Published: August 27, 2008 12:03 am            

John Cannon: Putting politics to music: 8/27/08

When the political conventions roll around every four years, I am reminded of “Of Thee I Sing,” a 1931 musical comedy written by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind with a musical score by George and Ira Gershwin.

This musical now is seldom performed, and it’s a safe bet that many who are reading this have never heard of it, much less seen it. (It hasn’t even been made into a movie.)

Well, I happen to think “Of Thee I Sing” is a great satire that should be revived by scores of community theater groups during presidential election years. I think the only reason more theater groups don’t produce “Of Thee I Sing” is out of fear (probably well founded) that people are not going to pay to see a musical they have never heard of. They’d rather spend their money on “Sound of Music” or “Oklahoma!” or any of dozens of better known musicals.

The late Carroll O’Connor did star in a television version of “Of Thee I Sing,” but that was way back in 1972, when Richard Nixon was running for re-election against George McGovern, a campaign best remembered for hatching the Watergate scandal. While I remember tuning in to hear the actor who portrayed Archie Bunker sing, I have not seen “Of Thee I Sing” in the last 36 years.

But I remember the musical well from my college days. Not that we performed “Of Thee I Sing” while I was a speech and theater major at Morehead State University, but because I read the script in a theater class and immediately fell in love with it.

In “Of Thee I Sing” — which is the first musical to win a Pulitzer Prize for best play (in 1932) — John P. Wintergreen is elected president on a single campaign issue: Love.

Sound impossible? Well, maybe, but as Wintergreen says, who can be against love? For that matter, who can be against hope, or change, or God, or apple pie?

As the politicians are giving their boring speeches during the convention scene in “Of Thee I Sing,” a professional wrestling match is taking place in a ring just below the convention platform. The idea is that if anyone becomes bored by the convention activities — and surely they will — they can at least be entertained by the wrestlers.

Since Wintergreen is not married, a “Miss White House” beauty contest is conducted during the convention, with the winner being promised the position of “First Lady.” However, plans go awry when Wintergreen really does fall in love — with a lowly secretary, no less — and the winner of the beauty contest threatens to sue if she does not become First Lady.

It’s all quite silly and hilarious. Come to think of it, so is much that happens at the real conventions.

Most of the real business of a convention — the approval of a party platform that few will ever read, much less heed; the nomination of the candidates for president and vice president, and their acceptance speeches — could be completed in four hours, instead of four days. But the conventions drag on and on, boring everyone but the most addicted of political junkies.

To be sure, there are highlights. I am convinced Barack Obama would not be in the verge of accepting the Democratic Party’s nomination for president if he had not given an inspiring keynote address during the 2004 convention. That one speech thrust Obama, then an Illinois state senator running for the U.S. Senate, into the national spotlight and put him on the road that could lead to the White House.

But there are a lot of things that happen during a convention that are rather dull. As you listen to some of the speeches during the Democratic and Republican conventions, you may just find yourself wishing there was an exciting wrestling match taking place to help keep you awake.

JOHN CANNON can be reached at jcannon@dailyindependent.com or at (606) 326-2649.

        

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