Stage Review: Rod Blagojevich Superstar
Bob Knuth
The Second City has always been at its best when they can lay satirical waste to moronic local scandals, so it wasn’t too surprising when its e.t.c. stage announced Rod Blagojevich Superstar this month. It was cooked up over a Second City holiday party, and the theater admits the musical is the result of “what happens when talent and producers… decide to write, compose, and open a show in two weeks.”
Astonishingly, Superstar doesn’t feel rushed. True, it borrows heavily from Jesus Christ Superstar, but its succinct telling of the rise and fall of Blagojevich (Joey Bland with a formidable, lifelike wig) in only a handful of scenes is remarkably funny. Songs like “Pay To Play” accurately depict the corrupt Chicago political machine, and, really, the only fat in the show is Patty Blagojevich’s amusing-but-unnecessary foul-mouthed ditty. The show plays out like a pure musical of well-crafted sketches, including one in which Blago dodges polite reporters while jogging, and another involving Roland Burris warning Blago to keep his career clean. The rest showcases Second City hitting its typical marks in rare and refreshed form—it’s just too bad that all of this was based on fact. Grade: A-
