CONGRESSMAN DAVY: A Maiden Voyage

Back when my collaborator Dean Schlabowske finished writing the music for Congressman Davy, I told him that we had accomplished something that Kurt Weill hadn’t managed to do.

In the late 1930s. Weill tried his hand at adapting a play about Davy Crockett by Hoffman Reynolds Hays (who often published as “H.R. Hayes”) as a musical. He abandoned the project in 1938, but a few of the songs were collected on a release in 2000.

Janine Sunday (Mrs. Brown), Gillian Shelly (Anne Royall), Taunya Ferguson (Sarah), and Rose McDonnell (Mrs. Ball) perform “A Song About Power” from Congressman Davy at the True Reformer Building on November 1, 2024. (Photo / Catherine Aselford)

So it was a very proud moment for the authors to hear all the songs from Congressman Davy at last in a staged reading of the piece on November 1, 2024 at the True Reformer Building on U Street NW.

One of the delights of writing the book and lyrics was finding that you didn’t really need to falsify history or concoct a new timeline to make Congressman Davy work. The events of 1833-1835 that transpire in the play actually did happen — and provided a steady stream of inspiration.

And the ferocious political polarization of that American era? I confess that any contemporary resonances in our 21st century musical are in no way accidental.

Anne Royall trumpets the premiere of her new play in the pages of Paul Pry in 1833. (Library of Congress)

Finding out that Davy Crockett could be a sore loser when he lost elections, for instance, has uncomfortable echoes in our own fraught moment. Near the end of Congressman Davy, the characters of the play give their views — pro and con — on the virtues of accepting defeat in a song called “The Great Licking”:

ANNE ROYALL: Democracy demands that we say “uncle” when we lose / Not forever. Just for now.

MRS. BROWN/WHIGS: Just depends how people choose!

ANNE ROYALL: A ballot is a ballot – even if you lose the day! / You can’t shout the voters down!

MRS. BALL/DEMOCRATS: Just depends on what they say!

We hope to see you down the road a spell with more Congressman Davy!

Until then, you can always visit our website — and sample a song from the show (“Poison Pens”) as performed by Deano and Jo.

This post first appeared on the Stage Write Sunstack on November 6, 2024.)