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Theatre Prof in me is really enjoying all this content. Fun fact Evita is the only Broadway show Trump has watched multiple times. https://twitter.com/projectlincoln/status/1313655008173404161
“In his 2004 book, “Trump: Think Like a Billionaire: Everything You Need to Know About Success, Real Estate, and Life,” Trump wrote, “My favorite Broadway show is 'Evita' by Andrew Lloyd Webber, starring Patti LuPone. I saw it six times, mostly with Ivana,”’
Other nuggets in it about parallels between Eva Peron, a radio star, & Trump a reality tv star. This was written before recent tax revelations which show that earnings from The Apprentice is really what kept Trump afloat for many, many years. So truly, a millionaire on and by tv.
One can easily imagine Trump ordinarily being very flattered by any comparisons to Evita. But the Covita meme will likely have a sting to it, not because he thinks the balcony staging was hyperbolic. That’s what he was going for, a mise en scene of melodrama.
Side note - from years of accidental watching of The Apprentice my understanding of the premise of the show is basically that - whichever team staged the better photo op (think Bible in front of church even if it means tear gassing protestors) won.
But Trump will likely be bothered by COVITA because the synecdochic COVID association makes him look weak, undermines his strongman narrative, and worse, the mocking of the meme undercuts his belief in himself as a people’s hero.
The irony of course is today is the day he said he would not approve the second stimulus bill, until after the elections. A bill that would have brought relief, among other things, to stalled performance venues, like yes even the Broadway Theatre on Broadway starring Patti LuPone
In retrospect, the speculation in this 2016 article seems naive -
“For the arts world, the question is essentially the same as the one being asked everywhere right now, across the political spectrum: “What will a President Donald J. Trump mean for me?”...
“For the arts world, the question is essentially the same as the one being asked everywhere right now, across the political spectrum: “What will a President Donald J. Trump mean for me?”...
...”The answer from artists, museums, theaters, actors, writers, musicians and the movie and television industry is, to a rare degree in previous presidential elections: “Your guess is as good as mine.”
In fact under the Trump presidency the unthinkable has happened. Broadway Theatres shut in March, when they hadn’t even for the Spanish flu in 1918, nor any other pandemic.
Oh look, who is quoted as the iconic broadway star lamenting the theatres’ closure - our current favorite star Patti LuPone:
“The idea that our venerable, majestic houses are dark, and that there will be no lights on Broadway...
“The idea that our venerable, majestic houses are dark, and that there will be no lights on Broadway...
... — I’m romanticizing, but that’s the heartbeat of the city, and to think that they’ve been forced into darkness is shocking,” said Patti LuPone, a beloved Broadway titan who has won two Tony Awards”
“Broadway theaters did not close for the 1918 flu pandemic. But in more recent years they have shut down for labor disruptions, storms, and, on Sept. 11, terrorist attacks. Most of the closings were short...
... (Broadway, urged to reopen by city officials, was back in business two days after the 2001 attacks), but many theaters were shut for 19 days by a stagehands’ strike in 2007 and 25 days for a musicians’ strike in 1975.”
We are now at the unthinkable 7 month mark of shut theatres, no end in sight, venues on the brink, artists’ lives on the precipice. And always recognizing that any stimulus will likely first go to big businesses like Broadway and small arts organizations will struggle or close.
But to the everlasting credit of the theatre world, Trump failed in it in a way that he didn’t with real estate, golf, casinos and TVs (with those he could at least sustain for a time the illusion of success)
“His love of theater even led him, in his 20s, to try his hand at producing, though without much success. (The play, “Paris Is Out!,” received mostly bad reviews and closed after 112 performances.)”
Source - https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/19/arts/design/trump-and-the-arts-evita-huge-towers-and-a-snub-for-warhol.html
Source - https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/19/arts/design/trump-and-the-arts-evita-huge-towers-and-a-snub-for-warhol.html
“But he added that he had the “great fortune to receive a comprehensive liberal arts education” & said that “a holistic education that includes literature & the arts” was “critical to creating good citizens.” (Through a spokeswoman, Hope Hicks, Mr. Trump declined to comment...)”
Oh look, if it isn’t our favorite behind the scenes character Hope Hicks, reports of whose positive COVID results unraveled the entire chain of superspreader events at the White House.
And who can forget Trump’s other connections to the arts world, including secretly (and illegally) bidding up his own portrait bought eventually by his own charity. With other people’s money of course. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/feb/27/michael-cohen-testimony-trump-painting-foundation-money
And my current favorite, Trump raiding the Paris American embassy for art works, purchased with OUR tax paying money. But alas many were just replicas. There’s no accounting for taste really. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-09-06/trump-ended-2018-france-trip-having-art-loaded-on-air-force-one
And that for today, concludes this edition of Trump, the patron of the Arts. And we didn’t even have to get to the Hamilton cast and Mike Pence yet.
Bonus - you better believe we are already talking about in my classes “for political theatre” in this tweet: https://twitter.com/drphillipsmd/status/1312867868028141568
And it’s implication that such staging is “bad.” I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard variations of ‘it’s all theatre with this administration’ as a dismissal of their inaction, or worse, their cruelty. AS IF theatre does nothing, is all smoke and mirrors.
Instead, with my students we try to think through, what DOES such staging do, who is the audience for it, what are the characters/cultural resonances it taps into, does it work, why or why not?
And since ‘‘tis almost the season, I would be remiss not to cite the grande dame of performativity DOES something, yes even with a turducken [which I, a good-loving immigrant have successfully made] https://twitter.com/bokatlindell/status/1201521120442245120
For more super smart analysis of performance theory and/of the Trump world consider following my colleague in the field @Confessant, or read his piece: https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/08/21/dnc-awkward-liveness-authenticity/
Or, at the very least, keep those theatre memes coming. We promise we’ll have some things to say about them. Or if nothing, they help me teach my classes. Please and thank you.
