VIEW THE COMPLETE ARTICLE HERE
Review: “44 — The unOFFICIAL, unSANCTIONED Obama Musical” deliciously skewers Barack, Joe, Michelle and the gang
Out pops fightin’ Joe Biden, “Benjamin Button-ized” for the night but still wobbly on stairs, here to tell the story of the 44th President of the United States, “told from my recollection.” And with that opener, the sanctuary at the Epiphany Center for the Arts bounces with a hilarious spoof R&B musical stocked with top-drawer singing talent and comedic invention, replete with vocal tours de force for Biden, Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, Hilary Clinton and a plethora of antagonistic, warbling Republicans from John Boehner to Mitch McConnell to Sarah Palin.
The Epiphany Center at Jackson Boulevard and Ashland Avenue is conveniently located for the Democratic National Convention and I’d say these commercial producers from Los Angeles are crazy if they close this terrific show before the big confab and all the bored media who’ll come looking for stories beyond the United Center. Once (or maybe if) the politicos find it, it’ll get attention, all fully deserved. “44 — The unOFFICIAL, unSANCTIONED Obama Musical” is smart, sophisticated satire, penned and composed by Eli Bauman, once an Obama campaign organizer. He comes with a raft of TV comedy credits, decent musical chops and enough insider intel to make the show appeal to those of us who watched Obama’s rise.
In its format, as we roll through the dark nights of the Obama soul, the show is something akin to the full-length musical satires like “Rod Blagojevich Superstar!” that Second City produced here around 20 years ago and, of course, to “Saturday Night Live”-style comedy. But this show has more ambition, higher-end production values (including a live, five-piece band), Broadway-caliber singing from the three hilarious leads, T.J. Wilkins (Barack Obama), Chad Doreck (Joe Biden) and Shanice (Michelle Obama) and a chic, uber-cool vibe, as befitting the big-eared honoree here described as “a hot fudge sundae with vanilla ice-cream.”
There’s no question this is a show for Democrats, but it’s also not afraid of skewering its own side, which has been sorely lacking in oft-anemic (or nonexistent) political satire in Chicago in the last few years. At the end of the night, the only thing that really matters with these kinds of things is how funny they turn out to be (or not). And while this show certainly traffics in familiar satirical identities (goofy Joe, bitter Hillary, goth Mitch, slimy Ted Cruz, salacious Sarah, closeted Lindsey Graham and so on), it tickled me purple all night long. And it’s not afraid to bite, either.
Highlights include the “thoughts and prayers” quartet of Palin, McConnell, Michael Uribes’ Ted Cruz (“I’m every kid you hated in high school, rolled into one”) and Dino Shorté’s Herman Cain. There’s a Barry White-like solo (“It’s Cain Time”) for the former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza; a sensual love ballad for the singer-songwriter Shanice after Michelle finds the Lincoln Bedroom a turn-on; a self-pitying number for the ever-spurned Hillary (Kelley Dorney), with the lyric, “I’ve known it was a crap shoot since I was a babe in my Pampers pantsuit”; and a duet for Obama and Abraham Lincoln, known here as the First Black President.
Most of the music is original with occasional familiar clapbacks, such as when Kevin Bailey’s gravel-voiced Boehner sings “It’s My Party and I’ll Cry If I Want to.” And the songs are zesty and funny: “How Black is too Black?,” sings Obama, wondering.
“It’s time to forget about the collapse of the global economy,” sings Michelle to her beau. “Be my George Washington and climb down my chimney tonight.”
I hope Bauman, who also directs and co-producers, has someone who can tell him the show is too long by about 15 minutes and to cut some of his weaker second-act material. I’d maybe write a Kamala Harris cameo into a show created before her meteoric rise. And the show still needs to work on its sound reinforcement issues in this Chicago run (this soaring venue is glam but not acoustically the easiest).
But those are minor quibbles. I hope some of the DNC people and the Obama Foundation folks make it over, maybe including the man himself, who I saw at Second City long ago.
Finding the sweet spot between affection and satire is far from easy in these kinds of show and Bauman somehow threads that needle, not the least because he has strong comedic material, skilled pacing and a notably mature, 11-member cast who commit to the truth of what they are doing and then sell it to the rafters: Larry Cedar, Marqell Edward Clayton, Summer Nicole Greer, Jane Papageorge and Jeff Sumner are the funny supporting players.
The show even has a heart, thanks to the key titular performance from Wilkins. Saturday’s audience clearly had a blast, roaring “We love you, Joe” at Doreck’s wide-eyed creation, howling for Michelle and cheering her hubby as he sang, “There ain’t no red states, there ain’t no blue. There’s only the United States and that’s me and you.”
Very 2008, I know. But we can all hope.
Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.
cjones5@chicagotribune.com
Review: “44 — The unOFFICIAL, unSANCTIONED Obama Musical” (3.5 stars)
