Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson

[edjames]

A history lesson on steroids and drugs! A fun filled exciting fast 90 minute punk rock musical that goes above and beyond. The theater has been decorated like the set of the Rocky Horror Show threw up! Fluorescent lights, chandeliers, stuffed deer heads, antlers, heavy velvet drapes and oil portraits, wait as you enter the theater awash in red lights. The cast looks like rejects from the Addams Family.

 

The fun begins when Ben Walker takes the stage as Andrew Jackson and the story unfolds. Looking exceptionally sexy and buff, Ben, wearing skin tight black jeans and an undershirt starts the fantasy when he comes on stage and yells "I'm gonna STICK it in you!" (Alas, he's taken and is engaged to Mamie Gunner, daughter of Meryl Streep!)

 

I thought it was a wild and fun piece of theater.

 

ED

[Steven_Draker]

Two thumbs up

 

I thought it was a wild and fun piece of theater.

 

I thought the same thing. By far the best, funniest and most entertaining musical I've seen this year. Shortly after the show started at 7 tonight, the girl from the front row said "This is going to be bizarre" ... and she was right. I hadn't laughed like that in a long time. American history revisited in a rock fashion. Thanks for the recommendation, Ed. (still smiling)

[zeferrelli]

thanks for the info! it has received fairly good reviews - yours clinch it - a must see

[skynyc]

A quiet dissent. I saw it at the Public last spring and thought it fun and diverting for a couple hours. Thought that the sissy-boy portrayal of the frontiersman's view of the Eastern politicians verged on homophobia, and found the score completely forgettable (other than the "Populism, yea, yea" mantra) but laughed a many of the jokes and found Benjamin Martin to be the sexiest thing in a long time. "History has gone all sexypants" seems a great motto for the poster.

 

Saw it on Broadway this week and the second viewing was a waste of my time and money. Walker is still very sexy, but seems pushing for the laughs, maybe because it's a much bigger space. The score really has nothing to recommend it...what is "EMO-rock" anyway. This time it seemed like a 90 minute SNL sketch and had there been an intermission I would probably have left. (Which I do not do often.)

 

This is the perfect show if you are visiting NY while on break from college and have had a couple beers. Otherwise, there are many things I would recommend more...American Idiot, for example.

 

As for the great critics reviews...yes, a lot of critics praised it highly, but the stellar reviews were mostly for the production at the Public. How does a critic rave about something in one venue and do a 180 four months later? I do see that all performances for the next two weeks are on tdf for $38, and know from a friend in the biz that it's not selling well.

[edjames]

Yes, i wouldn't necessarily recommend this show for the over-70 set. It definetly has a younger crowd vibe, but theater is expensive and college kids don't always have the extra money for a ticket.

 

And YES, the show is not doing well and word on the street is that one of their major producers backed out leaving a hole in their financing.

 

Shame, it's a lot of fun.

 

As for the differences in reviews from one venue to another, well, it depends, sometimes the original review was reviewed when the show was fresher and the venue more accomodating to the story.

 

ED