Hit Musical Revue Enters its Fifth Month
NEW YORK, NY, January 16, 2006 – Kate Baldwin, an original cast member of BUSH IS BAD: The Musical Cure for the Blue-State Blues, will re-join the production starting on Thursday, January 19, following a leave of absence to star in White Christmas at the Orpheum Theater in San Francisco. Baldwin replaces Jill Abramovitz, who covered Baldwin’s leave for two months. Also in the company are original cast member Neal Mayer, and Tom Treadwell, who is temporarily replacing Michael McCoy while McCoy performs for three weeks in Pittsburgh with the Phantom of the Opera national tour.
“I’m thrilled that we’ve been running long enough that we can actually have a cast member leave and then return,” said composer/lyricist/pianist Joshua Rosenblum. “Kate and Jill are both magnificently talented in very different ways—each with her own distinctive approach to Bush-bashing. It’s quite inspirational.”
BUSH IS BAD, the hilarious, cathartic and unabashedly partisan musical revue, is playing Off-Broadway at The Triad Theatre, 158 West 72nd Street (between Broadway and Columbus). Originally slated for only eight performances, the show extended its run twice due to popular demand, and is now continuing indefinitely, offering Thursday and Friday night performances at 9 PM, with occasional Monday night shows as well.
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BUSH IS BAD, which has been described as a cross between Forbidden Broadway and The Daily Show, offers catchy tunes, wickedly funny lyrics and scathing impersonations of the president and his dissembling gang of conspirators. Among the best-reviewed new musicals of the season, it has been described as “savvy, uproarious, [and] delicious,” with “lyrics that draw blood and melodies that stick in the brain,” eliciting “raucous, borderline orgasmic reactions.” The New York Times declared that “Bush-hating has become fun again!” BUSH IS BAD is directed and choreographed by Gary Slavin with musical direction by Rosenblum. Costumes are by Anne Auberjonois, with lighting and sound by Tonya Pierre.
Song titles include “How Can 59 Million People Be So Dumb?,” “Good Conservative Values,” “The Gay Agenda,” and “New Hope for the Fabulously Wealthy.” There are also riffs on how famous composers of the past would have treated the “Bush is Bad” theme, with German Romantic composer Robert Schumann’s “Das Busch ist Schlecht,” and a transformation of Kurt Weill’s “Surabaya, Johnny” into a lament by Laura Bush called “Sure, You Betcha, Georgie.”
Joshua Rosenblum has served as conductor and/or pianist for fourteen Broadway and Off-Broadway shows, including Miss Saigon, The Music Man, Falsettos, Wonderful Town, and, most recently, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Rosenblum is the composer and co-lyricist of Fermat’s Last Tango and his musical Einstein’s Dreams received its world premiere in Lisbon last fall. Some of his compositions can be heard on the CD, Impetuosities—Music of Joshua Rosenblum As a pianist, he has appeared with the New York Pops at Carnegie Hall, New York Chamber Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, and the American Symphony Orchestra.
Kate Baldwin Broadway: The Full Monty, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Wonderful Town. NY: Opening Doors (Zankel Hall) Babes in Arms, A Connecticut Yankee, Bloomer Girl (City Center Encores!) Wall to Wall Sondheim (Symphony Space) Regional: South Pacific (Helen Hayes Award nom.), Finian's Rainbow (Joseph Jefferson Award nom.), The Sound of Music, Guys and Dolls, Miss Saigon, Passion, Falsettos, The Last Five Years, Baby. Kate just returned from San Francisco’s Orpheum Theatre, playing opposite husband Graham Rowat in White Christmas.
Neal Mayer was on Broadway in Les Misérables (final company); Off-Broadway: Forbidden Broadway Strikes Back, That’s Life! (Cast Recording) and The Wizard of Oz in Concert (also on TNT). He toured in Golf: the Musical, and has numerous regional credits at North Shore Music Theatre, Arena Stage, Goodspeed, Coronet Theatre (L.A.) and others.
Tom Treadwell has appeared on Broadway in the 20th anniversary production of Annie starring Nell Carter, as well as in the National Tours of Ragtime, Cats and Company. Tom was recently featured in the York Theatre Company’s Miss Liberty, where he had previously appeared in Mata Hari. Regionally, he has performed at the Goodspeed Opera House, Sacramento Music Circus, The Paper Mill Playhouse, The Studio Arena Theatre and The Westchester Broadway Theatre.
Gary Slavin (Director) has been active in the professional theatre for over 23 years. He has choreographed and/or directed for numerous stock: Starlight Indianapolis; Starlight Kansas City – world premiere, The Prince and The Pauper; as well as at numerous regional theatres, and for television (Stop the World…; Loving) and in Europe (Little Shop of Horrors tour.)
