I feel you (hard), but these shows legit lifted my spirits.
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THE ART OF DEMOCRACY: With the election less than two weeks away and as we near the end of the most uber-ratchet, decade-long year ever, we could all use some (any!) bright spot to give things a boost. (Or, at least I can.) And while we don’t know yet if the voting results will bring that kind of bounce, we can count on TV-on-stage (yes, I’ll explain) to do the trick in the meantime, with two new must-stream specials that offer heaping doses of democratic humanity, decency and hope.
I THREW AWAY MY SHOT, BUT GOT A SECOND CHANCE: One of my biggest Broadway regrets last year was missing the 2019 Pulitzer and Tony-nominated play, What the Constitution Means To Me, when I was breezing through NYC on a mask-free(!) stop during a long weekend East Coast extravaganza. (Ah, the good old days!) Cutting it from my show list was a tough call, and I’ve wished I could have caught it ever since. Great White Way regrets are real, ya’ll.
But, lo’ and behold, all the on-stage magic is not lost! Amazon has come to the rescue over a year later by releasing a filmed version of the show caught before final curtain fell. Well, okay, I think I will!
And after watching it as the presidential race is coming to its peak, I’m doubly glad they did. As it turns out, the (essentially) one-woman show written and performed by made-for-the-stage, multi-talented Heidi Schreck is essential election season viewing.
Framed within the context of a constitutional debate like the ones she participated in in high school, Schreck—with a levity-rich assist from Mike Iveson as the moustached vet moderator—hilariously resurrects her 15 year-old self without affectation. She delves fast and deep into the founding document and its various amendments, offering up energy-charged ‘edutainment’ before dropping emotional hammers with personal stories that relate to each one, gliding in and out of the scene and in front of and behind the fourth wall.
While Schreck alludes to the previous three generations of women in her family tree to varying degrees upfront, she really traces its roots as the show progresses. Dropping the ‘younger debater self’ motif about midway through, things get increasingly human and heartfelt, really driving home—indeed—what the Constitution means to her, in such a bravely profound way that it makes you think about what it means to you and everyone you know.
That theme takes flight in the final act, as the show goes fully interactive as Schreck takes on a current high school debater in a back-and-forth on whether or not to abolish the Constitution. (Rosdely Ciprian absolutely slays and is a future star in whatever she decides to do in life.) The audience reacts and weighs in on a winner (democracy in action!), which is a cute bit. But the thread of how our personal experiences shape our views is perfectly pulled through one last time, as the two ladies ask one another questions about their lives and backgrounds, submitted by the previous night’s audience. Fun, interesting and uplifting stuff.
When the 100 minutes wraps up, you really won’t want it to be over so soon.
BARTLETT FOR PRESIDENT (AGAIN): Another bunch of Constitution die-hards are back in action on a stage of a different kind in A West Wing Special to Benefit When We All Vote. The special brings together the core cast of The West Wing (plus Sterling K. Brown stepping in for dearly departed John Spencer as Leo) for a classic election-themed episode reenactment on HBO Max.
Clearly a brainchild born from creator-writer Aaron Sorkin’s recent experience adapting To Kill a Mockingbird for the Broadway stage, this Covid era-friendly production was mounted on the Orpheum Theater stage in LA in one of the most cleverly fresh creative takes on revisiting old material I’ve seen (right up there with Norman Lear’s inspired, Emmy-winning Live In Front of a Studio Audience revivals).
To be honest, while I enjoyed and admired the show in its initial run (so many awards, so hard to hate on it), I’m not exactly a boxed set rewatching fanboy. That being said, this revival sucked me in and made me care about those fantastic characters almost more than I did before. The stellar ensemble—led by Martin Sheen, Allison Janney, Bradley Whitford, Dulé Hill and Rob Lowe, among others—was in perfect, as-if-we-never-said-goodbye form, (re)delivering the action from third season episode, “Hartsfield’s Landing,” like it was the first time around.
The signature walk-and-talks, the pattering banter, the crackling chemistry and the quiet introspection were all on display in spades, with the theatrical setting—raw, barebones and otherwise empty—making it just that much more interesting. An hour-long flashback that transports you to a simpler, more civilized time—both the era that the show originally aired in, and the idealistic fictional world it exists in—was a welcome change of pace. Even (most of) the intermittent get-out-the-vote messages between scenes were well done. All in all, a great time on the couch.
THE COUNTDOWN TO THE FINAL COUNT IS ON: Whether you’ve already submitted your ballot (I voted today!) or are still waiting to mark it, these two specials are chicken soup for the politically weary soul with Election Day on the horizon.
Leave it to a couple of great shows that nod to the past to get you fired up for the future—reminding us where we’ve been, where we should be going and what we simply can’t (and won’t) stand for—to get us through the homestretch to (hopefully) something much better.
And on that note: VOTE, VOTE, VOTE!