Caucus - the musical!

[Meeker]

Ruckus over caucuses inspires musical-comedy

By MICHAEL MORAIN
REGISTER STAFF WRITER

Oh, good Lord, they're on each and every channel,

These candidates on both the left and right.

It won't be long before they're campaign infomercials

Pre-empt my 'Cops' and 'Wheel of Fortune' every night.

All their lies, all their tricks, all their vanities

Soon will make me lose my grip on sanity

Then they'll tax my hard-earned wealth

To insure my mental health for free!

Sound familiar? Well, good news: Campaign-weary Iowans can hear this catchy little tune and a dozen more when "Caucus! The Musical" opens Saturday at the State Historical Museum Theater in Des Moines. The show both celebrates and skewers the quadrennial tradition we've come to know and love and hate.

In many ways, the musical's creation was inevitable.

Fort Dodge native Robert John Ford returned, after 15 years in Southern California, to Iowa in late 2003, smack in the middle of the caucus season. Campaign fliers filled his mailbox. Patriotic TV ads clamored for his attention. And robo-calls - everybody's favorite - kept his phone ringing off the hook.

He couldn't ignore it, couldn't avoid it and couldn't even explain the madness to his friends back on the West Coast.

But as a playwright, he wasn't without recourse.

"There's so much material out there," Ford said last week, amidst the final round of rehearsals. "There are so many things happening that are both silly and absurd. And frankly, there's so much political coverage, you can't escape."

So he set aside two weeks in December 2003 to piece together a plot and a handful of show tunes.

As the story unfolds, a fictional reporter from the East Coast discovers a "typical" Iowa farmer in a small-town cafe and decides his "typical" farm family is the ideal subject for a series about the caucuses. As the family's fame spreads, candidates flock to their house to curry favor.

One song, "Anything for a Vote," hints at the candidates' increasing desperation:

Bill Bradley washed my pickups . . .

Kucinich cured my hiccups.

Iowans know well

That a candidate will sell

His soul to earn one measly caucus vote.

After Ford finished the script, he rounded up a group of local actors and hastily staged a performance at the Des Moines Playhouse. No fancy costumes, no set - just a basic script-reading two nights before the caucuses.

This time around, things are different. Director Tony Humrichouser held auditions back in September, and the production team booked two weeks at the downtown theater - back when the caucuses were scheduled for Jan. 14. Although the caucus night got bumped to Jan. 3, the show's schedule remains the same.

"We don't really know what to expect," Ford said of the post-caucus performances. "I hope it's not too anti-climactic."

Even so, several of the later shows are already sold out. Campaign staffers and volunteers who can't spare a night off during the final push toward Thursday have more time after the confetti settles. And ticket sales have benefitted from a major blitz of out-of-town publicity.

If you stage it, they will come

As word about the musical got around, Ford answered numerous calls from reporters from big-time news agencies - the New York Times, Newsweek, Time and others. National Public Radio played a few snippets from the show, and a half-dozen TV crews came to film rehearsals. More than 30 journalists from other countries have either published stories about the production or plan to during the next week.

A few of the international reporters called with decidedly pointed questions.

"They really wanted to guide the conversation toward a negative view of America," Ford said, adding that he fielded a number of blunt questions about foreign policy. "They really wanted to go down that road, but I'm not sure a playwright can give them the best answers. We're just trying to point out that there's a lot at stake in this election."

Indeed, some political experts claim the 2008 election will be the most important since 1952, the last time neither an incumbent president nor vice president ran for the country's top job. More campaign staffers and news crews are swarming into Iowa than ever, and many of them have already snapped up tickets.

"It has kind of become the must-see event," Ford said. "(The reporters) are all looking for that one light, entertainment story. And some, frankly, are just looking for some sort of diversion."

Fiction becomes fact

Although Ford tweaked the 2003 script and added two more songs, including "The Tough Question Sidestep," he kept most of the original details. To his surprise, some of the play's scenarios parallel this year's headlines. In the musical, a scandal arises when staffers plant questions at a town-hall meeting. And one of the liberal candidates, the fictional Sen. Nora Halliday, is a black woman.

"I had no idea who Barack Obama was back then and had no idea Hillary Clinton would be running," Ford said.

The playwright says he didn't create the characters with specific politicians in mind, but audiences will likely recognize a few general types. The fictional Harrison Tate is a TV-savvy senator - equal parts John Kerry and Mitt Romney - and the imaginary the Rev. Stanley Jensen resembles the conservative Sam Brownback.

Brighter spotlight, but the beat goes on

Despite all the media attention, the local cast and crew don't seem too worried.

"There's more general excitement, I think, but no sense of extra pressure," said John Busbee, who plays Sen. Tate and has experience on various stages around town.

For many of the cast members, the musical offers a perspective that doesn't often surface among the daily sound bites on CNN and FOX News. While the script lampoons the presidential wannabes, it glorifies the farm family who can smell hogwash from a mile away. The Iowans - the smart, sophisticated, charming, civilized, down-to-earth Iowans - care more about legitimate issues than political showmanship.

"There's a sense that the common man is getting his message out there," Busbee said.

In fact, most of the actors and crew have been following the campaigns pretty closely. During a recent rehearsal, a political discussion off stage became so heated it distracted the actors practicing their lines.

"It got louder and louder," Ford said. "We finally had to say, 'You know what? We're not going to talk about politics anymore.' We want to retain that energy, but we also want to like each other when the show's over."

Even before the final performance, Ford plans to fly to New Hampshire to see an adaptation of the show called "The Primary Primary!" Although he left a number of decisions up to the director in Portsmouth - the fictional farm family may manage a dairy instead - he pulled out a New Hampshire map a few months ago to rewrite some of the lyrics. (In one particularly poetic example, the rhyming pair "groin" and "Des Moines" becomes "crotch" and "Dixville Notch.")

If "Caucus!" and "Primary!" are successful, there are plans in the works to revive the show in both Denver and Minneapolis during the national conventions this summer.

Song-and-dance democracy

Even though Iowans may relate to the musical better than out-of-staters, the appeal of political humor is widespread.

"It has been around since the first elections," said Dianne Bystrom, director of Iowa State University's Catt Center for Women and Politics. "There's been a long and rich history in this country of political humor. Politics is serious business, but we like to poke fun at it, as well."

Need proof? Look no further than late-night TV.

"If you watch the monologues - Leno or Letterman - 75 percent of the jokes make fun of the president," said Jody Baumgartner, who co-edited the book "Laughing Matters: Humor and American Politics in the Media Age" with Jonathan Morris.

Besides, he says, Americans have developed a knack for mocking the bigwigs ever since King George III got too big for his satin britches.

"If you boil down the vast majority of political humor, it appeals to an anti-politics, anti-government outlook that has always existed in this country," he said.

Political humor also succeeds because of its built-in context. Comedians can skip the set-up because audiences already know the characters, and when people understand the punch lines, they feel like insiders.

And of course, there's an endless supply of material.

"Iowans are so inundated with campaign news that they recognize the humor in the situation," Ford said. "The caucuses cross that line between importance and absurdity, so you have to sit back sometimes and laugh."

So tomorrow night, the show must go on.

And so must the musical.