Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade
Two clusters of people around me found Ghost of John McCain (SoHo Playhouse, to Nov. 10) howlingly funny. They shrieked with laughter, snorted, squealed, and whooped—responses that are even more jolting in the compressed confines of SoHo Playhouse. Were they friends of the cast or production? Maybe. Even at its wildest moments, the show was not that funny—and for that we have its primary target of its satire to blame: Donald Trump, and the divisive politics that swirl around him. The urgency and nervousness of the present moment neutralizes much of the show’s attempts at humor.
One person not happy about the musical’s existence is Meghan McCain, John McCain’s daughter, who railed on X when the show was announced earlier this year, “This is trash—nothing more than a gross cash grab by mediocre desperate people. I hope it bombs.”
One can empathize with her upset—it’s a satire about a beloved family member imagining him in a kind of post-death life—while also questioning the validity of her critique. She hadn’t seen it, after all.
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