The Obamas give their regards to Broadway

Apparently, there has been some grousing about President Obama’s excursion to New York on Saturday to take in a Broadway show with First Lady Michelle Obama. The question being posed by the pundits of petty politics is, in these recessionary times should American taxpayers, who are already tapped out by billion-dollar bailouts, be footing the bill for the Obamas’ date night?

After all, a presidential commuter trip from the Capital to the Big Apple entails multiple aircraft and a traffic-ensnarling motorcade that must have had Midtown Manhattan drivers (whose patience were already tested by the recent pedestrian takeover of Times Square) wishing they had voted for John McCain. Then there's the no-expense-spared security detail burdened by the scary historical precedent of what can happen to the commander in chief at the theater. In short, it was headaches all around for this daunting act of logistical legerdemain.

But there’s an obvious justification for this fiendishly complicated and admittedly pricey outing that should knock these bloated bloviators off their shared hobby horse: August Wilson’s “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone." This argument has little to do with the quality of the first couple’s entertainment, though their choice to attend the Lincoln Center Theater revival of Wilson’s masterpiece at the Belasco Theatre, which has been lucidly directed by Bartlett Sher, was an inspired one.

Diversion, always a plus, is beside the point. The issue instead comes down to the value placed on a word that has been taking quite a beating in the press ever since Obama nominated the distinguished Sonia Sotomayor for the U.S. Supreme Court. That word is “empathy,” a concept that has been bandied about of late as though it were a luxury of culture-vulture liberals rather than the foundation of human society itself.

Aristotle was the first to recognize the theater’s unique potential to harness our deepest feelings of pity and fear in the service of an enlightenment that is ultimately in the public interest. A stable society is an emotionally balanced one, in which repression is relieved, common humanity recognized and honest communication restored.

Wilson’s drama, about a community of African Americans making the post-slavery transition to the imperfect freedom of the early 20th century, helps us better understand our present by wrestling with the past that brought us here. Ethical struggles aren’t rendered abstract, as they might be in a history book, but are delivered in the sharp emotional color of individuals struggling to realize their promise against towering odds, to say nothing of willfully closed minds. 

Empathy isn’t something we’re born with — it’s something we achieve through a process the Greeks called “paideia,” an active engagement with the living cultural heritage. Minds require education; souls need cultivation. The capacity for inner growth might be innate, but the tank demands fueling. Wilson’s theater, as far removed from amnesiac amusement as you can get in the contemporary theater, nourishes the best in our natures.
  
With the notable exception of Abraham Lincoln, I wish more presidents during their time in office would have opened themselves up to the salutary and formative effects of serious drama. W.H. Auden’s famous line about the relative ineffectuality of art (“For poetry makes nothing happen: it survives/ In the valley of its saying where executives/ Would never want to tamper ...”) is no doubt correct when it comes to legislative action. But artists have another power, no less far-reaching for being unseen and immeasurable — the ability to broaden our sensibility by inviting us to experience life through another’s eyes.

Aeschylus, the father of Western drama, teaches us that without an awareness of one another’s suffering there can be no justice, for what is justice but the arbitrating of different claims of righteous redress? (Right versus wrong, the simple-minded stuff of melodrama, cries out for police cars, but justice is hard and demands the acceptance of unequal loss.) “The Oresteia,” Aeschylus trilogy about the foundation of a democratic court that can supplant the unending cycle of retributive violence, implicates us in the painful progress toward true civilization, and dramatic poets such as Wilson have ably followed in this noble ancient pursuit.
 
True, the planet isn’t going to find a quick-fix in the spectacle of characters grappling with the ethical and emotional conundrums that the theater raises to cathartic proportions. But politicians would undoubtedly discover within themselves a richer imaginative space for decision-making consideration. 
 
Of course, there are practical reasons (beyond the very reasonable pursuit of happiness enshrined in out Declaration of Independence) that should have us applauding the Obamas’ Broadway jaunt. The automotive industry isn’t the only employer out there, and if the president’s ceremonial visit to a car manufacturing plant doesn’t raise any eyebrows, why should his patronage of the arts, another made-in-the-USA source of jobs and tax revenue, be looked upon so jadedly?

Wilson's dramas are always a tough sell on Broadway, so it's nice to hear reports that box office sales are already enjoying a significant boost from the publicity. But heck, even a presidential visit to “Rock of Ages,” the ’80s jukebox musical that caught fire this season, would do a bit of economic good -- even if it would have made it a lot harder to defend against all the opportunistic carping.

Before partisan rabble-rousers utter another contentious sound-bite, however, they should probably buy a ticket to “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” and find out exactly what they’re missing. If Wilson’s exultantly probing drama doesn’t get them to rethink their career choice, well, it will at least spare them a few hours of mindless cable yakking and juvenile finger-pointing. 

-- Charles McNulty

Photo: President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama en route to the show. credit: J. Scott. Applewhite/AP. Bottom: A presidential limousine outside of the Belasco Theater. Credit: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

Comments

[Florencio Ramos]

Thanks for this tremendously thought-provoking piece. It's excellent that the writer noted that Abraham Lincoln was a frequent theater-goer. He loved theater. One wonders if Lincoln's enduring legacy of justice partly reflected the humanity experienced in theaters.

Nice to see that there actually is some drama with Obama.

[Jordan]

Give me a break.....
Thought provoking, hardly. Very lame justification for an employee of the taxpayers justifying a personal night out on Broadway costing the taxpayer 100s of thousands of dollars. Unbelievable!

[dominique22]

Lovely article. The usual suspects will grouse no matter what Obama does, but what about Bush's constant vacations in Texas? Those cost money too, for security and travel expenses.

Obama and Michelle are showing respect for the arts, which the Right tends to pooh-pooh as unimportant. Everything isn't about money and money isn't everything. Art and culture are essential to a caring, thinking society. Not one that chases profits and greed. One that cares about feelings, the soul, and yes, empathy.

[Austin Barrow]

I believe that the lack of respect for the event is the most prominent aspect of this conservative backlash. Had Obama taken his wife to a baseball game, there would be no story.

[Elizabeth Lawler]

Nice piece!
Obama has been in office nearly five months, he deserves a night out. Are they supposed to sequester themselves to the Burger King in downtown Washington DC? They will have attention no matter what they do, at least they used their draw to focus the public on a wonderful play. August Wilson deserves some presedential fanfare.

[JM]

Jordan, I guess you want the President to live in a bubble. The cost of the President doing anything at all is already there. I love it when the people who didn't vote for Obama have to try to find things to criticize. It is worth the cost for the President to get out of Washington as much as possible. I enjoy the performing arts, and I hope the President continues to attend such events.

[Thomas Stewart]

Foreign Press Assails Obama's Expensive 'Date Night,' U.S. Press Not So Much
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/warner-todd-huston/2009/06/02/foreign-press-assails-obamas-expensive-date-night-u-s-press-not-

[Lori Yeghiayan]

A great piece. Thank you, Mr. McNulty. I just love the fact that we have a president who attends plays! To put the Obamas recent attendance in the context of the Greeks, the purpose of theatre, and the building and maintaining of a just, compassionate and democratic society has really made my heart sing this morning.

[Mark]

I wonder what this does to his "carbon footprint"?

[Ryan]

If you are ignorant enough to claim that Obama's trip to NYC was a waste of taxpayer money, take a look at the MILLIONS (as in 17 million) of dollars Bush spent flying back to Crawford, TX for his personal holidays.

[Kirk Wilson]

Two things:

One: Best. Ever. Mr. McNulty! Unbelievable.

Two: Maybe if SMOKEY & THE BANDIT - THE MUSICAL! had made it to the Broadway sometime in the last 8 years, that other guy might have checked out some theatre.

[joan]

The fact that people are trying to act like republicans are making something out of nothing is unbelievable. We are in the middle of an economic depression and Obama decides to spend the tax payers money on an expensive and inconvenient date with his wife. By the way comparing Obama's traffic causing trip to one of the busiest cities in the world, to Bush's trip to Texas is outrageous. Bush's trips never caused such hooplah and were never during a time like we are in now. Our economy is at an all time low and it is very inconsiderate and irritating that Obama decides its a great time to see a play. Paying respect to the arts...PLEASE! Not when I'm paying for it.

[Donald Frazell]

Bush was out here regularly, got stuck behind his damn motorcades before. Not of course to see his adoring fans, he doesnt have any, But for fundraising as he vistied his brethren, those who just dont give a damn, or pay taxes.

art collegia e politicos delenda est

[Martin]

If the Obamas had gone to Grand Ol Opry or a stock car race, there would be no grousing.

Its the anti-intellectual rube-ocracy upset that a) they went to NY, and b) to - heaven forbid - a play!

[Stephanie]

Thank you for focusing on the idea of empathy, one that is sadly missed in our current culture of fast-track consumerism. Empathy requires time and space and it also creates the action of love...something all of us could use a little more of.

[S. V. King]

Thanks for this thoughtful and right-headed assessment of the Obama trip. I’m so very, very tired of the Right slamming everything, even to the extent of saying they hope the President fails in office! Perhaps they need to review the voting results from November!

[Emily]

What a beautifully written piece!