By Amy Eisen, News Correspondent

Over the top. That is the only way to fully describe NU Stage’s performance of the rock musical “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson.” But how else could a play about the seventh president captivate anyone’s attention for 90 straight minutes? Historical non-fiction lends itself well to 2,000 page tomes, but less so to live-action performances; hence the need for the punk rock angle.

The show, which ran Sunday night in Blackman Auditorium, certainly seemed to entertain the audience, which broke from laughter only to listen to the more than a dozen musical numbers. The script pushes very hard for laughter, employing clever history puns that were anything but laissez-unfaire, raunchy jokes about hepatitis and plenty of just plain funny sights, such as shirtless male American Indians, referred to exclusively as Indians, dancing around in tutus. That had to have happened at least once in the 19th century, right?

“Jackson” becomes less historical non-fiction and more a parody on history, especially with the comedic tone and the period change. The actors don tight leather pants and Converse instead of breaches and tailcoats, and heavy eyeliner replaces white powder. The dialogue is completely modern, and the punk rock music helps to create a cohesive world.

In this world, tough frontiersman Andrew Jackson fights a lot. He fights to rid his land of the American Indians, to obtain political power and to promote the common man. Jackson wants to remove the elitist aristocrats from Washington, and give the power to the people, creating a new ideology called populism. Plus, he’s a dreamy, fast-talking rock star who likes to party. He’s got a devoted posse, including plenty of soldiers, two cheerleaders who will make out with each other for a long time whenever he asks and a flamboyantly dedicated vice president, Martin Van Buren.

Eli McTigue, a sophomore dual economics and math major who starred as the eponymous character, gave the role everything he had, constantly jumping on and off every platform he could find. McTigue delivered his lines with the right touch, either with silly theatricality or more menacing manipulation. He allowed Jackson to be, at the same time, a clever mind, a loving husband, a brave fighter and a totally terrible human being.

The true legacy of Andrew Jackson has never been fully decided. He succeeded in being the first president from the frontier and introducing the idea of a populist government. Not to mention he expanded the US by over 100 million acres. In order to gain those lands, however, Jackson ruthlessly attacked American Indians time and time again. His administration oversaw the “Trail of Tears,” the forced relocation of thousands of American Indians, which resulted in a huge number of casualties.

One of the more serious scenes in the play, and by far one of the most successful, was the eerie musical number “Ten Little Indians.” Director Matthew Eaton, a fourth year chemistry major, took some creative liberty with this part, juxtaposing the massacre of an American Indian tribe with the false peace treaties of Jackson, as a result of which he takes land in exchange for an end to the bloodshed. He throws in some dream catchers, too, because there wasn’t enough stereotypical humor.

Eaton said he believes the show would be a failure if nothing was learned from it.

“This play ends leaving the audience thinking about Jackson’s decisions whether or not he was an American hero or a genocidal maniac,” he said. “A good show doesn’t spoon feed the answer for you, but lets the audience try to figure it out for themselves.”

It’s quite difficult to reach a conclusion about the legacy of Jackson, but his life story seems to make the perfect subject for a rock musical. The original show was even nominated for two 2011 Tony Awards, including best storyline and scene design of a musical.

“Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson,” however, is no serious production. No self-respecting, Prada-clad Upper East Sider would descend to Off Broadway to catch this show in the theater, but it is the perfect show for the college crowd. The crude humor, political t-bagging, unintelligibly fast dialogue and slap battles make it difficult to take the show seriously, even while touching upon the deeper political aspects. It becomes, at times, almost too stupid, but never boring. The audience does learn some facts about history, and a whole lot about the seventh US president, Andrew Jackson.