THE HANGOVER REPORT – The hilarity doesn’t cease in Selina Fillinger’s shallow farce POTUS: OR, BEHIND EVERY GREAT DUMBASS ARE SEVEN WOMEN TRYING TO KEEP HIM ALIVE

Lilli Cooper, Rachel Dratch, and Vanessa Williams in Selina Fillinger’s “POTUS ” at the Shubert Theatre (photo by Paul Kolnik).

Also this past weekend, I caught Selina Fillinger’s new Broadway comedy POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive, a relatively last minute entry in the busy spring theater calendar. The title pretty much sums up the piece, both in terms of content and tone. The play takes place on a particularly hectic day at the White House, during which the women that surround the President of the United States – namely his chief of staff and press secretary (and eventually the first lady, a journalist, his mistress, and his renegade sister) – manically try to keep the administration afloat by any means possible.

Happily, like any farce worth its salt, the hilarity doesn’t cease from curtain up. For her play, Ms. Filinger has written a series of raucous, snappy scenes that’s pitched towards the rafters (as such, POTUS actually fits quite snugly in the Shubert Theatre, one of Broadway’s flagship theaters for musical comedies). As if to prove the point that the ladies onstage are anything but damsels in distress, the playwright has given them swaggering, cuss-filled dialogue that would make a truck driver proud. That the play’s relentlessly no-holds-barred approach comes at the expense of any substantial character development is no surprise. Indeed, aside from providing raucous entertainment, the play is actually quite shallow, only digging skin deep in its depiction of girl power, which is neither here nor there. POTUS exists, first and foremost, to be an empowering, rip-roaring good time, and it most certainly is that.

POTUS has been directed by five-time Tony-winner Susan Stroman, who sustains the play’s farcical momentum brilliantly. At less than two hours (including an intermission), the production flies through the scenes like a rocket ship in full throttle. Better known for helming musicals like The Producers, Ms. Stroman imbues her staging with an agile physicality whose choreography is skillfully hidden beneath the chaos. The hardworking all-woman/non-binary cast are a boisterous hoot, namely Lea Delaria, Rachel Dratch, Julianne Hough, and Julie White – each of whom bring a distinctive comic fiber to the overall fabric of the piece. Rounding out the starry cast are Vanessa Williams, Lilli Cooper, and Suzy Nakamura, who are no slouches either.

RECOMMENDED

POTUS: OR, BEHIND EVERY GREAT DUMBASS ARE SEVEN WOMEN TRYING TO KEEP HIM ALIVE
Broadway, Play
Shubert Theatre
1 hour, 50 minutes (with one intermission)
Through August 14

Categories: Broadway, Theater

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