George and Ira Gershwin wrote the songs for a trio of political satires in the 1930s,  the last of which, “Let ‘Em Eat Cake,” was about a president who loses his bid for re-election and, inspired by fascism, tries to overthrow the United States government. The symphonic choir MasterVoices performed a concert version of that musical – presciently — in 2019. 

Two years earlier (also during the Trump presidency) the same group had revived the most successful of the three Gershwin musicals, “Of Thee I Sing,” which was the first musical to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and was a more light-hearted story about the same character when he ran for his first term. 

A week before Election Day 2024, MasterVoices performed a one-night concert at Carnegie Hall of the earliest of these political satires, “Strike Up The Band.”  Ted Sterling, MasterVoices conductor and director, explains the timing of the production in a program note: “With a tense election just days away, I had a feeling we would all be grateful for a good laugh, some tap dancing, and some gorgeous melodies.” 

As it turns out, gratitude was not high up on my list of reactions. Perhaps the tension of the election is simply too great this time around, more than I remember it being in the 2016 or 2020 elections. Whatever the reason, the show didn’t give me many good laughs.

I did appreciate the nine principal cast members and six dancers, featuring such favorite Broadway performers as Victoria Clark, Bryce Pinkham and Christopher Fitzgerald; the two dozen Gershwin tunes, including such familiar melodies as the title song and “The Man I Love”; and the rich musical theater history that the show represents.  “Strike Up The Band” has a strong flavor of both Gilbert and Sullivan (whose operettas fascinated the Gershwins) and the Marx Brothers (whose best-known plays and movies were written by this musical’s librettists George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskin.)

The original 1927 production, which died in an out-of-town tryout, was reworked extensively for a 1930 Broadway run, and was reworked again for this concert by Sperling and theater historian Laurence Maslon, who pick and choose between the two versions, and add their own touches.

There were a handful of moments relevant enough to be triggering, but they were surrounded by a silly and convoluted plot: The president (whom we never see) has decided to put a fifty percent tariff (!) on imported cheese, which delights Horace J. Fletcher (John Ellison Conlee), the owner of Fletcher’s American Cheese Company, based in Wisconsin (!) But when Switzerland protests, Fletcher convinces the president’s envoy, Colonel Holmes (David Pittu) to go to war with Switzerland, and name the war after him: The Horace J. Fletcher Memorial War. 

In one of the more memorable exchanges, rich widow Mrs. Draper (Clark) tells Colonel Holmes he should consider running for president

“Think I’d be good at it?”
“I don’t see what that’s got to do with it.”
“How do you think I’d go about it?”
“Well first of all, I’d get some real publicity. Chop down some cherry trees, break up some labor unions, take a full-page ad out in Variety.”

Such exchanges got lost in a mix that features three romances, two of them love triangles, two spies, and lots of groan-worthy jokes, too clever or too dumb, or both: “Paramount Pictures has purchased the motion picture rights to the war. And I am thrilled to announce that this fall, they will begin production on their new film: ‘All Quiet on the Western Omelette’”

This might have landed better somewhere besides the staid stage at Carnegie Hall, crowded with the 100+ tuxedoed members of the MasterVoices chorus, and the dozens of members of the MasterVoices orchestra; maybe not the optimal venue for theatrical mayhem