What started off, over a decade ago, as co-workers entertaining each other at a Capitol Hill Christmas party has since turned into a Washington institution. Capitol Steps, whose cast members are all either current or former congressional staffers, provide an amazingly clever, politically-oriented musical revue that is sure to liven up any convention gathering.
The Capitol Steps, the only group in America that attempts to be funnier than Congress, is a troupe of former Congressional staffers who travel the country satirizing the very people that once employed them.
Over the past 16 years the group has recorded 17 albums, including five during the Clinton Administration: Sixteen Scandals, Return to Center, A Whole Newt World, Lord of the Fires and The Joy of Sax. Other releases included: 76 Bad Loans, We Arm the World, Stand By Your Dan, and Fools on the Hill. The Capitol Steps perform over three hundred shows-a-year nationwide, from Pasadena to Pensacola and everywhere in between.
The Steps have been featured on three national specials for public television, Good Morning America, Entertainment Tonight, Nightline, The Today Show, 20/20, CBS Morning News, ABC’s World News Tonight, NBC Nightly News, and dozens of times on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered. They currently produce, with KCRW, quarterly specials for public radio stations nationwide, and they’ve been regularly featured on CNN’s Inside Politics.
The group was formed in 1981 when three staffers for Senator Charles Percy were asked to provide entertainment for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Christmas party. At first, the group considered staging a traditional nativity play, but in all of the Congress were unable to find three wise men or a virgin! So they instead dug into the headlines and hot topics of the day and created new lyrics for familiar tunes. What emerged was a special brand of satirical humor that played as well in Peoria as it did on Pennsylvania Avenue, and thanks to the likes of Ross Perot, Socks the Cat, and the entire Congress has enjoyed an ever-increasing audience.
The Capitol Steps were created during the Reagan Administration by Elaina Newport, Bill Strauss and Jim Aidala who reasoned if entertainers could become politicians, politicians could become entertainers. Since then, there’s been a tripling of the national debt, four Soviet Premiers, and more than 4,500 performances in 48 states. The group now has a full cast roster of twenty, six of whom are on stage for any one show.
All members of the cast have worked on Capitol Hill; for Democrats, Republicans and, and politicians who sit on the fence. Thanks to the scandals and screwups of our elected officials, there’s never a shortage of material. Says Elaina Newport, co-founder and performer, “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.”
Many stars and politicians, some of whom have been targets themselves, have performed with the troupe: Vice President Al Gore, Larry King, Pat Robertson, Surgeon General Koop, Mike Dukakis, and President Bush to name a few. In fact the Steps have performed for Presidents Ford, Reagan, Bush, and Clinton.
Although the Steps are based in Washington, DC, ninety percent of their performances are out-of-town or for out-of-town audiences. Whether it’s the National Welding Supply Association, a University audience, high-schoolers, or Senators, audiences love to laugh at the Steps’ political practical pokes at public figures such as Bill Clinton booking the Lincoln Bedroom at his White House Hotel (to the tune of Elvis’ “Heartbreak Hotel”) or Bob Dole singing It’s Not Easy Being Mean. Even Paula Jones gets heard as she pleads Evita-style in front of the Supreme Court Don’t Cry for Me Judge Scalia! The only complaints come from politicians and personalities who are not included in the program!
