BWW Reviews: FIVE PRESIDENTS Is Unimpeachable

Five guys get together at the funeral of a former colleague. All have occupied the same job. While they are not quite friends, they are nevertheless bound together by a unique kinship. They reminisce, trash talk, and trade war stories. They measure each other by the width of their own egos. They are accidents of political history ~ a farmer, an actor, an oilman, a lawyer, and a law professor ~ who have created history.

In the case of Rick Cleveland's ingenious Five Presidents, the five guys are the 38th to the 42nd occupants of the Oval Office, come to pay their respects to #37. Richard Milhous Nixon has died, and, prior to the public eulogies, his successors convene in a private room at the Presidential Library. It's a delicious concept ~ to imagine their interactions ~ brought to life by the splendid performances of Jeff Steitzer as Gerald Ford, Martin L'Herault as Jimmy Carter, Steve Sheridan as Ronald Reagan, Mark Jacoby as George H. W. Bush, and Brit Whittle as the incumbent Bill Clinton.

Originally commissioned by the Milwaukee Repertory Theater, the one-act play, directed by Mark Clements, is being presented as a co-production with Arizona Theatre Company, and it is an undeniable hit.

A mood of reverence fills the Herberger Theatre as broadcasts of the announcements of Nixon's passing are aired; somber anthems and hymns silence the hall; and we are back in that April 1994 moment. (Strangely, the mood is sadly broken by the weirdly placed welcome to the audience and the proscriptions about electronic devices, etc. One hopes that the sequence will be modified.)

Todd Edward Ivins has mounted an elegant and stately replica of the room in the Nixon Library, dubbed as the holding pen for its prominent visitors and dominated by the visages of two diametrically different presidents ~ portraits of Washington, the father of his country, and Nixon who disgraced the office.

Mr. Cleveland's extensive and meticulous research of the historical records has flowered into a script that delivers insights and revelations about each man and casts them, when all is said and done, as mere mortals vaulted for a brief moment in time to the most powerful position in the world. What haunts this room is the indelible imprint of the man whom no one wishes to eulogize but who has left an indelible imprint on the Presidency.

The performances of the five are not impersonations; they are not intended to be. Thankfully, they manage to convey the more notable attributes of their characters, enhanced by Lauren Wilde's splendid make-up design, while avoiding caricature.

The production continues its run through February 22nd, Washington's birthday ~ and then it's on to Milwaukee.

Photo credit to Tim Fuller