The centerpiece of Plays & Players’ American-Presidency-themed season, Michael Friedman and Alex Timbers’ Tony-, Outer Critics Circle- and Drama Desk-award-winning musical about our seventh president receives a raw and raucous production from artistic director Daniel Student. Joe Sabatino’s Jackson, who “makes Jefferson look like a pussy,” rides a wave of anti-Washington populism and demonization of Native Americans from the Tennessee frontier to the White House, where he’s undermined by politicians (eerily portrayed as a cabal reminiscent of Batman villains) and his own overblown ego. The hilarious parallels to modern politics — Jackson promises to “take our country back” just like today’s Tea Partiers — explode in a suitably loud rock score led by music director Jamison Foreman that makes Jackson a hard-to-like but undeniably magnetic amalgamation of Bruce Springsteen and Freddie Mercury. As the title promises, blood spurts freely, but the real thrill is the contemporary deconstruction of American politics, which haven’t evolved much since 1828. 

Through Feb. 10, $25-$30, Plays & Players Theatre, 1714 Delancey Place, 800-595-4849, playsandplayers.org.