Life in the limelight as Rush Limbaugh

Tipton native takes starring role in “Rush Limbaugh! The Musical”

By DANIEL HUMAN

A Tipton native and former Kokomo radio reporter has a big mouth to mimic with his latest starring role.

Mark Sutton, a Tipton High School graduate who has gone on to work at The Second City theater in Chicago, took to the stage last week as the nation’s resident moon-faced, cigar-chewing, what-will-he-say-next conservative radio personality — Rush Limbaugh.

“I get to say things people would not normally say in their normal conversations,” said Sutton, who is also a founder of Chicago’s Annoyance Theater & Bar. “It’s always fun to play big, complicated characters. And he certainly is big and complicated.”

Second City opened to the public its latest endeavor into edginess, “Rush Limbaugh! The Musical,” on Wednesday. The show is initially scheduled to run six weeks.

The story line is political satire mixed into biography and fantasy.

The plot is complemented by original music, including a calypso-style number about OxyContin, and hits by Canadian rock band Rush, known for playing science-fiction-themed songs, such as “Tom Sawyer.”

The story begins in the late 1960s as it follows Limbaugh’s rise in fame as a conservative radio host, and it journeys four years into the future by the end.

“Let’s just say the show [ends] kind of like the liberal’s worst nightmare,” Sutton said. “By the time it gets to the end ... it is ‘What would happen if everybody believed everything Rush Limbaugh said?’”

The show counterbalances the political points of view by blasting a few well-known liberal Democrats, he said, such as Hillary Clinton, who has a song about why no one likes her.

It has been a quick turnaround preparing to portray a character Sutton described as a “bombastic blow-hard.”

Sutton, who has previously starred in “Manson: The Musical,” got the part as Limbaugh in December. He had a little more than a month to learn the eccentric mannerisms that span the radio guru’s on-air reign.

Sutton’s progression into the colorful role of Limbaugh emerges from an early background with little on-stage experience.

“He’s always got kind of a dry sense of humor,” Dana Sutton, Mark’s brother, said. “But if you saw him, you would never think he was ever in these types of shows. He looks like the regular businessman.”

Mark Sutton didn’t appear in an on-stage performance until his senior year of high school when he had a role in a school play.

He earned a broadcast journalism degree from Indiana University, with the ambition of becoming a baseball play-by-play analyst.

While in college, he joined a friend’s comedy troupe and had a few small successes and earned some money.

After earning his telecommunications degree, he came to Kokomo, where he worked for WIOU-AM.

It wasn’t long before his college friend who began the comedy troupe convinced him to move to Chicago.

The duo were founders of the Annoyance Theatre and began the traveling improv show “Bassprov.”

The one-act road show featured two men from a fictional Indiana town, based on Tipton and Nashville, Ind., sitting on a fishing boat. The show has been on the road for eight years.

“It’s new every time, based on ideas we get from the audience,” Sutton said. “We just drink beer and talk. ... It’s great because we tap into our Indiana roots.”

Like his improv act, Sutton’s role as Rush Limbaugh also gives him and his castmates flexibility with the script to keep the humor topical.

The challenge lies in capturing Limbaugh’s off-air, off-topic personality.

“I really admire the way he has really carefully crafted this persona. When you think of Rush Limbaugh, that’s what you think of,” Sutton said referring to Limbaugh’s on-air conservative views. “You don’t get to see what he’s like on the golf course with his buddies. He’s really crafted what you know.

“I definitely think he has opinions. First, I thought “Oh, he’s a racist, he’s sexist, he hates people.’ I don’t think he does. ... He’s in the entertainment business. He got tired of being a regular DJ.”

The show has only been open to the public for a few days, but several of Limbaugh’s die-hard fans have already offered their input, Sutton said. Some of the fans have used phrases such as “liberal hit job,” to describe the show.

“OK, A, you haven’t seen the show and you don’t know anything about it. You’re already assuming what we’re going to do,” he said in response to the fans’ criticisms. “And B, it’s funny because they’re going to argue, then they turn around and say “He’s just an entertainer. You can’t take anything he says seriously.’ And the response is: ‘We don’t.’”

• Daniel Human is a Kokomo Tribune staff writer. He can be reached at 765-454-8570 or at daniel.human@kokomotribune.com.

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