Caucus or 'Caucus!,' It's the Old Song and Dance

DES MOINES -- If you ever wanted proof that politics is theater -- that the Iowa caucuses, a mere six days away, have played out on a stage -- look no further than this city's hip East Village neighborhood where "Caucus! The Musical" opens Saturday night.

East Village is nowhere near Broadway. But judging by the audience's reaction during the show's first preview Thursday, "Caucus!" might as well be playing on 42nd Street. It sure helps that within the first few minutes, the near-capacity crowd in the theater sees itself reflected onstage when an irate waitress, in a full-throated alto, lunges into song:

Oh, good Lord, they're on each and every channel,

these candidates on both the left and right.

It won't be long before their campaign infomercials

preempt my "Cops" and "Wheel of Fortune" every night.

Written by Robert John Ford, "Caucus!" tells the story of the Wises, a farming family that becomes the subject of a newspaper series on a "typical Iowa caucusgoer," and the four candidates who end up splitting their vote. The two-hour show is part tutorial (there's a mock caucus toward the end of Act 2), mostly satirical (along the lines of a "Saturday Night Live" sketch) but ultimately a celebration of what many deem an obscure, incomprehensible quadrennial exercise in electoral politics: the Iowa caucuses. And with songs such as the Cole Porter-tinged "Anything for a Vote," the witty "It's Time to Go to Iowa" and the tap dance number "The Tough Question Sidestep," caucusgoers are guaranteed at least a couple of chuckles.

Though Ford insists that his fictional candidates aren't based on any of the current candidates, the audience easily draws comparisons. Nora Halliday, a black woman, is a cross between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Harrison Tate, a moderate Republican, brings to mind Fred Thompson and Rudy Giuliani. The Rev. Stanley Jensen is part Mike Huckabee, part Sam Brownback, while Benjamin Goldman is a gay and much heavier Dennis Kucinich.

But it's the Iowans, the caucusgoers themselves, whom Ford makes the heart of the show.

The idea for a musical hit Ford in the early 1980s, when he was student at Iowa State University and observed obscure candidates standing on street corners desperately campaigning. He first wrote an outline six years ago and finally presented a staged reading two days before the 2004 caucuses. That generated enough underground buzz that he decided to produce the show himself.

"Caucus!" was originally set to open on Jan. 13. But real-life electoral politics got in the way when the caucus's original date -- Jan. 14 -- was moved to Jan. 3.

The fictional caucus and the actual caucus were in conflict.