NEW YORK—The city’s political reporters, past and present, lampooned Mayor Bill de Blasio at the annual Inner Circle show Saturday.
The mayor responded by adding more fuel to the media’s fire, poking fun at his follies on snow removal and his son’s now famous Afro.
“Dante’s hair has a higher approval rating than I do,” de Blasio said in a skit.
The first two acts of the show were titled Stuck with de Bill, and performed by a ragtag crew of reporters, young and old. The story portrays de Blasio as Mayor Hood in Chirlane Forest, on a journey to Albany to fund his universal prekindergarten plan.
Along the way, de Blasio meets scores of characters, both real and fictional, including Polar Vortex, Bipolar Vortex, Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, NYPC Commissioner William Bratton, Poor City, Rich City, and Cardinal Timothy Dolan.
In Albany, de Blasio’s gang is decimated by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is portrayed as Darth Vader.
Out of desperation, the mayor calls on his predecessor, Michael Bloomberg, who agrees to accept the entire burden of de Blasio’s proposed tax on the wealthy to fund the desired pre-K plan, plus much more.
Though composed of mostly inexperienced performers, the press’s show managed a few gems, including a “Tale of Two Cities,” a song set to Lorde’s “Royal’s.”
“And baby he’ll rule, he’ll rule, he’ll rule, with a mandate fantasy,” was part of the chorus.
Inner Circle is in its 92st year. For the first few decades the reporters’ roast was followed by a standup routine from a mayor, but the show entered a new era in 1966 when Mayor John Lindsay put on a full song-and-dance routine.
Since then, mayors have taken the stage to poke fun at themselves. Highlights include Bloomberg’s routines with the casts of Broadway hits like “Chicago,” “Spamalot,” “Mary Poppins,” and “Mamma Mia”! He once exited the stage on a donkey he named “The Burro of Manhattan.”
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