Hello and welcome to Generic Theater’s production of “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson.” The show is part PBS documentary, part rock show, part comedic farce, and almost entirely insane. It has been a terrific blast working with the Generic Theater, the amazing cast, and the excessively talented production team.
As I researched Andrew Jackson in preparation to begin work on this production I found an excellent quote from Jackson’s first biography “Life of Andrew Jackson” by James Parton (1822-1891).
“Andrew Jackson, I am given to understand, was a patriot and a traitor. He was one of the greatest of generals, and wholly ignorant of the art of war. A writer brilliant, elegant, eloquent, without being able to compose a correct sentence, or spell words of four syllables. .... He was the most candid of men, and was capable of the profoundest dissimulation. A most law-defying law-obeying citizen. A stickler for discipline, he never hesitated to disobey his superior. A democratic autocrat. An urbane savage. An atrocious saint."
Andrew Jackson remains to this day a study in contradictions. Some think of him as one of our greatest presidents; a true populist elected by the people, for the people. Others decry him as an American Hitler for his role in the death and displacement of over a hundred thousand Native Americans. Either way his vast influence on American politics cannot be denied.
In "Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson" authors Alex Timbers and Michael Friedman chose to juxtapose Andrew Jackson's story with an examination of American celebrity culture. Jackson was one of our country's first “rock stars.” He was the first president to be born from a lower economic position outside of the Washington aristocracy. He rose to fame as a national hero after defeating the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend and the British at the Battle of New Orleans, and leading a charge into Spanish Florida. The people loved Andrew Jackson dearly and sent him and his newly founded Democratic Party to the White House, much to the chagrin of Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, and many of the founding fathers. With his election, Andrew Jackson proved the most important tenant of populism: that with the support of the people, the common man could defeat the wealthy elite. Andrew Jackson was the people's president. A true rock star.
I hope you dig it.
Brendan Hoyle
