Minnesota, October 30, and a perfectly pleasant night out at the Pantages Theater turns ugly: the theater has been double booked by Laura Ingraham’s live show of “The Obama Diaries,” a “satirical indictment of Barack Obama,” and … President Obama himself.
This is the conceit of “The Obama Diaries LIVE!,” Laura Ingraham’s satirical novel adapted for the stage. It’s a scripted show, performed by Ingraham and actors, a structure Ingraham felt would better capture “the spirit of the book,” according to an associate. “President Obama, we understand, has booked the same theater the same night — so expect a showdown!” says the press release.
The book is set on the fictional premise that Ingraham has come into possession of the diaries of President Obama, the first lady Michelle Obama, Vice President Biden, and various other members of the president’s family and the Obama administration. “Because the ‘diaries’ are so revealing, Ingraham felt compelled to release them to the American public and the citizens of the world,” goes the description on Amazon.com.
The show opens in Minnesota just three days before the midterm election, and the timing was quite intentional. The show is about Obama, and therefore political in nature, so Ingraham wanted it to open before the election, says her associate. The choice to open in Minnesota is also significant, as Ingraham is supporting Republican candidate Tom Emmer for governor as well as Tea Party darling Rep. Michele Bachmann. She will be campaigning for Bachmann while in Minnesota.
Politics aside, viewers should expect a fun evening, full of lots of surprises.
But as Americans prepare to vote on what many are treating as a referendum on Obama, it’s difficult to throw politics entirely out the window. In that light, the show, though fictional, may ring quite true, says Ingraham’s associate. Reading it now, he told The Daily Caller, the book feels almost “prophetic.”
“A lot of the things written as fiction ended up coming to pass,” the associate said.