‘Andrew Jackson’ emo-musical erupts at Public Theater

Messy show satirizes past and present populist movements

BY MICHAEL SOMMERS

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

OFF BROADWAY REVIEW

A rambunctious new bio-show that popped up Tuesday at the Public Theater, "Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson" is a wild and woolly new musical cartoon torn from early American history.

The outrageous life and times of our seventh President is rendered by writer-director Alex Timbers and songwriter Michael Friedman into a madhouse concert-style rock musical certain to irk traditionalists.

Don't expect a well-made tuner like "Fiorello!" It's not that kind of musical.

Actually, that's partly the point of this extremely broad, scattershot lampoon of the raging populist movement of the 1810s-40s: Down with the ways of the old elite and up with, well, whoever's hot.

For instance, during an episode depicting the election of 1828, Jackson storms the stage as a rock star, roaring to his adoring fans, "Why don't you just shoot me in the head? / ‘Cause you know I'd be better off dead / If there's really no place in America / For a celebrity of the first rank!"

A 95-minute patchwork stitching of horrifying fact, crazy fiction, sophomoric humor, grad school smarts, thrashing emo-rock music and furious presentational staging, "Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson" is a loud, chaotic romp ironically commenting upon Jackson's tumultuous times as well as our own Tea Party era.

Whatever — the show is driven hard and fast by baby-faced Benjamin Walker's sexy, charismatic Jackson. Dressed down and dirty in punkish 1820s fashions, twelve other performers madly portray dozens of other characters. An onstage trio of musicians bangs out the fist-pumping songs. Everything erupts upon designer Donyale Werle's surreal setting involving acres of blood-velvet drapery, antebellum curios, gilt-framed portraits of American worthies, flocks of crystal chandeliers and a mess of beer cans.

The garish décor extends into the auditorium where a Gen-X crowd appeared to be having a rowdy good time. Their elders may be somewhat bemused by this intentionally messy hootenanny but surely will recognize the contemporary satire the writers rip screaming from the gore-spattered pages of history.

"Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson" continues through April 25 at the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette St., New York. Call (212) 967-7555 or visit www.publictheater.org.