Odd but interesting look at American power structures. You can fast forward through the musical parts.
The world’s first dramatic-documentary-musical satire explores our country’s most taboo topic: class, the presence of an elite in our nominally democratic republic. Harper’s Magazine editor Lewis Lapham takes two young Ivy-League graduates on a tour of the corridors of power and their own career possibilities. Along the way they meet an all-star cast, including, among many others, former cabinet secretaries (James Baker) corporate mandarins (Peter G. Peterson) newspaper publishers (Arthur O. Sulzberger, Jr.) and at least one journalist working as a waitress (Barbara Ehrenreich). By story’s end, the graduates’ choice of career takes on great weight: will they try to save the world, or rule it?
The Participants: An all-star ensemble cast
Robert B. Altman Film Producer, Director and Writer
James A. Baker III Honorary Chair, James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, Rice University
Secretary of State, 1989-1992, Bush Administration
Secretary of the Treasury, 1985-1988,
Reagan Administration
Under Secretary of Commerce, 1975-1976, Ford Administration
Bill Bradley Allen & Company
US Senator, New Jersey, 1978-1997
NBA, Starting Forward, New York Knicks, 1967-1977
Harold Brown Partner, Warburg Pincus
Secretary of Defense, 1977-1981, Carter Administration
President, California Institute of Technology, 1969-1977
Secretary of the Air Force, 1965-1969,
Johnson Administration
Hodding Carter III President, Knight Foundation
State Department Spokesman, 1977-1980, Carter Administration
William T. Coleman, Jr. Attorney, O’Melveny and Myers
Secretary of Transportation, 1975-1977,
Ford Administration
Walter Cronkite Journalist
CBS News Anchorman, 1962-1981
Barbara Ehrenreich Author, Journalist
Vartan Gregorian President, Carnegie Corporation
President, Brown University, 1989-1997
President, The New York Public Library, 1981-1989
Mike Medavoy Chairman, Phoenix Pictures
Chairman, Tri-Star Pictures, 1990-1994
Co-Founder, Orion Pictures, 1978-1990
Joseph S. Nye, Jr. Dean, Harvard University, Kennedy School of
Government, 1995-2004
Chairman, National Intelligence Council, 1993-1994,
Clinton Administration
Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security
Affairs, 1994-1995, Clinton Administration
Samuel Peabody Educator, Philanthropist
Pete Seeger Folksinger, Songwriter
Lawrence H. Summers President, Harvard University
Secretary of the Treasury, 1999-2001,
Clinton Administration
Arthur O. Sulzberger, Jr. Chairman, The New York Times Company
Publisher, The New York Times
William Howard Taft IV Chief Legal Advisor, US State Department
Acting Secretary of Defense, 1989, Bush Administration
Deputy Secretary of Defense, 1984-1989, Reagan Administration
Kurt Vonnegut author, Essayist, Dramatist