“POTUS”: Theater Criticism

The energy of anxiety has been circulating in the atmosphere for months and years since the election of former President Donald Trump. The absurd campaign brought victory, and then an even more ridiculous administration. Some Americans were never able to bear the impossibility of the impossible, but for others — typically whites, tanks, liberals — Trump’s election changed reality and forced a reshuffle. If a rude, narcissistic businessman can be elected to the highest office in the country, what else can happen?

comes out a lot The Trump years brought catastrophic laws and court appointments. Each day began with a new wave of headlines featuring a group of characters so disgusting they seemed surreal. stuffed saddle POTUS: Or behind every great fool seven women try to save him It would have been an excellent production for those years. The play, now at the Schubert Theater, is an intentional farce, a dramatic comedy that seeks to clarify jokes and crude performances to shed light on the relationship with women in American society.

POTUS It is about patriarchy and how it works even when its main beneficiaries are not. But the way in which the work approaches its subject does not always have a greater meaning. Fillinger wants to play around with funny system-based ideas, but has an understandable urge to follow his characters to make us laugh at them rather than at them. The play reaches a level of desperation and hysteria he cannot see. And production takes a rather strange position between positions: it ruins the patriarchy and elevates the girl.

This is the song that initially leads to tension. As I watched the audience settle into their seats, P!Nk’s anthem blasted through the speakers. I found it confusing to avoid the audience’s experience of such serious pop music, but I found it ironic because the beginning of the play promises fun.

The theater darkens and the stage glows to reveal Julie White and Susie Nakamura, respectively, as well as White House Chief of Staff Harriet and Press Secretary Jean, protesting the gravity of the anonymous president’s recent seniority. Its rhythmic, caustic dialogue immediately confirms the sharpness of Fillinger’s pen. “Cunt” is the first word uttered, a deliciously abrasive beginning.

This is a word the president used during an earlier meeting with his wife. Technically, he said “jokingly” and apologized to top reporters and three Chinese diplomats: “Please forgive me for my wife’s absence. You had a nasty morning.” Even worse, his wife Margaret (Vanessa Williams) was there for 10 minutes; he just didn’t see it.

The situation puts the chief of staff and the press secretary in a dire situation. They spent the race saving the president of her virginity, and the latter case threatens the female lead event (Board of Women Models, or its abbreviation: FML), which they hosted for the evening.

The performances are the main thing. POTUS And the actors, led by Susan Stroman, will exceed expectations. They deliver their lines conveniently, which keeps the game flexible and in the right tension. White, with his nervous, shrill agility, wide eyes, and waving arms, complements Nakamura’s deliberately stern posture and breathy cadences. Their creation and brainstorming sessions hit the perfect combination of comics and stress.

Her scene ends and the scene, beautifully styled by Beowulf Borit, returns for another meeting, this one between Margaret and the President’s meek secretary Stephen (the phenomenal Rachel Drach). They get into a verbal fight, Stephanie tries and fails to get into Margaret’s President’s office. He’s too busy, Stephanie argues. Margaret, dressed in a clean double-breasted red suit (because she’s trying to get up off the floor), doesn’t mind. (She Don’t Yell at Linda Cho’s Costume, which makes the First Lady’s Invasion one of the strongest parts of the cross-fashion show.)

Margaret wonders if the president is drinking tea tree oil on his anal abscess, which he developed overnight along with one of his dairy products. Everyone suspects the mystery lover is Dusty (Juliana Huff), a funny, furry woman who broke into the White House bathroom in the first half of the action and announced terrible news. As if the day couldn’t get any worse, now there’s a problem with the president’s sister, Bernadette (Leah Delaria), being released from prison through a series of lucrative connections to apologize to her brother. Around the perimeter of this chaos revolves Chris (Lily Cooper), a journalist trying to unravel a story she suspects runs deeper than the “bad” fake pass that’s already making headlines.

The first action of the play takes shape in a chaotic way: the characters enter, the scene turns and everyone panics as they try to deal with many crises. The shocking moment makes it easier to justify a few repetitive jokes midway through, but it’s hard to show as much patience in the second half, when the show’s contradictions become more apparent.

As the viewer sits back down and the curtains go up, the seanigans are drawn at the expected pace (my ambiguity here is to avoid spoilers). Up until this point, the funny and hilarious dialogue was laughable, but now the jokes are superfluous.

In the end, POTUS takes a serious turn. It’s still cosmetically absurd, but its bite dulls. The women become more sympathetic, which takes the comedy away from the original intention. Is POTUS still a scam or something? I’m reminded of playwright Michael Frain’s thoughts on the genre: “Practice is a brutally difficult form. [….] “By laughing at him, you’ve lost your moral dignity and you don’t like to admit it, you don’t like to give up the power of the people who humiliated you for such behavior.”

I doubt this applies to systems as well. Patriarchy harms everyone and encourages unworthy decision-making, but some women understand this and enjoy it. To think otherwise would be foolish. I wanted POTUS to lean a little more into that gray area. Of course, women become charades in the patriarchal system, but not always so innocently.

Location: Schubert Theatre, New York
Cast: Lily Cooper, Leah Delaria, Rachel Drach, Juliana Huff, Susie Nakamura, Julie White, Vanessa Williams.
Director: Susan Stroman
Dramaturgy: Selina Fillinger
Decorator: Beowulf Borit
Costume designer: Linda Cho
Lighting designer: Sonoyo Nishikawa
Sound design: Jessica Paz
Hair and wig designer: Cookie Jordan
Struggle and Intimacy Director: Rochio Mendes
Makeup Design: Kirk Cambridge-del Peshe
Cast: Taylor Williams
Presented by Seaview, 51 Entertainment, Glass Half Full, Level Forward, Salman Al-Rashid, Runyonland Productions, Sony Music Masterorks, One Community, Jay Alix & Una Jackman, Jonathan Demar, Imagine Equal Entertainment, Lucas Katler, David J. Lynch, Leonid Macaroni, Mark Gordin Pictures, Liz Slager, Ted Snowden, Natalie Gorman / Tish Brennan Troop, Schubert Organization, Mark Shackett