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KLMNO ArtsSUNDAY&, JULY 22, 2018St . SECTION E yle EZ EE DOUG KAPUSTIN FOR THE WASHINGTON POST BY CHRIS RICHARDS Lori McKenna can mint country hits out of everyday talk, just not every day. On a recent visit to How Lori McKenna writes the most the hair salon, with her head thrown back in the sink, she was listening for lyrics over a rush of warm water, hoping that the talky woman in the next chair might volunteer a few magic words. devastating ballads in country music Sloshsloshslosh. Blahblahblah. And . nope. Instead of going home with a new hook in her head, McKenna had to settle for some new color in her hair. But this is how her songwriting often begins — eavesdropping and people-watching while she runs her daily errands. “We’re all people-watchers in some way,” McKenna says over the telephone from her living room in Massachusetts. “We see a person, and we make a story up in our head. I don’t know if empathy is the right word, but we develop some curiosity in one another.” McKenna’s exquisite new album, “The Tree,” directs that curiosity toward families — her family, LISTENING FOR other people’s families, imagined families, families where the kids grow up too fast, and the parents grow old too soon, families that make her new songs feel as mundane and urgent as life and death. And while many have praised McKenna for her ability to elevate our most piddling pedestrian life-stuff to profound heights, for her, there’s no heavy lifting involved. When the ordinary is already extraordinary, the music is all around us. MAGIC WORDS MCKENNA CONTINUED ON E12 Escaping into ‘Hamilton’: A revolution in dance ‘The West Wing’ BY SARAH L. KAUFMAN To distract from the drama of the real-life Democracy in action has never looked cooler than in “Hamilton,” in which the fighting White House, some turn to a fictional one strength of people who changed the world comes through in the tension and bravado of BY ZACHARY PINCUS-ROTH the choreography. Contemporary urgency is the great gift of Paul and Shirley Attryde drove from Durham, N.C., to this remarkable musical, which has begun its Washington this spring for a live taping of “The West fourth year on Broadway and has spawned Wing Weekly,” a podcast about a TV series that ended 12 numerous touring produc- years ago. They stood on the Lincoln Theatre stairs before CRITIC’S tions, including one now at the show, watching audience members line up to meet NOTEBOOK the Kennedy Center. Credit hosts Hrishikesh Hirway and Josh Malina, who spend the fiery magnetism of its key about an hour every week analyzing a single episode. performers (I’ve recently seen both the New The Attrydes, both in their 40s, are apolitical, but still — York and Washington casts, and they’re equally these days, rewatching a show about idealistic wonks strong), as well as creator Lin-Manuel Miran- working for a Nobel Prize-winning economist president is da’s Pulitzer Prize-winning rap lyrics and com- “a little slice of heaven,” said Paul, wearing a gray “West positional mastery. Wing Weekly” sweatshirt. “It’s the president we all want But there’s another, relatively unsung hero, but don’t have.” and his name is Andy Blankenbuehler. “When you see so much partisanship and so much He’s the one who makes the revolution sexy. anger and hatred of politics right now,” Shirley added, “it’s And not just because the dancers are, pretty refreshing to remember that maybe there are people much, wearing underwear. (And boots.) behind the scenes that really are trying their best to work Blankenbuehler won a Tony for his “Hamil- for the greater good.” ton” choreography and has two others, for On the podcast, Hirway brings a fan’s passion and a Miranda’s earlier musical “In the Heights” and, critic’s rigor, while Malina, who played deputy communi- more recently, “Bandstand.” Yet the intricacy cations director Will Bailey on “The West Wing,” is the and impact of his work haven’t received nearly comic relief. At the Lincoln Theatre, Malina trades insults the same critical attention as “Hamilton’s” JOAN MARCUS with fellow former cast member (and frequent guest) other elements. Julia K. Harriman, Sabrina Sloan and Isa Briones in the Kennedy Center production of WEST WING CONTINUED ON E4 HAMILTON CONTINUED ON E5 “Hamilton.” The show’s dancing is primarily hip-hop, but it’s deeply idiosyncratic. E4 PG EE THE WASHINGTON POST . SUNDAY, JULY 22, 2018 communications director Toby 1999 to 2006, predating TV’s full Ziegler, said that since 2016, he’s pivot toward anti-heroes, as po- In 2018, seen “a massive spike” in the litical shows turned to the craven number of people talking about operators on “House of Cards” the show. and “Scandal” and childish bum- ‘The West “On Twitter every single day blers on “Veep.” In one episode, there’s a reference to some ‘West the president appoints two Su- Wing’ episode and people la- preme Court justices, one liberal Wing’ still menting the fact that the Bartlet and one conservative, in the administration can’t be in the name of spirited debate. A Re- White House for real,” he added. publican presidential candidate resonates “Seventy percent of my tweets argues for free trade, and the [sent to me] are still ‘West Wing’ winning Democrat wants to WEST WING FROM E1 related despite the fact that I’m make him secretary of state. apparently on a very big hit show “People tell us that they turn to Bradley Whitford as longtime right now” (ABC’s “The Good ‘The West Wing’ these days as Democratic operative Ron Klain Doctor”). some kind of salve,” Hirway said. chimes in with a real-world per- Revisiting the series on Net- The podcast, he said, “lets them spective. flix means revisiting modera- marinate in that beyond just the “This is the closest I’m getting tion, collegiality, principles over 42 minutes of an episode.” to the actual West Wing until partisanship. Compare the vir- Dan Pfeiffer, communications 2021,” Klain said to audience tuous-to-a-fault communica- director under President Barack cheers. tions director Ziegler to the Obama, binged the first five “The West Wing Weekly’s” 10-day flameout of Anthony seasons with his wife after the guests have included Sen. Tammy Scaramucci. The characters for- 2016 election. On the liberal Duckworth (D-Ill.) and Canadian get their own imperfections but activist podcast “Pod Save Amer- Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, help each other overcome them ica,” he said that after a Trump and it sold out its five-city tour, (some questionable gender poli- speech in Phoenix, “[we] from Boston to Dublin. Its popu- tics aside). As Ziegler tells Mar- cleansed our palette afterward larity — an average of 1.3 million tin Sheen’s President Jed Bartlet, by watching an old ‘West Wing’ downloads a month — indicates “In a battle between a presi- on Netflix to remind ourselves just how much the NBC series dent’s demons and his better that there was a time, at least in still resonates, especially for angels, for the first time in a long our fictional history, when we those on the leftward side of the while, I think we just might have had a good, sane president.” political spectrum. ourselves a fair fight.” Alyssa Mastromonaco, an NBC/GETTY IMAGES Richard Schiff, who played “The West Wing” ran from Obama deputy chief of staff, TV’s “West Wing”: Stockard Channing, Janel Moloney, Rob Lowe, John Spencer, Dule Hill, Bradley wrote an essay in October saying, Whitford, Allison Janney and Richard Schiff surround Martin Sheen, who played President Bartlet. “I now find myself joining all those escapist liberals who like to The Monica Lewinsky scandal common purpose in the country,” Given current events and Hol- reminisce about ‘The West landed as Sorkin had finished Attie recalled. But the show came lywood’s nostalgia fever, Sorkin Wing.’ ” And Chris Lu, Obama’s typing the pilot and was one back with an episode about the has said NBC gave him a standing OUR PRESSES DON’T STOP. Cabinet secretary, said in an in- reason its premiere was delayed roots of terrorism, kicking off its offer for a reboot, and he has terview that the show “reminds for a year: “It was hard . to look third of four seasons winning the suggested that “This Is Us” star me of working for a president at the White House and think of best drama Emmy, on its way to Sterling K. Brown play a new who was 100 percent committed anything but a punchline,” Sor- becoming a fictional liberal oasis president. NEITHER to public service, working with kin said in one oral history. during the Bush years. Malina predicts it won’t hap- White House staffers, my col- Eli Attie, an Al Gore speech- The show was more in tune pen — not that it wouldn’t be SHOULD YOUR leagues, who were there to fur- writer who became a writer on with the Obama administration. welcome. In revisiting each epi- ther the public interest instead of the show, said that when it In 2004, during the senator’s sode, he has found that “the show SUBSCRIPTION. enriching themselves.” premiered, in 1999, “there were political rise, Attie consulted does not feel like a museum Aaron Sorkin, the show’s cre- some people who thought it was with Obama adviser David Axel- piece, or something that’s been ator, is flattered that it’s still a an antidote to the Clinton White rod to inspire the presidential preserved under glass because all subject of conversation.