‘Citizen Drumpf’ parodies Trump sayings, Clinton emails and more

Creators of new musicals — or any new work of art, really — typically rewrite, edit, cut and add material up to the last minute of opening night, and then, often, after that.

Even so, Matthew Lord’s new musical has had an unusually excessive number of changes. That’s because it’s about Donald Trump.

“I’ve done, like, 5,000 rewrites,” Lord says, “and I have to keep adding and changing things because almost every day he gives new material.”

The musical is called Citizen Drumpf, beginning late-night performances this weekend at one of the scrappiest musical-theater outfits in North Texas, OhLook Performing Arts Center in Grapevine. Lord, a founding member of 3 Redneck Tenors, wrote the book and lyrics, and co-wrote the music with Kelley Poche Rodriguez.

It’s loosely based on Citizen Kane, and uses the current presidential election cycle as the focus to look back at the life and politics of not only Trump, but the Clintons and other big names. Bernie Sanders is the narrator.

“I painted it with large brush strokes, because I want it to have legs that go further than the election cycle,” says Lord.

His plan after these two weekends (shows are at 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays) is to rework it again based on audience response and then bring the show back for a longer run at OhLook through the election — and possibly after.

There are two endings worked in, depending on the outcome of the November election.

OhLook is a youth theater with classes for kids, teens and adults, and has become known for doing edgier musicals — this season has been politically themed, with productions of Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, American Idiot: The Musical and others. Last year, OhLook offered the area premiere of the once-controversial and hugely vulgar Jerry Springer: The Opera.

Expect no less from Citizen Drumpf (the name “Drumpf” was uncovered and coined by John Oliver on HBO’s Last Week Tonight, and Stephen Colbert has run with it). Lord might be part of the squeaky-clean 3 Redneck Tenors, which has had successful runs in Branson, Mo., for several seasons — but he also has a delightfully twisted mind. Five years ago he wrote a naughty musical parody of Annie with a rhyming title that is a derogatory name for transsexuals.

That used parody music. This one is his first with original music. Lord is an opera singer who has performed at the Metropolitan Opera and elsewhere, and met his wife, Jill Lord, a former opera soprano who runs OhLook, on the opera circuit. The songs range from doo-wop to hip-hop to rock to Broadway, Matthew Lord says.

Although the musical definitely skewers Trump, Lord says Citizen Drumpf is not about bashing Republicans. There are Clinton jokes about the emails and Monica Lewinsky, and a number of players from the 2016 GOP and Democratic primaries. Also included: Howard Stern, Vladimir Putin and many others.

As for the outrageous things that the character Drumpf says in the musical, they’re all versions of what has actually come out of Trump’s mouth since he announced he was running in 2015, but also things from his past, considering he’s been in the celebrity spotlight since the 1980s.

If there’s a message to Citizen Drumpf, it’s about the level of political animosity — especially on Facebook — that embroils the nation.

“I’ve always been a San Francisco liberal, but I can sit down with my Republican friends and we can have a great conversation about our differences and similarities, and we don’t demonize each other,” he says. “The show has a lot of fun humor in it. People will laugh because they recognize that it’s all true.”

This story was originally published August 2, 2016 at 3:55 PM with the headline "‘Citizen Drumpf’ parodies Trump sayings, Clinton emails and more."