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson recreates and reinvents the life of “Old Hickory,” from his humble beginnings on the Tennessee frontier to his days as our seventh Commander-in-Chief. It also asks the question, is wanting to have a beer with someone enough reason to elect him? What if he’s really hot?
Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson is 90 minutes long, and around minute 70, I began to despair of it. I started to wonder: Surely the whole play couldn't be about just that-facile, glib language mirroring a facile, racist political movement. Or maybe it was simply suffering from the move to Broadway, another show that originated in a small space dying in a big house.
How important is charisma in the selection of American leaders? Who decided who got to claim what for whose manifest destiny? What is populism, and why would anyone trust the people with it? And while we're asking, what is "Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson" doing on Broadway, anyway? My answer to the last question is easy. It's doing plenty, just not in the usual ways.
Videos
TICKET CENTRAL
Recommended For You