Tom Lehrer, the brilliant satirist known for the hilariously clever ditties he wrote and performed in the 1950s and 1960s, really did dump all his songs into the public domain. (You can find them here and on Spotify.) And today at 96, he is indeed alive and well. Thus the perfect title for a genial Capital Fringe musical that will tickle longtime fans of Lehrer’s sharp wit and dark humor and pique the interest of newbies too.
The conceit of the show is that one Professor Charles Chucklenut is defending his double MFA and PhD dissertation on Lehrer’s humor in front of a remote panel of advisers from the George Santos Online University (“Fake it till you make it” being the namesake’s maxim). Playing Chucklenut is Andrew Lloyd Baughman (the accomplished producing artistic director of Landless Theatre Company), who accompanies himself nimbly on a keyboard as he sings passably a Lehrer songlist interspersed with original patter.
Also on hand is Sally (Elle Marie Sullivan), Chucklenut’s unpaid intern, who joins him in a beautiful duet and reads aloud questions sent in by panelists (Professor Devos, Professor Koch, et al.) couched in academese. The thrust of the challenges to Chucklenut (which appear projected on a screen as Sally reads them) is an inquiry into what’s funny in 2024 as viewed through a Tom Lehrer lens. Variants on that gimmick serve as setups to some of Lehrer’s most famous songs, including “Poisoning Pigeons in the Park” (whence the show art), “The Vatican Rag,” “National Brotherhood Week,” and “The Masochism Tango.”
“Still funny?” Chucklenut asks the audience after one of Lehrer’s more macabre songs, “I Hold Your Hand in Mine,” written in the voice of a man who literally holds a hand he severed from the corpse of a woman whom he murdered. (Women generally don’t fare well in Lehrer’s oeuvre.) Baughman underscores the problematic moment by taking a prop hand out of a cooler.
“I Got It from Agnes,” originally a playful PG reference to the spread of VD, found itself repurposed during COVID, and Baughman finds the contemporary fun in it.
Reading from a score on a music stand in front of him as he does throughout the show —meaning that he skimps on eye contact with the audience — Baughman bravely tackles Lehrer’s classic tongue-twister, “The Elements,” the periodic table set to a Gilbert and Sullivan tune.
A chunk of the show labeled “MAGA Anthems” (“Musical Allusions to a Greater America”) amusingly reframes “I Want to Go Back to Dixie,” “My Hometown,” and others. Plus, George Santos comes in for a surprise sendup.
Baughman’s pièce de résistance is Lehrer’s grim evocation of global nuclear annihilation, “We’ll All Go Together,” with the audience invited to sing heartily along — as priceless a big finish if ever there was.
Running Time: 45 minutes
Genre: Solo/Musical
Dates and Times:
- July 14 at 7:30 PM
- July 20 at 6:00 PM
- July 21 at 11:35 AM
Venue: Laughter
Tickets: $15
More Info and Tickets: Tom Lehrer Is Alive and Well and Has Given Away All Rights to His Music
The program is online here.
The complete 2024 Capital Fringe Festival schedule is online here.
