Super Tuesday is here in what’s sure to be a pivotal day in the 2020 presidential race.
So it’s once again time to roast the politicians in the 65th annual Hexagon political comedy show, which performs every Thursday, Friday and Saturday from March 6-21.
“We want to have fun with both sides,” Hexagon media director Gene Tighe told WTOP. “We want our conservatives and our liberals to enjoy themselves. That’s what this is all about. Hexagon has always been non-partisan.”
While last year’s theme was aptly titled “Romp in the Swamp,” this year carries a Dr. Seuss style banner: “One State, Two State, Red State, Blue State.”
Which current events might be spoofed?
“Immigration, Medicare for All … the Middle East … the economy,” Tighe said. “You’re without a doubt going to see something on impeachment. … We’re in the middle of an election year with the Iowa Caucus having problems and of course Super Tuesday.”
Past guests have included U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, former Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, Congresswoman Connie Morella of Maryland, Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton of D.C., and Congresswoman Donna Shalala of Florida.
“I saw [Donna] in the hallway and she’s more excited than I am,” Tighe said. “She wants to come back, so we forwarded her an invitation, so she might pop up.”
After many years at Woodrow Wilson High School in Northwest D.C., this year moves to the 300-seat Synetic Theater in Crystal City, Virginia. Tighe hopes to capture the area’s recent boom with the new Amazon headquarters and of course the Pentagon.
“We had to find a venue that would take us for three weeks at a moderate cost,” Tighe said. “A number of venues that we’ve had before like Duke Ellington have gone up considerably in cost, so Hexagon is going to have to look [at] smaller theaters.”
This evolution also means adapting the material for younger audiences.
“We’ve got to think about the new generation [and] challenging them to a new brand of humor,” Tighe said. “Hexagon is evolving to the new Hexagon. It’s been 65 years where we’ve done things pretty much the same way.”
Hexagon was founded in 1955 by an alum of the Princeton Triangle Club. The new group was dubbed Hexagon (double the Triangle) with three men and three women.
Founder Charles Ilsley and satirist Tom Lehrer wrote songs and parodies for a show called “Meet the Beep,” donating $3,500 in profits to the American Cancer Society.
Sixty-five years later, Hexagon has donated over $3.5 million to 40-plus organizations as America’s oldest original political satirical musical comedy revue.
While last year’s proceeds benefited cancer victims at Hope Connections in Bethesda, Maryland, this year’s charity is SMYAL, which assists youth in the LGBTQ community.
The show is staged by an all-volunteer team of writers and performers, whose day jobs range from lawyers to government workers.
“A lot of them are government workers that have been involved … in some kind of performing throughout their adult lives,” Tighe said. “They come [to] Hexagon because it’s a great release. It’s a fun thing. They want to laugh, they want to have a good time, and believe it or not, we’ve had a lot of folks meet their spouses or partners at Hexagon.”
Planning for this year’s show began several weeks after last year’s performance.
“These folks, depending on how things are going in the news … they’re going to start thinking about it,” Tighe said. “‘Okay, what happened here, what’s going on that we could possibly put together for a little shtick or a little sketch or a song.”
Around August or September, they held meetings to start writing the show.
“They get together, saying, ‘This is an idea that I have, I’d like to do something on Metro or I’d like to do something on D.C. traffic,'” Tighe said. “They write the material and somebody walks in and said, ‘You know, I’ve got a little jingle that might work with that.'”
Auditions are held in early December, followed by rehearsals throughout the winter.
“If you’re on stage at Hexagon, you spent a lot of time putting together material and rehearsing it,” Tighe said. “It gets changed and rehearsed up to the very last minute, so you’re seeing people who have devoted much of their lives the previous four or five months to Hexagon. It’s really a passion.”
Hear our full conversation below:
