Timely take on politics in the age of Trump
The Terms of My Surrender Belasco Theatre, New York
Michael Moore wants me to run for political office. He announced this from the stage of the Belasco Theatre, although he wasn’t addressing any one individual. The controversial agitator was speaking to the entire spirited audience of his riotous, mostly solo show The Terms of My Surrender, urging ordinary citizens not to leave politics to the professionals. “If they want to be a politician, we don’t want them!” he shouted to cheers and applause.
Of course, one could argue that encouraging outsiders to be politicians is how the United States found itself with Donald J Trump as its 45th president. A year ago, Moore proved prophetic in predicting Trump’s election, and his maiden Broadway outing isn’t kind in its assessment of the commander in chief ’s performance. “I refuse to live in a country where Donald Trump is president,” he proclaims. “And I’m not leaving!”
But the Oscar-winning documentarian seeks to inspire as much as inflame. Part memoir, part comedy show and part Democratic Party group-therapy session, this is a vehicle for the Lefty provocateur to unleash his anger at a the president and at the electoral system that put him where he is. Yet the show isn’t entirely an anti-trump rally. Moore has collaborated with Michael Mayer (who directed Funny Girl in the West End) to create a colourful and affecting political variety show that toggles between monologues, comic bits and pontification about the state of the nation. There’s even a rotating guest star: At the performance I caught, Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston talked Trump and mental illness.
In the past, Moore has been roasted by people at both ends of the political spectrum, notably when he accepted the documentary film Academy Award in 2003 and was booed for criticising President Bush going to war with Iraq just days before. But while Moore still has a flair for the dramatic, this one-time enfant terrible now sounds like the voice of reason.
Trump talk segues into Moore’s tales of his youthful activism, and there’s also a game show in which he pits the “dumbest Canadian” and “smartest American” in the audience against each other. Turning serious, Moore recounts the death threats and thwarted attacks that became part of his life after his Oscars speech. And the water crisis in his hometown of Flint, which exposed thousands of children to high levels of lead, is a haunting closing segment.
It’s a lot to pack into a two-hour show, but Moore is a fairly sturdy anchor, and he can certainly inspire a crowd. “Reach down and do that thing you’re afraid of doing,” he prompts. For him, it’s dancing, but for someone in his audience, it may be that run for political office.
Until Oct 22. Tickets: michaelmooreonbroadway.com