Eric Zaccar's Starr's on Broadway

They say that the tail end of the last millennium was a simpler time: Billions of taxpayer dollars were not being used to implement patriot acts, supplement oil companies or slaughter innocent people in Iraq. Instead, the government spent a mere few hundred million, looking under every sidewalk crack that the president ever walked on, and interrogating every person he ever knew, only to find out that Bill Clinton was guilty of nothing more criminal than receiving a bit of extra curricular oral gratification.

Eric Zaccar's STARR'S ON BROADWAY has been called the definitive social satire on the Clinton-Starr-Lewinsky absurd atrocities, but has this play's time truly passed? Isn't Bill Clinton still one of the most fascinating and intriguing humans in existence, and doesn't the mere mention of Monica still sell everything from Time Magazine to the Weekly World Sun? Of course, that noble, righteous and virtue filled public servant and church crooner, Kenneth Starr, seems to have faded into oblivion. And of course, James Carville and I are probably the only two people, besides Kenneth and his mother, who are bothered by Mr. Starr's fall from glory. It was Mr. Carville's hilarious and rather insightful Kenneth Starr homage, AND THE HORSE HE RODE IN ON, that gave me quite a bit of great information and inspired a lot of the humor in my play.

However, though I would still recommend Mr. Carville's book to anyone and everyone, I think that STARR'S ON BROADWAY is far more timeless, because it covers a lot more ground. Besides showing the right wing extremists for what they are, without really mentioning any Bush people, the play uses the persecution of Bill Clinton as a focal point to make statements about freedom of speech, blacklisting, nuclear weapons, demagogues, Watergate, Vietnam, the Kennedy assassination, and quite a bit more. I think the great film director, Billy Wilder, was first credited for saying that in order to tell people the truth, you have to make them laugh. I hope this quick taste of my play makes you long to hear even more truths, and to see a full production.

That's Tom Shillue, rather masterfully transforming himself into Harry Truman, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and Kenneth Starr. Carl Kissin brilliantly becomes Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton and a comic named Lenny. Michelle Peters is the Nagasaki based Glow Girl, Christie Klein is a future senator named Hillary, Natalie Blalock plays the efficient and effervescent White House intern, and Becky Poole provides the narration.

Please look for other clips from this play online, and visit the multi-media website, www.starrplay.com. Thanks for stopping by, and enjoy.

Because of the subject matter, this clip is not for children or the unseasoned.

Category:

Comedy

Tags:

• Eric
• Zaccar
• Kenneth
• Starr
• Monica
• Lewinsky
• Bill
• Clinton
• Broadway
• Tom
• Shillue
• Carl
• Kissin
• Blalock

[ihavemonkeysinmybutt]

6:40-7:00 good stuff

good stuff indeed

[armoniamg59]

I love ittttttttttttt. Kudos to you.

[psgjlb97]

Great material. I love the scenes with John Kennedy. Both his interactions with Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton. The scene with Harry Truman and the A-bomb victim looks like it could be a very intense scene. This "Starr's on Broadway" is a real winner. I would love to see this play performed on Broadway.

[luluciferin]

This clip is a hilarious recap of Kenneth Starr's brutal assault on Clinton and Lewinsky, and an eerie reprise of the British Profumo scandal (1962). For those of you who don't remember, John Profumo, a cabinet member, had a brief extramarital relationship with showgirl Christine Keeler and lied about it to the House of Commons. Like the British tabloids, Starr's report revels in the sexually explicit. With Hillary's possible candidacy, will another "Starr" resurface? Stay tuned.

[TubularExperience]

Very interesting look at the whole Monica Lewinsky scandal. This montage puts into perspective for us Kenneth Starr's vicious attack on a Democratic president who otherwise had a pretty clean record. Few have ever tried to make Starr accountable for his questionable motives and marginally legal tactics as much as Eric Zaccar has in STARR'S ON BROADWAY. Politically insightful, and will keep you in stitches if you are old enough or (savvy enough) to get all the references.