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CAPITOL STEPS BRINGS MUSICAL-POLITICAL SATIRE TO GPAC
8/07/08

Germantown Performing Arts Centre

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 7, 2008

 

 

CAPITOL STEPS BRINGS MUSICAL-POLITICAL SATIRE TO GPAC

 

The Germantown Performing Arts Center presents a side-splitting evening with the Capitol Steps on Saturday, September 20 at 8 p.m.  Celebrate election year as the group that put the "mock" in democracy, takes aim at our electoral process.

 

WHO:             The Capitol Steps

 

WHEN:          Saturday, September 20, 8 p.m.

 

TICKETS:     Single tickets are $45, plus handling fee, and are available now by calling

(901) 751-7500 or online at www.GPACweb.com.

 

Box Office Hours: Monday through Friday between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m.

or noon the day of performance. All major credit cards accepted.

 

WHERE:       Germantown Performing Arts Centre

                        1801 Exeter Road

                        Germantown, TN 38138

 

CONTACT:   For more information or to arrange an interview with the artist(s), please contact Carrie Corbett at (901) 751-7501 or carrie@gpacweb.com.

 

IMAGES:       See attached

 

ARTIST WEB:   www.capsteps.com

 

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY:

Over twenty-five years ago, the Capitol Steps began as a group of Senate staffers who set out to satirize the very people and places that employed them. In the years that followed, many of the Steps ignored the conventional wisdom ("Don't quit your day job!"), and although not all of the current members of the Steps are former Capitol Hill staffers, taken together the performers have worked in a total of eighteen Congressional offices and represent 62 years of collective House and Senate staff experience.

 

Since they began, the Capitol Steps have recorded 28 albums, including their latest, Campaign and Suffering. They've been featured on NBC, CBS, ABC, and PBS, and can be heard 4 times a year on National Public Radio stations nationwide during their Politics Takes a Holiday radio specials.

 

The Capitol Steps were born in December, 1981 when some staffers for Senator Charles Percy were planning entertainment for a Christmas party. Ronald Reagan was President when the Steps began, so co-founders Elaina Newport, Bill Strauss and Jim Aidala figured that if entertainers could become politicians, then politicians could become entertainers! Their first idea was to stage a nativity play, but in the whole Congress they couldn't find three wise men or a virgin! So, they decided to dig into the headlines of the day, and created song parodies & skits which conveyed a special brand of satirical humor that was as popular in Peoria as it was on Pennsylvania Avenue.

 

Most cast members have worked on Capitol Hill; some for Democrats, some for Republicans, and others for politicians who firmly straddle the fence. No matter who holds office, there's never a shortage of material. Says Elaina Newport, "Typically the Republicans goof up, and the Democrats party. Then the Democrats goof up and the Republicans party. That's what we call the two-party system."

 

Although the Capitol Steps are based in Washington, DC, most of their shows are out-of-town or for out-of-town audiences, whether it's the National Welding Supply Association, a University audience, High Schoolers, or State Legislators. In fact, the Capitol Steps have performed for the last 5 Presidents (6, if you include Hillary). The only complaints the Steps seem to get are from politicians and personalities who are not included in the program!

 

The material is updated constantly, whether it is the Democrats' current infatuation with Barack Obama in "A Leader Like Barack" (to "The Leader of the Pack") or the latest opinion from Ann Coulter ("Loonies of the Right") or on the international side, President Bush and the Prime Minister of Japan reconciling their differences in the touching "Stand By Japan." No matter who's in the headlines, or which party has the scandal of the day, the Capitol Steps are there to skewer our nation's elected officials.

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