Hillary may be the one running for president, but it’s Bill people want to see — at least, that’s what the creators of “Clinton” are counting on. The musical satire of the 42nd president, running July 18 to 26, is one of the most anticipated offerings of this year’s New York Musical Theatre Festival.
So big is their subject, say the men behind “Clinton,” that it takes two actors to play him.
“When I read Clinton’s autobiography, he talked about how he led two parallel lives,” says Australia’s Paul Hodge, 26, who co-wrote the show with his brother Michael. “His adviser Dick Morris had two names for him: ‘Saturday Night Bill’ and ‘Sunday Morning President.’ ”
Hodge says they were inspired by a successful 2006 Australian musical about then-Prime Minister Paul Keating. As their father noted, no one outside Australia would know who he was. “The only politician that he thought would be a good subject for a musical would be Bill Clinton,” Hodge says. “And I went, ‘Of course!’ ”
The show received raves at the 2012 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. While the musical covers such topics as Hillary’s moribund health care plan, Bill’s sax playing and the Monica Lewinsky scandal, it takes potshots at Democrats and Republicans alike.
“Basically, everyone gets satirized,” Hodge promises. Among the characters: Newt Gingrich, Kenneth Starr and Al Gore, who’s played by a cardboard cutout.
Another buzzed-about show is “Somewhere With You” (through Sunday), which takes its title from Kenny Chesney’s country hit, co-written by songwriter JT Harding. A coming-of-age story about young Southerners, it stars Jay Thomas (“Murphy Brown,” “Cheers”), whose involvement is deeply personal: Harding, who was adopted, didn’t find out until his mid-20s that he was Thomas’ son.
His birth mother told him his father, who’d given him up at birth, was an actor on TV’s “Cheers.”
“For a week I thought my father was Ted Danson, so I was very excited,” Harding jokes. The two eventually connected, with happy results. “He’s kind of like a long-lost fraternity brother,” Harding says. “We’ve become wild friends.”
Other festival highlights include “Oprahfication” (July 17 to 24), about a certain talk-show goddess; “The Gig” (July 15 to 21), about jazz musicians working in the Catskills; and “Mr. Confidential” (July 21 to 27), about the early days of the notorious gossip magazine Confidential.
Venues vary with the show; for information, go to nymf.org or call 212-352-3101.