Running For President

I am very much out of my comfort zone. They say this is a good thing. It's how we grow. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

I've never been much of a fan of musical theater, but here I am in midtown Manhattan taking meetings, doing site visits, attending casting sessions. I feel a bit like a dude who has never cared much for politics who suddenly finds himself running for President. Presumably I have some bold new vision, some reason that has compelled me to enter a field I've never liked. I'm here to shake things up! However, to help me in my cause I need the help of insiders, folks who know how the system works...

"Insiders" hardly ever get a good press. They muzzle a candidate, keep him on message, castrate him. They persuade Al Gore to groom some kind of type A personality that backfires and loses him the election. They focus on image over substance, they throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Yes, it's a very convenient and cliched paradigm. It disregards the fact that President Obama depended on the wisdom of insiders such as David Axelrod to hone both his image and message in order to craft a brilliant campaign in 2008.

In any case, I suddenly find myself in a minority: a rock and roller outnumbered by theater professionals, people who live and breathe the business, and whose friends do the same.  It's a little intimidating. It's all too easy for me to drift into a defensive "me against them" posture. But theater is a collaboration, and 95% of the time my collaborators are probably steering me away from disaster.

Still, I have to pay attention. There's a whole lot of bathwater. But there's also one very large baby!

I just looked in the mirror. The baby needs a shave.