Review: POTUS: OR, BEHIND EVERY GREAT DUMBASS ARE SEVEN WOMEN TRYING TO KEEP HIM ALIVE at Geffen Playhouse

The Los Angeles premiere of Selina Fillinger’s satire POTUS: OR, BEHIND EVERY GREAT DUMBASS ARE SEVEN WOMEN TRYING TO KEEP HIM ALIVE is a boisterous sitcom of a show with pratfalls, mugging, and stinging one-liners. That is to say: it redefines the word broad. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it would have benefited from a few moments of introspection and nuance.

Events kick off with the most divisive of 4-letter words (a word that is used repeatedly throughout) on a day where the White House is in an uproar trying to cover up an off-the-cuff remark the misogynistic, egotistical, delusional fool of a president dropped at a press conference igniting an imminent global crisis just as he’s supposed to appear at a feminist summit.

Harriet (Shannon Cochran), the harried Chief of Staff, is determined to keep him afloat as she intends to continue ascending the political food chain herself. Meanwhile, the nervous presidential secretary, Stephanie (Lauren Blumenfeld), is too loopy and eager to please to accomplish much, while the First Lady, Margaret (Alexandra Billings), knows her husband is an unsalvageable disaster and is trying to work an “earthy” image to the people for her own benefit. Jean (Celeste Den), the Press Secretary, scrambles to course correct before the commander in chief can muck something else up, while Chris (Ito Aghayere), a lactating journalist who is there to interview the First Lady, realizes she may have stumbled onto a powder keg of an exclusive.

Into this mix bumble two X factors: Bernadette (Deirdre Lovejoy), a hardened con who also happens to be Margaret’s sister and who is expecting a pardon from the president, and Dusty (Jane Levy), a fizzy, well-intentioned — if gullible — bumpkin who arrives expecting to take a position at the Capitol, while it is clear to everyone she has already assumed many positions with the head of state.

All seven women’s lives are turned upside down and around again in trying to protect the president, the Oval Office, and their careers while the entire diplomatic house of cards threatens to crumble around them.

Nominated for three Tony Awards when it premiered, Fillinger’s script is rife with bon mots, sight gags, and broad physical humor while tackling serious themes and realities with aplomb, practically ripping headlines from every news site in the last 10 years while making the observation that, while men may be in power, that doesn’t mean there aren’t countless people running the show behind the scenes making him look good—oftentimes women who will never get the credit they deserve.

The language is brazenly adult, apropos of the setting and situation. There’s a running joke that Harriet does not understand why initializing the Female Models of Leadership Council to FML is a bad idea, and that’s about as tame as it gets.

Each of the seven women is distinct and provides unique viewpoints and has her own arc. Blumenfeld takes daffy to new levels, in a good way, as she’s the most sympathetic of them all. Cochran puts the power in her pantsuit, even as she’s frantically trying to salvage her career. And while Dusty could be a stereotypical ditz, Levy informs her with knowing and savvy.

Director Jennifer Chambers starts with the energy level at 11 and doesn’t hit the brakes, her actors manic and frenzied, literally running through the theater at one point. The moving sets by Brett J. Banakis, depicting many rooms in the White House, each with panels of portraits of presidents throughout the ages, are clever and imply a maze of mirrors our heroines tear through desperately trying to find their way out. The 100-minute (including intermission) show flies by, though if given a little more breathing room, the impact would be much greater. While we start in the middle of a metaphorical nuclear explosion, hitting the ground running, it’s hard for audience members to catch their breath long enough to process what’s happening sometimes before we’re on to the next set piece. That said, POTUS: OR, BEHIND EVERY GREAT DUMBASS ARE SEVEN WOMEN TRYING TO KEEP HIM ALIVE is a laugh-out-loud riot that will surprise you at every turn. There’s something to be said for a breathless roller-coaster ride sometimes.

POTUS: OR, BEHIND EVERY GREAT DUMBASS ARE SEVEN WOMEN TRYING TO KEEP HIM ALIVE is performed at the Gil Cates Theater at Geffen Playhouse, 10886 Le Conte Avenue, through February 25. Tickets are available by calling (310) 208-2028 or online at www.geffenplayhouse.org.

Photos by Jeff Lorch

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