Fake Trump family riffs on real news in musical spoof

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The family of reality show star turned U.S. President Donald Trump has inspired a new Off-Broadway cabaret spoof promoted by former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci.

The entrepreneur and political consultant, who was fired from the White House after an 11-day stint a year ago, lent his name to “The 1st Annual Trump Family Special,” which opens in New York on Sept. 13, saying that its “kernels of truth make good satire.”

“I think they’d find this very funny,” Scaramucci said of the first family at a news conference. “They know how to take a joke.”

Scaramucci and Trump do not appear in the sendup, whose characters include the president’s children Ivanka, Donald Jr. and Eric, along with ex-wives Ivana Trump and Marla Maples, and U.S. Vice President Mike Pence.

Gina Gershon, best known for the title role in the kitsch movie classic “Showgirls,” will star as first lady Melania Trump in the show modeled after old TV specials featuring such 1970s acts as “The Osmonds,” “The Brady Bunch” and “The Partridge Family.”

Gershon, who has also acted as a kinky lesbian in “Bound” and Donatella Versace, sister of assassinated designer Gianni Versace, was a dead ringer for Mrs. Trump at the news conference.

“It goes without saying that this show will be best,” she said as Melania Trump. “I think this would be a very, a be best, very encouraging and lively show that shows the family exactly as they are.”

Lyrics from the show, which will run through December, comment on headlines “written by the liberal fake news.”