You don’t must know Randy Rainbow’s actual title. Watch any one in every of his on-line musical mockeries, his kaleidoscopes of gender, politics and Broadway, and he’s Randy Rainbow. I wager his dad and mom name him that. The colorfully monikered comic is bringing his Randy Rainbow for President tour to the Dominion Vitality Middle’s Carpenter Theatre on March 28 at 7:30 p.m.
I’m a fanboy for Rainbow. I wait eagerly for his lampooning movies, questioning whom he’ll skewer subsequent. More often than not it’s former President Donald Trump, however it’s at all times right-wing conservatives (Senate Republican chief Mitch McConnell, U.S. Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz, et al.). He holds again nothing, and his wit is quick, deft, easy. Rainbow makes use of his fab queerness as a rapier; he conducts pretend, devilishly edited interviews with a “Gurl, I perceive” empathy, then rejiggers Broadway and widespread tunes into satirical, piercing showpieces. Rainbow performs each function, sings each half in costume and refrain. His movies are extravaganzas. And he has mad expertise.
I watch his movies as a result of generally I must snort on the political information. When one other stunning, dangerous-to-democracy headline seems, occasions I can barely consider, Rainbow makes them ridiculous. Occasionally, a sentence simply must be stated in French, you understand? Typically Washington, D.C., simply must be bathed within the rainbow.
For individuals who agree with him, Randy Rainbow is galvanizing. Taylor has her Swifties. I formally coin a phrase right here: I’m a Fandy.
Rainbow’s topical lampoons have garnered 4 Emmy and Grammy nominations. He’s a singer and comic with a New York Instances bestselling memoir, “Taking part in With Myself.” The nationwide stage tour of his Randy Rainbow for President musical revue tends to promote out each venue. He collaborates with such heavyweights as Marc Shaiman (“Hairspray,” “Mary Poppins Returns”) and Alan Menken (“Little Store of Horrors,” “Magnificence and the Beast”). I can hear him whisper to himself, “You go, gurl.”
Nonetheless, Rainbow claims to not be a political parodist. In his memoir, he states, “Imagine it or not, my work is in no way politically motivated and neither am I. I’ve by no means been a political junkie by nature and I’m not a pundit. My shtick as a topical comic and satirist has at all times been to cowl no matter you, the viewers, are speaking about. It simply so occurred that, round 2016, y’all began speaking about nothing however politics, and I adopted swimsuit.”
Additionally, regardless of web trolling in any other case, he’s not an operative of the left: “Whereas a few of my spoofs could include a heavier dose of my real opinion than others, my work is never a private testimony, and by no means a political endorsement and even condemnation. It’s merely a colourful snapshot of a second in time as I see it, a funhouse mirror reflection of all sides.”
Frankly, I feel he’s going straightforward on himself. Watch Rainbow sing “Don’t Arraign on His Parade” (snatched out of the mouth of Barbra Streisand from “Humorous Lady”) to an irritated Donald Trump, or croon to the once-and-maybe-future president “Donald within the John With Bins” (a Beatles-esque sendup of the place Trump saved categorised paperwork at Mar-a-Lago), and also you’ll know fairly shortly the place Rainbow crops his prismatic flag.
And guess what? His dad and mom do name him that. His actual title is Randy Stewart Rainbow.
Randy Rainbow for President stops on the Dominion Vitality Middle’s Carpenter Theatre March 28 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets begin at $39.50.
David L. Robbins is a New York Instances bestselling writer; superior inventive writing teacher at VCUarts; founding father of James River Writers, Pedestal Fund, Frontline Writers and Mighty Pen Undertaking; and co-founder of Podium RVA. As a devoted Fandy, he appreciates Randy Rainbow’s musically inclined political satire.