#the expert casting of ben walker as aj

[pealeii]

*cracks knuckles* oh boy.

Though I have never seen Annie Get Your Gun, of course I’ve listened to ‘Anything You Can Do’ more times than I can count. And I love Bernadette Peters as much as the next theatre kid.

But. My interest in BBAJ overlooks this.

Sadly, I have not secured a boot of the original off-broadway version (so I haven’t seen the show in it’s entirety) I have listened to the cast recording so much I’ve lost count.

Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson explores the life and legacy of America’s seventh president. It does this chiefly through the genre and culture of emo music. It’s very clear the creators have a unique understanding of this historical figure, they looked at all his life and decided that he had the traits of an emo rockstar. His family died when he was young, he practiced self harm, his wife died. Taking the expressive, emotional blast of emo music and culture, BBAJ takes his life into crooning, angry ballads ranging from rage against the world (‘I’m Not That Guy’) intense decision (‘I’m So That Guy,’ ‘Saddest Song’) triumph and pride (‘Rockstar’) desperation and despair (‘Public Life’) and couples it all with songs about the other people and events in their life.

Using this music (which slaps, btw), satire, and witticism, BBAJ offers a critique on America, its government, it’s leaders, and the mindset and dream of America as a whole. After we have witnessed putting this corrupt man, Andrew Jackson, on a pedestal as a rockstar, and seeing his downfall of war, selfishness, and desperation, the musical zooms out to its last number before curtain call, ‘Second Nature.’

‘Second Nature’ not only looks at how Jackson’s battles and legacy affected America and it’s people, its looks at American people themselves. Our culpability - our responsibility for a fault. The last line is “the grass grows, we take it. We want it, it’s second nature to us.” Some of us may not even realize it, but the mindset of America is seeing everything as something to take, to exploit, to make ours what is not ours. It may not be as horrible as Jackson’s Trail of Tears, but the grass grows, something, someone new appears, and we want it. And it’s ours. It’s America. It’s second nature.