randanthem1lned

That man is Randy Jones, best known as the original cowboy from the Village People

Yes, the Jesus Christ Superstar tour that was to feature Johnny Rotten as King Herod has been cancelled–it’s almost enough to restore your faith in god. But before you breathe a sigh of relief, know that The Anthem, a musical based on Ayn Rand’s sci-fi novella Anthem, has taken its unholy place as this year’s Production That Should Not Exist. It’s even playing at the Lynn Redgrave Theatre, which is off-Broadway, but surprisingly not the off-off-off-off-Broadway venue (say, a dirty Alphabet City warehouse) I would expect.

The set design appears to be something along the lines of “Nazi Disco Sadomasochistic Dystopia”–the charming Randy Jones, most famous as the original cowboy from The Village People, is the fabulous fascist you see above. The score, excerpts of which can be heard below, is really, truly my absolute least favorite kind of modern musical theater–and I say that as someone who digs on some Sondheim. The plot is pretty standard Rand–individualist hero-worship and persecution complex–but the description invokes another literary phenomenon to ground the show in something more current:

THE ANTHEM IS A NEW, ROLLICKING SCI-FI MUSICAL ABOUT A REVOLT OF THE YOUNG AGAINST AN EVIL STATE. LOVINGLY INSPIRED BY AYN RAND’S CLASSIC NOVELLA “ANTHEM,” THE SHOW FEATURES EXPANSIVE AERIAL MOVEMENT AND A CIRCUS ENVIRONMENT.

Hunger Games meets Ayn Rand in a world where individuality is illegal. Prometheus abandons everything to confront the State, controlled by the overlord of evil efficiency, Tiberius. With a forbidden copy of Ayn Rand’s ancient tome in hand, can Prometheus overthrow the system?

There’s a few differences, of course. Hunger Games is about a girl fighting a wealthy elite in the name of her impoverished district (a collective, not the individual), and those books are a cultural phenomenon, while only the most loyal of Randriods tend to read Anthem. All politics and ideology aside, Rand conceived of the plot as a teen, which may account for some of its heavy-handedness. It’s a bad book, but unlike some of her others, mercifully short!

But here is where my curiosity gets piqued…

The New York Post calls Anthem “laughably bad,” insisting that “laughs abound, but they’re unintentional.” The New York Times says it’s “exuberant” and “spoofy,” believing the show to be tongue-in-cheek. Which is it? The Post is a rag, but the Times can be absurdly rarefied, so who to believe? If “Springtime for Hitler” taught us anything, it’s that audiences will project depth on some truly idiotic art, especially if there’s a large choreographed production involved. Maybe they’re dense, maybe they don’t want to admit the emperor is naked, maybe they’re just generous, but a snappy tune can really jam up the bullshit detector. Still, could this Objectivist song and dance actually be satire? Could it be good satire? There’s only one way to find out.

To anyone associated with Anthem, if you can get me tickets to the show, I will give it a fair and just review, as divested from Rand’s political legacy as possible. I promise to be professional–dare I say objective. I will arrive with an open mind and a bloodstream full of benzos. Call me!

EDIT: Extraordinarily, there have been two Ayn Rand-themed musicals active in the last year, The Anthem, which is the one running now off-Broadway, and Anthem–excerpts of the score featured below. The post has been corrected to reflect this, and I am reeling from the fact that there are two Ayn Rand musicals based on the same novella. Seriously. What the fuck.