MASTERGATE
Why did the truth take so long?
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As you might expect from the genius who concocted MASH and Tootsie, Gelbart provides the most pointed political satire since MacBird savaged LBJ’s hypocrisy in Vietnam. Unfortunately, like MacBird and Rapmaster Ronnie, Mastergate is inevitably dated. That’s too bad, because its wicked exposure of “debilitating governmental self-abuse” and the consequent rape of the language skewers persistent thought crimes. Every national election provides additional evidence of a lobotomized body politic–threadbare political discourse that relies on the voters’ preference for the soothing “big lie” over the inconvenient truth, for instance, or the perverse desire to force new meanings on old words or invent new words that dispense with old associations: “revenue enhancement” for taxes, “collateral damage” rather than dead babies.
The play’s tone is set in opening remarks by the self-important committee chair, Senator Bowman: “This panel, which intends to give every appearance of being bipartisan, will be ever-mindful of the President’s instructions to dig as far down as we can, no matter how high up that might take us. . . . We are not looking for hides to skin, nor goats to scape. We’re just trying to get all the facts together in one room at the same time in the hope that they’ll somehow recognize each other. Our chief goal is to answer the questions: ‘What did the President know and does he have any idea that he knew it?’”
Standouts are Michael Weber, rigid with righteousness as the opportunistic patriot Manley; Ron Engler as the bilious committee chairman; and Pamela Webster as perky reporter Merry Chase, a cunning amalgam of Pauley, Sawyers, and Norville.
