Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson

Stuff that Happens during the play

• Andrew Jackson was born in the pioneer territory of Tennessee on March 15th, 1767. Young Andrew sees his father, mother, and a local cobbler murdered by “injuns.”
• Jackson laments his life and the condition of the government that led him to this moment; his situation inspires him to fight back. After being a prisoner of war and an apprentice to a lawyer, Jackson becomes a spokesperson for the frontiersmen.
• Jackson brawls with Spanish soldiers and then meets his true love Rachel, who inconveniently happens to be married to another man. They indulge in a “commonplace, early nineteenth century medical procedure” – bleeding.
• Jackson leads the frontiersmen in The Battle of Horseshoe Bend, defying the President’s orders that the Indians keep their land. He eventually allies himself with a tribe, thanks to the help of Black Fox.
• Jackson becomes the national hero of The Battle of New Orleans. He returns home to Rachel, who asks him to choose between her and his ambition/ vengeance; he chooses her.
• John Calhoun, James Monroe, Martin Van Buren, and Henry Clay worry about Jackson’s growing popularity. Meanwhile, Jackson has triumphed in another battle, taking in an Indian orphan, Lyncoya, as his own.
• The President censures Jackson for killing all the Spaniards in Florida and claiming so much land. Jackson is not pleased. He decides to run for President. Though Jackson wins the popular and electoral votes, the Corrupt Bargain puts John Quincy Adams in the White House.
• Time passes, and although Jackson told Rachel he wouldn’t run for President again, he does it anyway.
• The Democratic Party, the Trail of Tears, a controversial President “of the people,” more death, and a lot more music ensue.

Eat Sweet Democracy

Born down in a dead man’s town
The first kick I took was when I hit the ground
End up like a dog that’s been beat too much
Till you spend half your life just covering up.
Born in the USA…I’m a cool rocking daddy in the USA.
– Bruce Springsteen

After we mounted our first musical, Return to the Forbidden Planet, in 2004/05, I kept getting asked: “when are you going to do it again?” After we did it again in 2013, I kept getting asked: “when are you going to do another musical?” Welcome to 2016 and the ASC’s next rock musical.

My Mom will not like this play. This play has a bunch of f-bombs (and other colorful language) woven through it. My Mom tells me all the time that “people don’t really talk like that.” Ya, Mom, we do.

Nearly a decade before Lin-Manuel Miranda captured the imagination of millions by telling the story of a U.S. Founding Father through hip-hop music in Hamilton, Michael Friedman and Alex Timbers used rock and roll to craft Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. Friedman and Timbers created a multi-layered piece far more complex and challenging than it might appear on the surface.

In this telling of history (sort of), Jackson is a charismatic frontiersman who weathers a traumatic childhood to fight for the populist rights of the middle class as our young nation pushes West. The play is comic (and often cartoony) in tone as it breaks into song and then back to sharp and snarky dialogue to reveal the similarities of early 19th century government and the political circus of today. BBAJ is the kind of modern take on American history that feels like a contemporary writer crafting heroes and anti-heroes out of historical figures while taking pot-shots along the way, just like Shakespeare did in his day. Jackson was one of the first semi-politicians whose message was that Washington needed to be wrestled away from the elite and “given back to the regular Joe’s.” He inspired a generation to get involved, to fight the status quo, to break the machine, to join a revolution. AND he was a genocidal maniac who slaughtered the Spanish in Florida and who tried to murder or remove all Native Americans from the eastern half of North America. Somehow, Friedman and Timbers tackle this sometimes-heavy subject matter and make it fun. Although they wrote the play with thoughts of Reagan, Clinton, both Bush’s, Sarah Palin, and the Tea Party in mind, you can’t help but see The Donald, Bernie, and Hillary in here too. This show is a delightful hoot that makes you think (and feel) about all the silliness and seriousness of Jackson’s era and our own. And, of course, it’s only rock and roll.

Doing this play during an election year in rep with two other plays about power-hungry politicos – King Lear and The Rise of Queen Margaret (Henry VI, Part 2) – makes our 2016 Summer/Fall Season a tasty banquet you shouldn’t miss. Come to BBAJ for the amazing rock and roll. Stay for the wicked fun you’ll find at how much 2016 feels like the early 19th century. And don’t bring your young kids (or your Mom) unless you’re ok with us spewing a bunch of 4-letter words around them like a made-for-HBO/SHOWTIME movie.

JIM WARREN

Artistic Director and Co-founder