Customer Reviews

Bush is Bad

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Somewhat outdated now, but hilarious in a way that keeps you laughing and nodding. And singing! Those were the bad old days! Especially loved In HIs Own Words.

I heartily enjoyed the CD - recorded during a couple of live performances of "Bush is Bad". The cast is talented, the music is tuneful, and the lyrics are clever. I especially chuckled over "New Hope for the Fabulously Wealthy".

I bought the CD last year and I enjoy it so much I don't go a week without listening to it. I love to laugh. The New york cast is great. I got the amazing opportunity to see the more updated show in North Hollywood at the NOHO Arts Center. This cast was wonderful as well. It was well worth the 6 hour drive. I hope they make a new CD soon. I'll be waiting.....

Bush is Bad: The Musical Cure for the Blue-State Blues is a recording of a cabaret performance at the Triad Theatre in New York City. It is current, topical, and amazingly funny considering the seriousness of the underlying issues. The concept music and lyrics were composed by Joshua Rosenblum who plays the piano accompaniment, while seasoned Broadway vocalists with comedic skill sing the lyrics. The result is marvelously musical and superbly funny. None of the music sounds trite, dreary, or formulaic. It is written in genre, but imbued with creative touches that give the songs independent interest and leave you humming the tunes hours later. The concept and the lyrics are on the edge. The language is clear and precise, maintains verisimilitude by understatement, and finds a pathway to hope and humor, even when it seems almost impossible. If there is disappointment it is, perhaps, when you have finished listening to the recording and the melodies are still dancing through your head. For, while the Blue-State Blues may have been alleviated, they have not been cured.

Funny, erudidte, singable and far more original in its music and scathing in its satire than anything done by similar groups on conservative NPR. I only wish the mix on this CD were better engineered to make the lyrics more crisp and clear (they sometimes lose out to the instrumentation).But I can also understand how the producers wanted to gain the immediacy of a live audience relating to very immediate political issues.

I thought it might just be gimmicky and superficial, but it enlightened me. This is really good music, and I can't wait to see the musical when I get to New York next.

The great thing about the songs on this disc is that finally someone is telling it like it is - but it's funny! And catchy. Some of the songs are downright brilliant, like "The Culture of Life" which simply states all the ridiculous contradictions of the right to life movement (anti-abortion, pro-death penalty) to a vaudeville soft shoe. It's funny, but inside you're squirming because you know there are people out there who think like this. Kate Baldwin as God, tired of being invoked by Bush and his 'divine right of presidency' is wonderful, and Michael McCoy's John Ashcroft singing the "Beaten by the Dead Man Blues" is another of those scary/funny songs. I also love the debate number, where Neal Mayer is hilarious as Bush being fed answers by Rove via a transmitter - the mysterious jacket lump. It probably helps that I've seen the show (it's really great, by the way) but the disc totally holds up to repeated listening. Like any good comedy, it gets funnier upon repetition.

I saw the show at the Triad in NYC, and have been singing the music for the past 4 weeks since I was there. Politics with humor that tells it how it is!!