POTUS Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive


Comedic chaos runs wild at the Geffen Playhouse in Selina Fillinger’s farcical, filthy, fabulously entertaining POTUS Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive.

It would be your typical West Wing day-from-hell for White House Chief of Staff Harriet (Shannon Cochran) and Press Secretary Jean (Celeste Den) had the President Of The United States not just informed the New York Times, the BBC, and three Chinese diplomats that First Lady Margaret (Alexandra Billings) was (in his words, not mine) “having a cunty day.”

Not that POTUS’s own day was going any better, the result of an anal abscess caused by (and I quote) “rough ass play,” which is why he and his listeners were up on their feet when he called FLOTUS “cunty” and therefore didn’t notice her seated in their vicinity, all of which may complicate today’s presidential plans to attend a gala honoring The Female Models of Leadership Council, aka FML, which as Jean tries in vain to explain to Harriet has a quite different meaning when texted.

And all of the above is just the start of one of the wildest and wackiest theatrical rides ever as Harriet, Jean, Margaret, the President’s air-headed secretary Stephanie (Lauren Blumenfeld), his jailed lesbian sister (and Jean’s ex) Bernadette (Dierdre Lovejoy), breast-feeding journalist Chris (Ito Aghayere), and 20something bimbette Dusty (Jane Levy), who’s waiting outside the Oval Office with a presidential bun in the oven.

Along the way, playwright Fillinger finds ways to sneak in serious points about male-female power balance dynamics, DC politics, the media (both traditional and social), and the need we all might have one day of disposing of a body.

Director Jennifer Chambers proves herself every bit as adept at slapstick farce as she’s been with more serious fare like Echo Theater Company’s The Cake (which also played at the Geffen) and Better, and though there’s not a moment of subtlety on the Gil Cates Theater stage, with everyone on the same tirelessly over-the-top page, it works.

Cochran is a hoot as a woman whose mannish suit and boyish bob may not be giving quite the impression she’s hoping for.

SoCal stage favorite Den is absolutely terrific as the most efficient and in-control press secretary any White House could hope for, at least until today’s events occur.

Blumenfeld gives Goldie Hawn, Lisa Kudrow, and Suzanne Somers some pretty stiff competition in the ditz department as the bubble-headed Stephanie, and just wait till the drugs kick in.

Aghayere earns plenty of her own laughs as a reporter in search of a scoop (and enough privacy to put her breast milk pumps into action).

Lovejoy is hilarious too as a tough-gal sister with a flashing ankle bracelet who’d like nothing better than her brother’s presidential pardon (and a second chance with Jean).

Billings is, as always, a force to be reckoned with as the fiercest of First Ladies, though her Margaret looks and sounds a bit too much like Harriet for a role originated on Broadway by Vanessa Williams.

Last but not least, Levy follows a dozen years of playing TV leads with the most impressive of stage debuts as the audacious, bodacious, filter-free Dusty. (Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist fans will get a special kick when Fillinger’s script has Levy breaking out in song.)

Brett J. Banakis’s ingenious set, adorned with an impressive number of presidential portraits (and a somewhat out of place Ben Franklin), morphs ingeniously from room to hallway to room (and features plenty of farce-mandated doors) and his video design flashes some hilarious cable news headlines.

Samantha C. Jones’ costumes, Elizabeth Harper’s lighting, and Lindsay Jones’ original music and sound design complete a production design that’s Grade A all the way.

Casting is by Phyllis Schuringa, CSA. Lorene Chesley, Joy Donze, Desirée Mee Jung, and Elaine Rivkin are understudies.

Emily Moler is associate director. Julie Ouellette is fight director. Amanda Rose Villarreal is intimacy director. Olivia O’Connor is dramaturg.

Darlene Miyakawa is production stage manager and Colleen Danaher is assistant stage manager.

Audiences who’ve been in withdrawal since HBO’s Veep completed its seven-season run in 2018 need only head over to the Geffen for a much-needed fix.

Selina Fillinger’s POTUS Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive does Julia Louis-Dreyfuss’s power-hungry Selina Meyer proud.

Geffen Playhouse, 10886 Le Conte Ave., Westwood.
www.geffenplayhouse.com

–Steven Stanley
January 26, 2024
Photos: Jeff Lorch

 

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