Among all of the other shameless campaigns to capitalize on all the sentiment surrounding the election of President Barack Obama, count this among either the most egregious or the most intriguing. Obama On My Mind, a musical written by acclaimed American writer Teddy Hayes, will be performed in London for a few weeks in March after a successful workshop sometime last year. It's hard to tell if this is outright capitalizing on the widespread infatuation with Obama or if this is a piece of playwriting that could stand on its own when interests are less piqued, say, ten years from now.
Judging by the sole picture on the musical's website (at right), it would be easy to assume that singing Obama hijinks ensue in the musical, but according to the playwright
"Obama On My Mind takes a humorous look at the weird and
wonderful world behind the scenes of a small Obama campaign office and
the larger than life characters who make the wheels turn, the cogs
whirr and bring in the votes."
This plot is more than just Obama: The Musical, and likely has very little
to do with the President himself even though he is prominently featured
in press reports and in advertising. (Probably because they couldn't get the
rights to his campaign logo.) Clearly anyone expecting to see a chorus line of Obamas high-kicking in front of an American Flag, belting "Yes we can!" will be let down. Is there a line being crossed here? Or, is this in keeping with all the visual artists being inspired by Obama? Is this a product of the inspiration Spike Lee spoke about? [H/T: UD/PN]
