A Bernie Sanders Musical Takes the Revolution From Park Slope to Burlington

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A Bernie Sanders Musical Takes the Revolution From Park Slope to Burlington
Michael Appler
The Village Voice

It's a week before Christmas, and all through the land Democrats have made their last stand, calling it a day, and an orange-haired Grinch has slithered down from his tower to promise us gifts. But here in Burlington, in the sleepy neighborhood of the North End, inside a community performance hall that's sometimes rented out for "salsa socials" or once a month by a Polish family who make dinner for anyone who comes, that dream of a Bernie Sanders utopia is still alive.

Tonight, Feel the Bern — A Musical Of the People, By the People, and For the People is making its one-time-only debut. And in the front row, wearing a bright blue Bernie T-shirt and carefully watching her actors' every move, Meira Marom nervously pulls at her hair.

Performed by a cast of eight, Marom's musical is Christmas themed. Bernie Sanders is Jewish, but that doesn't matter. "Like Santa, Bernie is kind of the ultimate giver. No one gets left behind. No matter your means or background, you get a visit from him. Only his gifts are the exact opposite of Santa's consumerism-fest," says Marom. Her spectacle is also postapocalyptic and takes place in the year 2132: Global warming has washed away the eastern coast of the United States, and the characters have gathered for their holiday on the new shore — in Cleveland.

The musical seems to suggest the world we might have had today, if only things hadn't gone so wrong. It's a world where posterity does, in fact, thank us for the things we've done. A world where single-payer healthcare is common sense. Where windmills and turbines and big solar panels are lawn decorations. It's also a world that looks an awful lot like Burlington, Vermont.

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1. This is awesome