Killin’ Republicans, a new production by New Rock Opera led by Dick D. Zigun and under the Coney Island Mermaid Parade is about what happens in a conversation when actress Jodie Foster, a Nigerian Afrobeat star, and her Mississippi oilman husband get drunk together in a first-class on a transatlantic flight Stanley Nkwazema reviews
It has been long expected, the exciting thing is that the thriller is here making a wave and strong statement in the theatre. “Killin’ Republicans” is a rock opera with concept and libretto by Dick D. Zigun, who is known as an icon of the Brooklyn avant-garde art scene, the Permanently Unelected Mayor of Coney Island, Creator of the Mermaid Parade and Coney Island Museum, and Godfather of Neo-Burlesque and Sideshow revivals. Composed by Arturo “Artie” Rodriguez, and directed by Vagabond, Killin Republicans is not a cry for violence but an intellectual discussion, set to Rock ‘n Roll, about violence in the history of the Republican Party. The entire piece is either sung or performed in recitative in a variety of styles: rockabilly, Dean metal, Willie Nelson, Beatles, and Punk. Theatre for the New City, which gave Zigun his first paying theater job (running the TNC Box Office in the late 1970s) will present the opera’s world premiere from November 30 to December 17.
Zigun credits this production to his wife, Princess Patience Mukoro a renowned artiste and established music aficionado,from Akara Royal Quarters, Kiagbodo Mein, Delta State, Nigeria, and also the late Nigerian playwright, J.P. Clark (my Uncle-In-Law) for ‘Killin Republicans’.
He said they “encouraged the writing of this story over a non-stop 2-day conversation. After I was welcomed to Warri by my In-Laws. Commissioner for Education, Edwin Kiagbodo Clark, at his Mansion at Kiagbodo Delta State. And his Royal Highness King Pere Bigborogha, in the Throne Room of his Palace at Kiagbodo, were very influential to the birth of this production.”
In the story, actress Jodie Foster finds herself stuck in the first-class cabin of a transatlantic flight with two wealthy very important personalities (VIPs): Goodness Gracious, a Nigerian Afrobeat star studying for her USA Citizenship test, and her husband, Billybob from Biloxi, a Mississippi oilman and Rockabilly aficionado. The couple are aware that Foster was the hapless inspiration for John Hinckley’s attempted shooting of President Ronald Reagan in 1981. Reagan was leaving the Hilton Hotel in Washington, DC, where he had addressed 5,000 members of the AFL-CIO when shots rang out. Hinckley, wielding a .22 handgun, had attempted an assassination to impress Ms. Foster, with whom he had a psychotic obsession.
The conversation that ensues among the three passengers is supposed to be intellectual in its wavelength (think “My Dinner With Andre”), but fun and Rock ‘n Roll. Goodness Gracious is studying for her US Citizenship Test and learning about US presidents to understand the American system. Jodie Foster’s entwinement with the Reagan assassination story inspires a series of loony reflections on violence in American politics. The trio recount the history of killings and attempted killings of other presidents in America, including Lincoln’s assassination by the actor John Wilkes Booth (“big star with a tiny gun”), the shootings of James A. Garfield (who lived eleven weeks with the bullet in his body–his doctors couldn’t find it) and William McKinley (whose death put Teddy Roosevelt in the White House). According to Zigun, these are followed by accounts of the attempted assassinations of Teddy Roosevelt (he finished a campaign speech in Milwaukee with a bullet lodged inside a rib) and Ronald Reagan (whose assailant, John Hinckley, had been stalking Jodie Foster while she was a student at Yale). Ms. Foster exclaims in the libretto, “Why me?…why not Brooke Shields…it’s not fair…” Ms. Shields studied at Princeton.
For many, the title of the opera might suggest the piece is anti-republican, but this is not the case. Mostly it suggests that the Republican Party has a history of progressive action and has gotten punished for it. Toward the end of the piece, there’s a Rock ‘n Roll remake of Whitman’s poem about the death of Lincoln,
“O Captain! My Captain!”
Oi! Captain! My Captain!
What direction is Up ahead?
There was once a Grand Old Party
Now its fallen, cold, and dead
In the curtain call, for equal time, “we finally get a Democratic victim: JFK. (The chorus sings of a “Curse on the Kennedys – They Never See It Coming.”)
The violence the three passengers discuss is not limited to presidents. They also reflect on the 1856 caning of Senator Charles Sumner, a Massachusetts anti-slavery Republican, by Preston Brooks, a pro-slavery Democratic congressman from South Carolina. Sumner took a bloody beating in the Senate chamber, but he lived to help impeach President Andrew Johnson for blocking the enforcement of reconstruction acts.
The actors are Queen Koleurz Koluchi ( a cousin of late foremost novelist Chinua Achebe) as Goodness Gracious, Edwin Vazquez as Billybob from Biloxi, Abby Gumpper as Jodie Foster, Gabriel Winkler and Ava Jones as Flight Attendants, and Youssef Alaoudi-Flidi as Voice of the Captain.
Zigun has been evolving an experimental style he characterises as a sort of accessible Richard Foreman. He tries to be fun and “fun house” in his thinking. He has been writing plays since high school. Seven years ago, he decided he wanted to write rock operas. Killing Republicans is his first. The idea was to take language out of regular conversation and create a play that also works as a rock concert.
Most of it is light verse, like beat poetry. The entire opera is either sung or its music scored under dialogue. “Chorus and rhyming is not how actual people speak,” says Zigun, “but it’s how Rock ‘n Roll works.”
He remembers, “Crystal Field gave me my first paying theater job running the TNC Box Office when the Theater was on 2nd Avenue. Even when I was running my institution in Coney Island, Crystal was always supportive. I held a major fundraiser at TNC and many of her shows came to my stage or the Boardwalk. When I recently decided to move my playwriting efforts to Manhattan, Crystal was the first to say “Come to TNC it’s already your home!” I cherish her friendship and decades of her support for whatever I do. She has always been my guiding star on my path through Off-Off Broadway!”
On a personal level, the piece is inspired by Zigun’s marriage to a Nigerian woman and his transatlantic flights to meet her family. Jodie Foster and Billybob From Biloxi are both aspects of himself, Zigun says. The opera was written before Trump.
The concept and libretto are by Dick D. Zigun. Composer/Musical Director is Arturo “Artie” Rodriguez. The director is a vagabond (lowercase spelling is correct). Production Manager is Omar Villegas. The musicians are Jordan Rodríguez on drums and percussion, John Plenge on guitar and keyboards, and Jordan (Rothstein) (irregular spelling and parentheses are correct) on piano and keyboards. Abraham Lincoln’s Top Hat was designed by Erin Mathewson.
