Andrew Jackson: Some Facts
Andrew Jackson dueled. Andrew Jackson purportedly fought in upwards of 100 duels, and carried two bullets in his body. After one duel, physicians recommended amputating one of his arms. Jackson refused, and the bullet remained in his arm for almost 20 years, until it settled so close to the skin that you could see it move. Jackson was convinced to have it removed late in his life and did—without benefit of anesthesia, and without missing a day of work.
Andrew Jackson was a judge. And a notoriously quick-acting one. Angry that Russell Bean refused to come to court, Jackson stormed out to find an armed Bean essentially holding a crowd hostage. Jackson strode up, a pistol in each hand, and demanded that Bean surrender. Bean immediately put down his weapons. When asked why, Bean later responded, “I looked him in the eye, and I saw shoot, and there wasn’t shoot in nary other eye in the crowd.”
Andrew Jackson threw a good party. A mob gathered at the White House for the party after Jackson’s inauguration and it quickly grew out of control. Some strategic thinkers quickly determined that the only way to preserve the White House was to move the liquor outside. Whereupon several of the revelers jumped out of the White House’s windows to get to it quicker.
Andrew Jackson had a practical style sense. Jackson remodeled the White House, which lead to complaints about his exorbitant spending. Particularly controversial was his purchase of twenty spittoons for the East Room. At a cost of $12.50 each, it caused complaints about his excess spending. His supporters pointed out that these spittoons in essence saved the 500-yard Brussels carpet, purchased for $1,058.25, from his copious tobacco spittle.
Andrew Jackson liked birds. Indeed, his pet parrot attended his funeral, but, unfortunately, had to be removed from the service due to his non-stop swearing.
Andrew Jackson remains the only first-generation American to become President. He was born before the United States was a nation, and was born to two immigrant parents. (Jefferson, Buchanan, Arthur, Wilson, Hoover, and Obama are all sons of one first-generation American.)
Andrew Jackson enjoyed pancakes.
Andrew Jackson was the first President to ride on a railroad. He rode on a Baltimore and Ohio train from Ellicott's Mill, MD to Baltimore—a distance of 12 miles. (John Quincy had also taken that train, but not while he was President.)
Andrew Jackson was a badass. On the last day of the presidency, Jackson admitted that he had but two regrets: that he had been unable to shoot Henry Clay or to hang John C. Calhoun.
Andrew Jackson sanctioned the first forced relocation in American history. As a direct result of Jackson’s administrative resolve regarding the “Indian Problem,” some 90,000 native American tribal peoples were removed to the American West. The Cherokee Nation maintained a strong but beleaguered foothold in Georgia but they were eventually expelled by means of a treacherous mid-winter cross-country trek on foot known as “The Trail Of Tears.” Mortality on the trek totaled between 4,000 and 8,000.
—adapted in part from the Center Theatre Group’s program for Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson
Artistic Team
Keith Alan Baker- Director
Christopher Gallu- Co-Director
Jennifer Harris- Co-Director
Christopher Youstra- Musical Director
Diane Coburn Bruning- Choreographer
Giorgos Tsappas- Set Design
Deborah Thomas- Assistant Set Design
Justin Thomas- Lighting Design
Ivania Stack- Costume Design
Aaron Fisher- Sound Design/ Live Mix
Erik Trester- Projections Design
Cast
Heath Calvert- Andrew Jackson
Felicia Curry- Storyteller
Rachel Zampelli- Rachel Jackson
Davis Hasty- Martin Van Buren
Matt Dewberry- Henry Clay
Ben Horen- James Monroe
Pomme Koch- John Calhoun
Alex Mills- John Quincy Adams
Ryan Sellers- Blackhawk
Katy Carkuff- Ensemble
Esther Covington- Ensemble
Maria Egler- Ensemble
John Fritz- Ensemble
Aaren Keith- Ensemble
Emily Levey- Ensemble
Katie McManus- Ensemble
Rob Mueller- Ensemble
Ryan Patrick Welch- Ensemble
Eli Schulman- Lyncoya
Band
Christopher Youstra- Conductor// Keyboard/ Accordion
Kim Spath- Electric Guitar/ Acoustic Guitar/ Banjo
Yusef Chisholm- Electric Bass/ Tuba
Brian Gibson- Drums
Rob Mueller- Electric Guitar/ Acoustic Guitar/ Ukulele
Esther Covington- Violin/ Electric Fiddle
John Fritz- Electric Guitar
Aaren Keith and Emily Levey- Ukulele
Maria Egler- Tambourine
Alex Timbers
Alex Timbers (Book) is Artistic Director of the award-winning downtown company Les Freres Corbusier. His recent directing credits include Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson (Broadway, the Public Theater, and Center Theatre Group; Outer Critics Circle award, Outstanding Musical; Drama Desk award, Outstanding Book); The Pee-wee Herman Show; Gutenberg! The Musical! (Drama Desk nomination, Best Director of a Musical); Hell House (Drama Desk nomination, Unique Theatrical Experience); A Very Merry Unauthorized Children’s Scientology Pageant (Obie Award and Garland Award, Best Director); Heddatron; Boozy; and Dance Dance Revolution with Les Freres Corbusier. He is the former president of Yale Dramat and a Usual Suspect with New York Theatre Workshop.
Michael Friedman
Michael Friedman (Composer, Lyricist) is the composer/lyricist for Saved and the Civilians’ The Great Immensity, This Beautiful City, Gone Missing, [I Am] Nobody’s Lunch, and Canard Canard Goose? as well as The Brand New Kid, In the Bubble, and Hoover Comes Alive! He co-authored the Civilians’ Paris Commune with Steve Cosson. He served as the dramaturg on the 2004 Broadway revival of A Raisin in the Sun. Friedman recently performed in Lincoln Center’s American Songbook in a concert of his songs. Friedman is a founding associate artist for the Civilians and a Usual Suspect with New York Theatre Workshop. He has been a MacDowell Fellow, a Hodder Fellow, and the Barron Visiting Professor at Princeton University. He received an Obie Award for sustained excellence in 2007.
Synopsis
Andrew Jackson comes of age in late 18th-century Tennessee. Clipping through his life, the play shows the death of his family and his subsequent enlistment in the military. He grows disdainful of the government’s indifference to the people of the frontier. Then he meets Rachel; they fall in love and marry, though Rachel is not yet divorced from her current husband. Jackson organizes a militia to remove Indian tribes throughout the Southeast. The Battle of New Orleans transforms Jackson into a national hero. He becomes governor of Florida and runs for President in 1824 but loses due to political maneuvering. After four years of political exile, he forms the Democratic Party and wins the 1828 election. However, the accusation of his rivals, along with the stress of the election, leads to Rachel’s death.
Once in office, the “People’s President” polls the American populace on all of his executive decisions. As he faces tougher problems, however, the public begins to resent him. Jackson decides to take responsibility and bold action, and declares that he alone will make policy decisions regarding the Indians’ fate—sending federal troops to forcibly move the Indians’ West. This satire makes a spectacle of politics and populism, questioning how important it is to be a great leader when you’re already hot and popular.
From the Writers
Alex Timbers, Book Writer:
Andrew Jackson is the embodiment of arrested adolescence in a way. He was the kind of guy who was the frontiersman in this world of political elites (which is sort of like being bullied and shoved in a locker), but he had his way in the end. And there is a metaphorical level of bleeding the country, since he was also a "cutter" in real life.
Jackson is part of this lineage of American politicians that we all love. If the choice is strong-but-wrong or weak-but-rational, we choose strong-but-wrong every time. That cowboy swagger, down-home charm, the fact that he doesn’t talk correctly — it’s exciting but dangerous. What does that say about American character?
I look at the piece as sort of cubist. These are the historical events and facts I need to cover. So we look for the most fun way, genre-wise or whatever, to explain who these people were and what they cared about.
Michael Friedman, Composer/Lyricist:
Alex and I found that using comedy—especially a very contemporary-feeling comedy—to illustrate the history actually allowed the historical figures and the historical actions to seem more resonant. It helped us realize how contemporary the politics of the early 19th century are to us.
A lot of Jackson’s legacy is profoundly problematic for America, both the populist impulse that I think now we're finding is a very complicated thing in our society and especially with his legacy regarding the Native Americans and to slavery, as well.
I think that we think of the show as about the adolescence coming of age of America. Jackson’s Democratic Party was part of a movement in America fully disconnected from European roots, and one that seemed, at the time, particularly emblematic of a young country. Watching Andrew Jackson try to bring America into adulthood and bring himself into adulthood is the play’s emotional journey. It ends up, you know, killing his wife and taking its toll on him and on his legacy. In the end, his legacy as a president is, at best, a complicated one. And at worst, many people really hate his presidency and what it resulted in.