The second season of The Politician has landed, and given us a new Ben Platt cover to obsess over.
The Politician season two features two stunning musical performances from Ben Platt, including a weirdly perfect cover from an iconic Broadway musical
Ryan Murphy is not afraid to utilise the musical talents of his Tony-winning lead, with the first season featuring Ben Platt performances of Joni Mitchell track ‘River’ and his own track ‘Vienna’.
The Politician season two drops two stunning musical performances.
Season two delivered two more stellar performances from Platt, who is shown at a piano bar performing his own track ‘Run Away’ – as well as a cover of ‘Corner of the Sky’ from the 1972 Broadway musical Pippin.
It’s the Pippin cover that has enraptured fans – with the song perfectly capturing the arc of Platt’s hyper-ambitious character, Payton Hobart.
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He sings: “Rivers belong where they can ramble, eagles belong where they can fly. I’ve got to be where my spirit can run free, gotta find my corner of the sky.”
The lyrics of the track also do double duty as a knowing reference to the character’s deceased love interest River.
The track comes at a crucial moment in the show’s final episode – and plays a surprisingly pivotal role in Payon’s election battle against New York state senator Dede Standish (Judith Light).
Fans want Ben Platt to star in a Pippin revival.
Of course, fans of Platt on YouTube have reacted proportionately.
One wrote: “Give BEN PLATT the friggin’ Bible and let him deliver you from evil and take you to the gates of HEAVEN!”
Another added: “As soon as he started singing I began silently screaming and cheering cause my family was asleep while I marathon the who series.”
Others called for Platt – who actually starred in a high school production of Pippin – to front a Broadway revival of the show.
A full-scale revival may be some way off, sadly, as Pippin was revived on Broadway only a few years ago, in 2013. There may also be a wait before The Politician returns.
It might be a while before The Politician‘s third and final season.
Ryan Murphy had initially suggested that the show would continue to follow Payton throughout his political career as he takes on bigger and bigger races – but the prolific TV creator revealed in April that he is planning to draw it to a close after just three seasons.
He also indicated that the third season might not be on the cards for quite a while.
Murphy told Collider: “I would like to do, and I think all of us involved in it would probably like to do three seasons total, and I think where season two ends, what I would love to do is take a couple of years off and have Ben Platt get a little bit older for his final race.
“That would obviously be a presidential race, right? That’s always what we had designed, and I think that’s what our plan is.”
The second season finale pretty directly sets up the prospect of Payton becoming a vice presidential candidate alongside Judith Light’s Dede Standish.
It also includes a throwaway reference to abolishing the lower age limit of 35 for candidates – suggesting that fans may not have to wait a full decade for Platt, currently 26, to age into the part.