I've been a big fan of Broadway since my parents took me to see 'Grease' for my 9th birthday. Since then I have seen probably over 15 shows, and I can honestly say that 'You're Welcome America: A Final Evening With George W. Bush' is my new favorite. I had heard it was spectacular, and had very high expectations, which were matched, doubled, spanked and then cuddled with. My seats were on the 2nd mezzanine, but in the 2nd row, so overall were actually great seats, and the theater was completely packed. As I'm sure it will be every single night for the rest of it's three month run on Broadway.
The stage decor was simple: a chair, a fence, three screens along the back curtain and the infamous red emergency phone (on a podium), while Ferrell's entrance was anything but. The flapping wings of a helicopter were heard coming from the back of the theater, while a large cloud of smoke filled the stage, in a real "it's a bird, it's a plane, it's President Bush" fashion, Ferrell was lowered from the sky. Anyone who has watched Saturday Night Live, knows that Ferrell's George Dubyah's impression is spot on, but when you see it in person it is almost scary how real it seems. President Bush (as I will now refer to him) explained how he thought it was a joke that he was being brought to the Big Apple, and told the pilot to "drop him off in the faggy theater district, and here I am so I guess the joke's on me."
Former President Bush took the audience on a journey through his history, beginning with his upbringing as a true Texan, born in Connecticut, who went to boarding schools and universities in New England. He explains where he was when he was supposedly 'AWOL': spending a year full of man bonding, and western hand-jobs, in a Vermont cabin with pal, David Rothchild. Bush takes us up to election night 2000, when he was annoyed that nothing better was on TV, and trying to convince Al Gore that the Geneva Convention prevented him from taking back his concession phone call.
Upon winning the presidency, Bush shared his insecurities about not knowing what the fuck he was supposed to do. He introduced the audience to the members of his cabinet via the screens on the stage, sharing a anecdotes about each. However, one very large player gets left out because she and President Bush "have such a strong connection". This woman is Condeleeza Rice and stage right opens up and smoke pours out and Condeleeza Rice emerges and dances sexily with the President. Some critics have said that she stole the show, so I expected her role to be much larger. This was a great part in the performance, but I disagree that anyone could have stolen the show from Ferrell. The photo to the right, while somewhat unclear do to the lighting, shows Bush and Rice's sensual dance. In a similar manner, Bush went through his super top secret presidential phone book with the numbers of all the world leaders. My favorite part of this when he imitated the lisp of the leader of Spain. He spoke with the lisp for several minutes before declaring that "sometimes I just can't stop talking that way!"
The rest of the show was mostly devoted to the war in Iraq and Bush's role in it. It all started when he was reading one of the most interesting pieces of literature of his life on September 11th, 2001 and 'ended' with a large victory banner spelling out "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED". He compared himself to past presidents that he believed did a worse job than he did and even told the audience that one of his top skills was giving out nicknames. He asked for people in the audience to shout out their name and their occupation so he could come up with the best nickname they'd ever heard. My favorites were a high school student that he named 'pimple face', a history teacher that he named 'teacher of un-necessary subjects' and an unemployed man who he dubbed 'not my fault'. I thought this was pretty cool because he got the audience involved and actually made up their nicknames on the fly. Also one great thing I forgot to mention, was that throughout the show he refered to Barack Obama as 'The Tiger Woods Guy'.
The show ended and Ferrell, naturally, got a standing ovatation. The chatter heard while descending the stairs toward the exit was nothing, but extremely positive. After the show I waited at the stage door, hoping to get to meet Will Ferrell. What happened was more than I could have asked for. The first people to emerge from the stage door were comedy and marijuana pioneers, Cheech and Chong! Cheech seemed like he wanted nothing to do with anyone, but Tommy Chong waved to the crowd and allowed pictures to be taken of him. The next 
group out the woman who played Condeleeza Rice, Leslie Bibb (Mrs. Ricky Bobby in Talladega Nights), following by three members of the starting line up of the New York Knicks. Then, one of my personal favorite comedians, Louis CK, came out of the door and was kind of enough to talk to me for a few minutes and take a picture. The feeling outside was intense and excited, no one was being rude or pushing, which was plesant and unexpected.
Then the big moment came, the one and only, Will Ferrell, emerged from the stage door. He was extremely nice, especially considering how huge of a star he really is. He signed autographs for everyone waiting, leaving no one disappointed. He also took pictures with any fans that asked. One of the most exciting moments of my life was when Will Ferrell had his arm around me, my mother told me she got a picture. Unfortunately this high, was followed by one of the largest disappointments in my life, when I looked through the pictures realizing that my mom had pushed the wrong button and there, in fact, was no picture of me and one of my favorite actors of all time. I guess the lesson is: you never put any responsibility in the hands of anyone over 50, at least when technology is involved. The main thing that sucks is that many other people took pictures when he had his arm around me, yet I will never get to see one because I don't know any of these people. Oh well, I still had a great experience with the whole show and one day when I'm famous and important, I'll tell Ferrell this story and we'll laugh about it. 
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