By Ron Fassler . . .
All hail the return, after four long years, of the York Theatre Company’s Musicals in Mufti series. For those who don’t know what is meant by mufti, it’s always defined in advertising, and even on the cover of the program thusly:
“Mufti (MUFF-tee): In street clothes, without the trappings of a full production.”
As The York’s Artistic Director James Morgan told the audience in his pre-show remarks, Mufti was introduced in 1994, the same year as City Center’s Encores!, entertaining with shows from the past that might otherwise never receive a revival. The York is much truer to its mission statement than City Center, more interested in resurrecting Jule Styne’s Bar Mitzvah Boy, a show that never even got to Broadway, rather than High Button Shoes, which ran two years. You will never see Encores! do a one-performance musical like the notorious Kelly (the York did), but then again, no Mufti show has ever moved to Broadway and filled its coffers the way Encores! has from its twenty-five-year run of Chicago. Oh, well.
How To Steal an Election, the first of a trio of Mufti’s 2023 season, is an off-Broadway musical that dates back to 1968, a tumultuous year in American politics. Cynicism was already riding high that year, what with the open hostilities at home over the war in Vietnam. The show opened a mere twenty-four days before the first election of Richard Nixon to the Presidency. Six years later, everything came crashing down with “Tricky Dick’s” scandalous resignation, which imbedded a cynicism even deeper in the American psyche. Its book, by William F. Brown, who would later do the same for the hit musical The Wiz, was set to Oscar Brand’s music and lyrics. A leftist folk singer of some renown, Brown’s two previously written scores for Broadway musicals, A Joyful Noise and The Education of Hyman Kaplan, folded quickly. That’s not to say he was untalented in any way, just unlucky. Though he was aiming for Broadway again with How To Steal an Election, the truth is it would never have succeeded there; but, it was met with sufficient enough praise to eke out a short run of about three months on the Lower East Side, not really bad for those days.
The revue format here provides the barest of plots, essentially a compendium of some of the sleazier aspects of Presidential politics. Its master of ceremonies (had he lived till 1968) is a ninety-seven-year-old Calvin Coolidge. And, for those in need of a history lesson, our 30th President. Known as “Silent Cal,” he’s anything but in this incarnation, as he’s played by the effervescent Jason Graae, more animated than the real Coolidge ever was. It’s interesting to note that in a review of the original production, the New York Times critic described the actor playing Coolidge as “cadaverous, unsmiling, monotoned,” three adjectives that have never been used to describe Jason Graae in his entire career. His charm goes a long way towards making the evening’s material palatable. Has there ever been a show he hasn’t either risen to, or above, the occasion? I’ll answer that—no.
And let’s get to that material. What to make of fifty-four-year-old satire? What sort of jokes still make the grade? One about Spiro Agnew? Sure, why not? As for references to issues such as the failings of the Martin Van Buren administration, you got me interested. Although perhaps this is where I should mention that, as a kid, I used to be able to recite the Presidents backward and forwards. So, if you like your musical theater in the form of a history lesson (and it’s not for nothing 1776 is among my very favorites), then there’s a lot that a relic like How To Steal an Election can offer.
As a young man and woman who serve as stand-ins for the then-current generation, Emma Degerstedt and Alex Joseph Grayson each perform with stalwart commitment, regardless of some of the callow dialogue they have to spout. Each sang their individual solos with passion and ease. The small ensemble of Courtney Arango, Kelly Berman and Drew Tenable were somewhat miraculous in how well-knit they were considering the performance I attended was their fifth one after a mere five days of rehearsal. It’s traditional that Muftis are done with books in hand, and when Grayson’s tie couldn’t be knotted quick enough, Graae ad-libbed something to the effect of “I’d love to help, but I don’t have a free hand,” which was as funny as it was spontaneous.
Special shout out to Miles Plant on piano, who effortlessly drove home the music all night long; and to the simple, but effective choreography by Victoria Casillo. Joseph Hayward, the York’s Associate Producing Director, does a fine job of moving things along nicely and using his cast effectively.
A throw-away line that made me smile (which I did a lot throughout the show) was when someone exclaimed, “In your guts, you know he’s nuts.” This was a play on words regarding Barry Goldwater’s 1964 campaign slogan, “In your heart, you know he’s right.” Spoofing it was the work of his rival Lyndon Johnson’s people in an attempt to emphasize Goldwater’s so-called instability as a warmonger. Ah, such memories.
How To Steal an Election. Through Septeber 3 is playing at the Theatre at Saint Jeans (150 E 76th Street, between Lexington and Third Avenue). yorktheatre.org/on-stage/musicals-in-mufti
Photos: Rider Foster
