Play on Nixon: laughs and White House parallels

[Lone_Star_Dem]

By Daniel Trotta

NEW YORK (Reuters) - In a Broadway dramatization, David Frost is grilling Richard Nixon about whether he obstructed justice in the Watergate scandal when Nixon unleashes his greatest laugh line of the night.

"Well, when the president does it that means that it is not illegal," says the Nixon character, played by Frank Langella.

The audience roars. The direct quote from the historic broadcasts resonates 30 years later, when the current U.S. president faces criticism for stretching executive privilege
"Nixon was really making a narrow point, but taken out of context it really does evoke laughter because it violates every tenet of what we know of limited power and the rule of law," said Matthew Woessner, a professor of public policy at Penn State University.

"I can imagine how that would get quite a reaction from the audience. ... Good theater also touches a chord in the current political climate," Woessner said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN2042296520070420?feedType=RSS

It sounds like this is going to be a great moment of theater.