SIX “STEPS” FOR POLITICAL JUNKIES
Oliver Stone’s blooper reel for “W?” Actually, it’s four members of the Capitol Steps, as two generations of Brand Bush. The DC-based musical comedy revue makes a campaign whistle-stop Friday night in Red Bank, at the new ‘n improved Count Basie Theatre.
By TOM CHESEK
At first blush, a stage show by the long-running troupe of “Forbidden Beltway” musical comedy satirists known as the Capitol Steps might seem an odd bet for a Halloween Friday night.
But what is Halloween if not a momentary bump in the haunted hayride of the campaign trail — and this year, with pretty much everyone forecasting The End of Days if their guys don’t get voted in, well, the voting booth might as well come equipped with cauliflower “brains” and peeled-grape “eyeballs.”
Fear is just one factor, of course. The cable and radio talkfests are anymore generating their own comic gravy, and are thus almost immune to parody. Then consider Sarah Palin’s wardrobe and styling as the biggest slice of the campaign pie; Barack Obama as prime-time network star; SNL skits making rather than faking the news — and it becomes harder than ever to figure the line between parody and clarity.
If anybody can shine a glo-stick in the darkness, it’s the Capitol Steps, the Beltway-based organization that was born in the early days of the Reagan era, when a group of moonlighting Senate staffers decided to have a little fun with the foibles of their Congressional bosses.
Operating in a town where the cabaret arts usually takes a back seat to a much wilder brand of burlesque, the Steps have shown remarkable staying power; outlasting four presidential administrations, a Revolution and a “permanent majority.” As the nation struggles with “an election lasting more than four years” and the tension ratchets up toward E-day, the Steps are back doing what they do best — chasing the campaign buses like hungry dogs looking for scraps of inspiration; serving it back up to appreciative audiences, including those of you who make it to the Count Basie Theatre tomorrow night at 8pm.
In case you haven’t heard, the Basie is back as of tonight, when Bobby Bandiera and the Jersey Shore Rock ‘N Soul Revue inaugurate a grandly renovated auditorium. In the meantime, Red Bank oRBit rang up 15-year Steps veteran (and former lobbyist!) Mark Eaton for some data on Friday’s pre-ballot hullabaloo.
Energizing the Basie: Last seen locally at Monmouth University, the Capitol Steps as an institution has outlasted scores of partisan revolutions, dynastic careers and permanent majorities.
RED BANK ORBIT: So how many people are in the Capitol Steps these days? Do you call up extra talent from the farm team during election season?
MARK EATON: We’re a mix and match troupe of 25 people; we generally tour in groups of five performers, so we can be in as many as four different places at once. For the show in Red Bank, you’ll be seeing a company of six — three men, two women and a piano accompanist.
And will you be making the trip to Red Bank yourself?
No, these days I work in the office and stick to doing the local shows in the DC area.
Since you have more than one show in circulation, how different are they from each other? Do you have lame gags for the Real America, and funnier stuff for everybody else?
Every touring show is basically the same as the others that are out there on the road. There may be a little bit of an improv element, but basically it’s a show with music that needs to be rehearsed.
And come Election Day, it’s all over?
Oh, we’re doing a ton of post-Election Day shows! There’s a lot that we can do right up until the inauguration — a lot of past-tense wrap-ups, and we write a victory song for each of the candidates.
I get the feeling that you’re Blackberrying each other back and forth every morning; reacting to the day’s headlines so you can rip things screaming from them.
Actually, unless something really big breaks — I don’t know if there are any bombs due to drop in the next week — we’ve basically got our show down. We might write a new song a week, and it might go over big with audiences, but then it’ll drop off the face of the earth, never to be heard from again.
A good example of that is Geraldine Ferraro and her comment — remember what she said about how people wouldn’t be paying attention to Obama if he were white? Well, we did something to the tune of “If I Were a Rich Man” from Fiddler on the Roof, called “If I Weren’t a Black Man.” We were pleased with it, but nobody remembers that whole episode now.
Ever get the feeling that sometimes you’re too close to a current event to really get a feel for how the “civilian” audience sees it?
You’ve got to keep it rolling in front of the audience. And you can’t be too “inside the Beltway” either; what makes us laugh is not necessarily what works in front of an audience, and that works less and less the further you get from Washington.
So with your four or five different touring groups, you have to have somebody in each one that plays McCain, and somebody for Obama…
Every group has its own Obama, its own Bush, Biden, Palin. What’s interesting is that we only currently have one African American guy in the troupe, so it’s important that the audience suspend disbelief for many of our bits involving Obama.
Are you a little disappointed in Obama for not giving you much of a plump target? He won’t even put on a cowboy hat or climb into a tank…
It’s hard not to think that we’ve been picking on the Republicans in particular this year. But Barack has been so even-keeled — it shows how nice it is to be in the lead. He’s playing the political version of rope-a-dope.
And Biden, well, I’m afraid nobody cares about Biden (laughs). You know, you can have someone in the group who does the most dead-on impression of Biden, and no one would ever know!
At any rate, you’re not a band of impressionists — you’re more of a musical revue.
Right, and we have to find people who can sing. You can look and talk just like Barack Obama, but you do have to hit the notes.
Sounds like a real challenge, trying to do what it is you do if you get an “even-keeled” Obama administration in office.
We’ve been through it many times. Every time we think we’re running short on material, somebody always comes along — a Ronald Reagan, Dan Quayle, Bill Clinton — to save us.
We shouldn’t forget the realm of political appointees. You never know when the next Earl Butz is going to emerge out of the Agriculture Department or whatever.
Competence is our greatest enemy — it’s true! I have to quote Bill Maher talking about Barack, saying c’mon, guy, you’ve gotta give us something to work with!
Tickets for Friday’s 8pm show at the Basie are still available from the online box office, located right here.
Tomorrow in oRBit: It’s the FINAL CHAPTER (Part II) in our series of Halloweekend round-ups!
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October 30, 2008
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