If you are going to mount a musical that
takes the election of Barack Obama as its subject matter, you had
better have something to say. Or at least something to sing. Otherwise
you are wasting everyone’s time, because quite a lot has already been
said—and sung—about the event: It’s, like, perhaps the most
said-and-sung-about presidential election ever.
No shatteringly fresh perspective? Please do not put up signs and
sell tickets and otherwise distract us all from enjoying the amazing
experience that is living through the actual, real-life, and quite
thrilling Obama era. I was really, truly ready for Obama on My
Mind to take me on an exciting journey back to the nail-biting
days of 2008 and offer me a chance to see it all anew. I would have
loved to visit there for a couple of hours. But this perplexing attempt
at entertainment at Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center doesn’t take
the audience anywhere recognizable—much less interesting.
The musical is set in a campaign headquarters that sometimes seems
like Obama’s national headquarters in Chicago and sometimes seems like
an unimportant regional headquarters in Nowheresville, USA. The people
who work there are doing an important job. The people who work there
are buffoons. They are in a big city. They can’t possibly be in a big
city. They are constantly fucking up the campaign of a man who is most
famous in political circles for having an amazing, almost religiously
devoted staff that never fucked up. They are serious. They can’t be
serious.
This is emblematic of a larger problem: The musical can’t decide
whether it’s a farce or a celebration. If it’s a farce, it is
confusingly making fun of a counterfactual to no apparent purpose.
(Obama won, guys.) If it’s a celebration, it is confusingly making fun
of the Obama campaign to no apparent purpose. (Depicting an Obama
headquarters run by a mincing gay and an outrageously dumb African
American and a Hispanic obsessed with astrology celebrates Obama how?)
The writer, Teddy Hayes, should have had this lame effort vetoed,
instead of embraced, by director Jacqueline Moscou.
At least a quarter of the audience left at intermission. I went with
them. 
Leaving at intermission should preclude you from reviewing the show.
@1: uh-oh. Kiley, you wanna take this one?
“At least a quarter of the audience left at intermission. I went with them.”
Ah… I love when journalists are irresponsible with statistics.
@ 2. I’ll pass. I’m tired of arguing about it.
At least you gave it a shot. This thing sounded like a dog just from the advertisements. I’d rather watch an opera about a 1972 Nixon campaign office.
WOW! you left at intermission. so how can you know what the second half of the show is like if you left? how can you write a review if you didnt even see the end. oh. and did you see the same show? it was not intended to be about OBAMA the person. but the CAMPAIGN itself and how it BROUGHT PEOPLE (Even crazy ones) TOGETHER AS A COMMUNITY! you are obvisiouly one of the people who poo-poo everything you see! unless it its something you like. whatever!