''The Fix'' premiered at the [[Donmar Warehouse]] in April 1997 under the direction of [[Sam Mendes]]. Its working title was "Cal: A Musical Tale of Relative Insanity". After mixed critical reception, the material were rewritten and the tone made more comic. The revised version, featuring an expanded, bolder orchestration, was premiered at the Signature Theatre, [[Arlington, Virginia]].
===Plot===
Days before a United States presidential election, shoo-in candidate Reed Chandler suffers a fatal coronary between the thighs of his mistress. Before the body has turned cold, the dead man's widow, Violet, and brother, Grahame (a speechwriter and spin doctor crippled from birth by polio and jealous of his brother's public success) - not keen to see their patience and preparation go to waste - are conspiring to replace him with his own son, an unambitious drifter, Calvin. Cal is enlisted in the army and married off to a perky debutante before developing a hard drug problem and being photographed during sex with his mistress, a nightclub singer named Tina McCoy. To cover up Cal's indescretion, Grahame is forced to call upon the services of the city's criminal underworld, headed by Anthony Gliardi, who we are told is a "friend of the family". The years pass; Cal is elected governor and his wife bears a son. The list of favours owed to Gliardi grows longer, Cal's addiction deepens and Grahame's legs finally give way and he is condemned to life in a wheelchair. After a drying out period, Cal rediscovers his sense of self. He confronts the press, coming clean about his misgivings and the Chandler's relationship with Gliardi. Cal becomes the media darling once again, however on the eve of the [[United States Senate]] nominations, Gliardi uses Tina to lure Cal away from his family, then shoots them both. The play comes full circle as at Cal's funeral, Violet and Grahame move in on Cal's young son. And suddenly the future doesn't look so dim after all.
