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There has never been a presidential election season – Never -- in which so many new works of art and popular culture have in one way or another been about the election.
And that's because a huge majority of the people who make art and entertainment are opposed to this president -- opposed with a passion and ferocity we haven't seen in this country in many years. And they want to express their passionate sentiments in their work…sometimes to try to propagandize, sometimes to make themselves feel good, sometimes just to get the fear and loathing off their chests.
A LOT of what I've seen and heard is not so great. And I think that's because “political” work tends to…cheat a little artistically, take shortcuts, get made fast…because it's so “important.” And because the artists are preaching to the converted. The de facto idea seems to be that if a work is “political,” then it doesn't need to be quite as beautiful, or rigorous, or interesting, or entertaining as their other work.
But hold on.
I come to praise a work of lefty political art, not to bury it.
The other night in a small theater in New York City I saw a comedy, called Eat the Taste that was as smart and satisfying as could be. It is by Greg Kotis, the author of the recent hit Broadway musical, Urinetown .
Kotis has created that exceptionally rare thing – a genuinely funny farce that takes real creative chances, and a socially engaged farce with real political points to make.
The premise is completely over the top: it's 2008, the end of the second Bush term, we've invaded some more countries, civil liberties are being really trampled.
And three federal agents have brought…Greg Kotis, -- the author, playing himself, in handcuffs --to a seedy motel room for a weird kind of interrogation.
CLIP
Then the female agent asks again if he likes John Ashcroft “as a man”…
CLIP
It turns out John Ashcroft himself has sent the agents to persuade Kotis and his Urinetown creative partner – also playing himself – to create a huge, megabudget Broadway musical about…John Ashcroft, and starring… John Ashcroft.
CLIP : Mr. Ashcroft WILL have his show
He WILL recapture the hearts of America through song
He WILL with your help take his proper place in the pantheon of American heroes
Do we understand each other?
And from there it gets only more absurd – including offstage roles for Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, and the opening number for the Ashcroft musical.
Eat the Taste succeeds for all the usual reasons – talent and craft – and because of the true fact that John Ashcroft really IS a serious show-tune kind of singer…early in the show, the agents play an actual recording of the real attorney general…crooning.
CLIP: “WHEN THE EAGLES SOAR”
Eat the Taste works for me because unlike so much political art, it isn't infused with self-righteousness and blind rage…and it's under no illusions that it's going to change votes in November, let alone change the world. It has a point of view -- a strong one – but it holds itself to the same high bar as any other kind of entertainment or art: to be entertaining, to be good.
