TEDDY

Teddy Roosevelt roars, fumes, and looks back on his life and family in this graphic version of Luckinbill’s one-man stage show Teddy Tonight.

Though the background dissolves at need into various historical scenes, it’s the performance that Tait portrays here, depicting in his black, white, and slate-blue panels a Roosevelt who looks like Luckinbill in makeup and returning frequently to facial close-ups and a simple stage setting with a podium, a few items of furniture, and a teddy bear. Threaded with direct quotes, the monologue mixes biographical reminiscences both tragic and fond with furious (and cogent!) fulminations about the inability of Woodrow Wilson and other World War I–era “flubdubs” to accept the futility of trying to reason with those who only respect force. It is left largely intact—with edits that serve to lend TR’s environmental vision and his liberal views on civil and human rights a (largely if not entirely deserved) glossy sheen. The legendary force of his personality is more clearly evoked in the live show, which is available online for free, but readers will still hear echoes of it here. Along with a coherent overview of TR’s accomplishments, they will come away with a clear picture of his character as one for whom father, family, and a profound desire to live a “worthwhile” life were the chief values.

It’s not physically nuanced, but it’s a vivid picture of Teddy at his most admirable…and prescient.