Landless Theater: Between Rock and a Harding Place

| Print Post This | Like (0) | Comments (0)

NO CRABS WERE HARMED during the making of "President Harding Is a Rock Star."

The Landless Theater production of Kyle Jarrow's politically and musically raucous play insinuates that the 21st president was done in by bad crabmeat, possibly at the hand of First Lady Flossie Harding. But director Melissa Cruz opted to use bread or marshmallows onstage in lieu of the actual murder weapon -- "something safe," she exclaims.

But, "Andrew wanted to use real crab, since he's the only one eating it," Cruz says, referring to Andrew Baughman, who plays the prez in question and is also Cruz's husband. "I really don't want him food-poisoned out there." In other words, she doesn't want to play Flossie to Baughman's Harding.

"President Harding Is a Rock Star," another entry in Landless' string of envelope-pushing productions, offers laughs mixed with insight into current events. His 1920 presidential campaign was one of the first to be heavily covered by the national media and the first to attract the endorsements of Hollywood stars like Douglas Fairbanks and Al Jolson. "It really parallels what's going on now, the rock-star treatment that candidates have now," says Cruz.

After winning the office in a landslide, the Ohio-born Harding notoriously carried on an affair with his teenage lover in the Oval Office, had booze in the White House during Prohibition, and allegedly gambled away the presidential china.

In presenting Harding as a rock star, Landless may be drawing stronger parallels to the tabloid antics of celebrities like Britney Spears, Amy Winehouse and Pete Doherty. "Amy should probably come see the show. It might help her," says Cruz.

But ultimately, she wants the show to be thought-provoking. "What Landless is hoping for with this show is to get people thinking about the election, thinking about who they're voting for," says Cruz. "Come see this show, think about the election, and make a good decision."

» DCAC, 2438 18th St. NW; through Nov. 30, $18.

Written by Express contributor Stephen M. Deusner
Photo by Amanda M. Williams for Express