On Starring Buffalo‘s website, the phrase “Building an Artistic Bridge between Broadway and Buffalo” is prominently featured. With his upcoming production of Ghost of John McCain at the Soho Playhouse in Lower Manhattan, Founding Artistic Director Drew Fornarola is putting this mission into action.
The musical, centered on the late Arizona Senator and presidential candidate John McCain, is produced by Arizona’s Quixote Productions. Conceived by Jason Rose and Grant Woods, it features a book by Scott Elmegreen, music and lyrics by Buffalo’s own Drew Fornarola, direction by Catie Davis, and choreography by Sunny Min-Sook Hitt. The plot unfolds as follows: As the late, great U.S. Senator and soldier John McCain contemplates a wonderful afterlife, he instead finds that ‘heaven’ is inside Trump’s brain, where a ‘Greek Chorus’ of iconic figures—including Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton, Roy Cohn, Eva Perón, Teddy Roosevelt, Robert Jordan, Lindsey Graham, and Kanye West—rebel against the President’s relentless demands for affirmation.
“Ghost of John McCain was a commission from producers in Phoenix, Arizona who were friends of the late Senator,” shared Fornarola. “His Chief of Staff, Grant Woods, was originally supposed to write the book for the show, but he sadly passed away early in our process. A little while later, his friends and family decided they wanted to keep the project going, and we brought on my longtime collaborator, Scott Elmegreen, to take over the book.”
After the success of his musical Tiananmen, Fornarola brought a different sentiment to this piece.
The “sound” of the show is much more Golden Age Musical Theater than anything else I’ve written. The real life Donald Trump loves musical theater, so we thought the idea that the inside of his mind is a classic musical was pretty funny. The early songs in the show evoke maybe Jerry Herman, maybe Frank Loesser. Writers that make you feel the big brassy legacy of Broadway. As the show develops, and more characters get to have their say, we delve into other styles: disco, folk, pop, even mariachi. It’s been a lot of fun.”
The setting of the musical really allowed Fornarola a lot of leeway to create a world of whimsy. “The musical is set inside Donald Trump’s brain, which gave us permission to kind of go wherever we wanted. Watching interviews with Trump, I’m struck by what an extreme lateral thinker he is – I am too – and it’s one of few things I maybe feel I really have in common with him. He’ll be telling a story, and a tiny detail or word will send him down another path, which will link him tangentially to another unrelated topic. It’s very quirky and very theatrical, and I think our musical is like that. One moment you’re having an important policy debate, the next you’re in a brawl with James Madison and Hillary Clinton, and then you’re suddenly on the set of Phantom of the Opera for some reason. I hope it will be surprising and breathless and fun.”
In addition to Fornarola, members of the cast of Ghost of John McCain might be familiar to Buffalo Audiences, as they are alumni of Starring Buffalo’s local concert-style productions. The cast includes Ben Fankhauser, who played Quasimodo in Starring Buffalo’s Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Lindsay Nicole Chambers, who played Audrey, in their production of Little Shop of Horrors.
“I play Lindsey Graham, Joe Biden, Sarah Palin, Uncle Sam, Roy Cohn and others…It’s been a lot of fun to put my own spin on these people and create characters that are both identifiable but also zany and comedic,” shared Fankhauser, adding,” I think people will be surprised by how much heart the piece contains. It has a proper narrative structure that feels like a true hero’s journey, complete with plenty of comedy, great songs, and moments for empathy. I believe audiences will leave feeling satisfied and with a renewed sense of hope for democracy.”
Although his recent works, such as Fauci and Kramer, which won the Emmanuel Fried Award for Outstanding New Play at the Arties last year, and the musical Tiananmen, produced in Phoenix have a political edge, and Fornarola believes that the stage is a powerful place for conversations, that can transcend politics. “ It’s been a lot of politics the last couple of years! I wouldn’t say I’m consciously seeking these projects out, but a few of them have clustered together in this post pandemic world. I was a politics major at Princeton, and then went to law school, so in some ways these subjects are right in my comfort zone. I think we sometimes underestimate theater audiences. There’s certainly a role for musicals that are pure escapism, but theater can do so much more. That said, I’d love to write a big romantic comedy next.”
Ghost of John McCain runs until November 10 at Manhattan’s Soho Playhouse. Tickets are available here. For a closer to home production, Starring Buffalo’s An Evening of Songs with the Stars will be performed at Curtain Up, September 13, at Shea’s Buffalo Petite Lobby. Tickets are available here.
The post Drew Fornarola, Artistic Director of Starring Buffalo, Opens New Musical Off-Broadway with The Ghost of John McCain appeared first on Buffalo Rising.