There appears to be a simple formula for creating a hit Broadway musical these days: Center on a historical figure with a complicated legacy and make a modern-day politician fall in love with it.
But that formula may be broken, because a musical about America's current first family is about to hit New York City. And even though it's premiering just 20 blocks from the nearest Broadway theater, and even though it has Anthony Scaramucci's approval, that's about as close to Broadway as The 1st Annual Trump Family Special will likely get.
Yes, the famously short-tenured White House communications director re-emerged Monday to give a fake press conference and introduce a clan of blonde-wigged actors. The entire Trump clan, save for President Trump himself, is present: Trump's ex-wife Ivana, his sons Eric and Don Jr., and what looks like two interpretations of Ivanka. And they're here in some library to sing every rhyme of "win, win, win" you can imagine.
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The mystery library press conference seems to be Scaramucci's only tie to the musical comedy, which will grace New York's Triad Theater every Thursday night starting Sept. 13. The show stars Broadway alumna Gina Gershon as Melania Trump. She, alongside the rest of the Trump family, have "gathered to perform in a live televised event for the new Trump TV network," the Trump Family Special's breathtaking website says. It's sure to be "reminiscent of vintage TV family specials like The Partridge Family" and "offer comic relief for these frustrating times," per the site.
The idea of reappropriating existing source material is not exactly novel, given Broadway's current inability to sustain an original show. But it remains to be seen how the first family adapts to the stage, given their well-known preference for the small screen.
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