Spoofing Washington's Weird Ways

Capitol Steps lampoon everyone from the president down

By Thomas H. Moore/AllPolitics

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, June 26) -- This town has its share of institutions, ranging from the Smithsonian to the Brookings to Sen. Strom Thurmond. But few of them are as consistently funny as the Capitol Steps, a 16-year-old musical political comedy troupe that has become a minor industry here.

The troupe has blossomed from just a few members holding down day jobs to a full-time group of 20 holding forth in three cities and on 17 albums.

The Steps' home base is a D.C. nightclub called Chelsea's, tucked away in an office building in Georgetown. As the audience knocks back drinks or dinner several nights a week, the performers belt out a cascade of songs, poking at Democrats and Republicans with equal intensity, though they save some energy for Ross Perot.

Typical Steps titles: "Don't Cry For Me, Judge Scalia," a Paula Jones takeoff on "Don't Cry For Me, Argentina," from "Evita," and "It's Not Easy Bein' Mean," with Bob Dole subbing in for Kermit the Frog.

It takes six of the 20 Steps to make a show, and they rotate between the D.C. show and an off-Broadway production in New York. A similar production begins in San Francisco in July.

They spend much of their time on the road doing one-night stands; they've got shows in Ann Arbor, Mich.; Carlisle, Pa.; Montgomery, Ala.; and Stratton, Vt., in July. Full details can be found on the Steps Web site.

The Capitol Steps also make the rounds in a variety of media. AllPolitics has collected several of their numerous appearances on CNN's "Inside Politics" on a special Sights & Sounds page. They can be heard on National Public Radio, and have been spotted on "The Tonight Show," "Good Morning, America," "Nightline" and "NBC Nightly News," among other shows.

The Steps got their start in December 1981 at a Christmas party for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, when three members of Illinois Republican Sen. Charles Percy's staff were asked to provide entertainment.

According to troupe legend, they wanted to put on a traditional Nativity play, but in all of Congress were unable to find three wise men or a virgin.

So they lifted a giant fake check that had been created as a prop for a subcommittee debate, and used it to illustrate a little ditty entitled "Immense Expense Is Mainly In Defense."

The song was a big hit, and troupe members split their time between day and night jobs until Paul Simon stepped up in 1984, tossing Percy from the Senate and converting part-time Steps work into full-time.

All its members worked on Capitol Hill at some point, though as producer Elaina Newport confesses in The AllPolitics Interview, some of them just had college internships.

The troupe boasts a long list of admirers, some of whom are of two minds in their support. "The Capitol Steps," said George Bush, "make it easier to leave public life." Steps members are extremely proud of the Surgeon General's warning with which C. Everett Koop branded them: "The Capitol Steps will cause your sides to split."

The troupe's name stems from the spot in Washington where former Rep. John Jenrette (D-S.C.) and his then-wife and soon-to-be-Playboy-model Rita claimed to have made love one night.