When you stop to think about it, Mandy Moore, Stevie Wonder and Kristin Chenoweth probably are a lot more fun than the National Security Council and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Certainly seeing Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) get his face rubbed with the south end of a stuffed duck is kind of fun, but that is to digress.
With all the recent reports of “bunker government,” “shadow government” and keeping Vice President Cheney under wraps in a mysterious “undisclosed location,” you would think the Bush administration was spending most of its time in secret basements, carrying on the war on terrorism while surrounded by layers of security.
But on Sunday, the top dogs in this town surfaced as a group when President Bush, Cheney, their wives, and the better part of the Cabinet joined with congressional leaders and an assortment of other capital worthies at a very “disclosed” location — Washington’s historic Ford’s Theatre.
This, you’ll recall, was the unfortunate venue where an audience member named Abraham Lincoln and the course of American history would have been much better off had he spent the night of April 14, 1865, in a bunker rather than the presidential box.
A happier tradition
But Bush and company happily braved both the ghosts of the past and the current clear and present danger for what has become one of the capital’s happier traditions — the annual Ford’s Theatre Gala.
More than just a fundraiser, it mingles the Washington stuffed shirts with some of show biz’s flashier names and faces in a celebration that you’ll be able to see on ABC television later in the spring.
As Bush noted, the evening was a chance “to be part of American culture” and “a joyous celebration of the American spirit.”
I never quite thought of Kelsey Grammer as the embodiment of the American spirit, but he was master of ceremonies for the show nonetheless, and managed a few good lines.
He noted, for example, that the chairs in the historic theater had been lovingly restored to “their original state of discomfort,” and that magician David Copperfield, one of the headliners in the show, had been swamped with requests “to make the Democratic majority in the Senate disappear.”
He also said the show’s producers had thought of having 400 lobbyists tap dance before the VIP audience, then added: “But you’ve already seen that.”
Grammer also demonstrated he is more a television video tape actor than a live stage one. He fluffed his opening lines twice, necessitating three takes, and blew his farewell once, requiring two takes for that.
He also drooled a little over teenage singing star Mandy Moore, but then, so did some others.
The duck trick
Rather than making Daschle vanish, magician Copperfield made him appear, plucking him out of the audience to help with Copperfield’s famous duck trick onstage.
Reduced to its essence, the trick has Copperfield put his live pet duck Webster into a box at stage center. He then takes the box apart, showing that it’s empty, and crosses to stage right, where a dupe (in this case, Daschle) holds a wooden bucket that the dupe had earlier declared empty. Instead, it proves to hold Webster.
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Copperfield then repeated the trick — this time in slow motion — using a stuffed toy duck and a stage hand all dressed in black who sneakily took the duck from box to bucket. En route, he dusted Daschle’s nose with the aft end of the toy duck, to the immense amusement of both Republicans and Democrats present.
Chicago’s own Dennis Franz was there, introducing New York’s own Daniel Rodriguez, the “singing cop” from the Manhattan South precinct whose singing of patriotic songs at Yankee Stadium and other venues last fall truly embodied the American spirit.
“The West Wing’s” John Spencer came on stage to pay homage to Lincoln and thank him for winning the Civil War — and thank Bush for fighting the current one.
Return of SheDAISY
Gospel singer Yolanda Adams was incredible singing “I Gotta Believe” and “I Believe I Can Fly.” Mandy Moore was incredible just standing there, but also when singing “Cry” and “Turn the Clock Around.” Stevie Wonder had the stuffed shirts stomping and clapping through a couple of rousers, and Broadway’s Chenoweth, once described by the New York Times as having a voice “sharp enough to etch monograms into Baccarat crystal,” came close to shattering a few goblets with a couple of show tunes.
The cast was completely different from last year’s show — with one notable exception. As you may recall, I noted last year that President Bush, then attending his first Ford’s Gala, demonstrated remarkable enthusiasm for the performances. He seemed then to enjoy particularly a country music trio called SheDAISY, made up of three sleek sisters (a blond, a redhead and a brunette) whose garb ran to skin tight leather pants and bare midriffs.
For whatever reason, SheDAISY were invited back this year.
Our decorous First Lady Laura Bush was again in the audience and — hmmm — this time there were no leather pants, only decorous black frocks that seemed almost frumpy.
With the emphasis on “almost.”