Review: POTUS: OR, BEHIND EVERY GREAT DUMBASS ARE SEVEN WOMEN TRYING TO KEEP HIM ALIVE at Kranzberg Arts Center

Tesseract Theatre Company opens its 2025 season with the regional premiere of POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive. Selina Fillinger’s satire opened for a limited engagement at Broadway’s Shubert Theatre on April 27, 2022. The original production was directed by Susan Strohman and starred Lilli Cooper, Vanessa Williams, Rachel Dratch, Julianne Hough, and others.

Rachel Dratch and Julie White were nominated for the Tony and Drama League Award for their roles as a kooky intern and the neurotic White House Chief of Staff. The production received a Drama League Nomination for Outstanding Production of a Play, and Beowulf Boritt’s set design was Tony nominated. 

POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive is a behind the scenes look at White House staffers trying to manage a crisis following a Presidential gaffe turning a press event into an international crisis. The frantic staffers attempt to clean up the presidential mess, keep the press at bay, and manage unwelcome visitors in the White House.  

Fillinger’s script, billed as satire, is more of an insane and chaotic farce. Directed by Jessica Winingham, the Tesseract Production is a free-for-all calamity spiraling into a whirling dervish of human bumper cars. Winingham grants her cast permission to throw themselves into unencumbered physical comedy. It's surprising after witnessing Winingham’s wildly frenetic blocking that this cast comes out on the other side of a performance without injury, well except for the unseen President.  

There are several moments when the action is so frantic and frenzied that lines and laughs are lost. The sound design includes between scene clips of recent Presidential banter that are sometimes staticky and hard to hear. That may have been an intentional choice by Winingham and sound designer Michael Musgrave-Perkins. Sound isn’t a significant deterrent, but at times dialogue is missed and sound effects are slightly less than audible. 

The acting ensemble takes full advantage of Winingham's direction with outlandish caricature-like performances. Sarajane Clark, Laurell Renea Costello, Isabella Davis, Angela Hetz, Kimmie Kidd, Angelia Prather, and Kelly Schnider literally throw themselves into their roles with fearless abandon earning hearty belly laughs. 

Isabella Davis is a standout making her professional acting debut as the young nymphet Dusty. Her daffily naive portrayal, layered in unfeigned sweetness, is bravely comedic. Her youthful Dusty is dewy-eyed but far from innocent. Davis's line delivery is silly and suggestive, and her physical comedy is extraordinarily funny.  

Angela Hetz earns her share of laughs as the unconfident White House intern who feigns strength with ridiculous power poses but collapses at the first sign of confrontation. Her goofy buffoonery and pratfalls are hilarious. She spends most of the second act bouncing around the stage sporting an oversized swim tube emblazoned with the letters USA. Most of Hertz’s bits rely on her exaggerated visual comedy that is chucklesome.  

In a less physically comedic role, but still hysterically funny, is Kimmie Kidd’s portrayal of the betrayed and angry first lady Margaret who is trying to refine her out-of-touch image. Her over-the-top portrayal relies on her sharp timing, scripted zingers, and exaggerated facial expressions. Kidd delivers. Her work includes a few sight gags; one compliments of Costume Designer Mary Bobbins that focuses on her inexpensive footwear. 

Kelly Schnider and Sarajane Clark make a great one-two-punch as the neurotically zany Chief of Staff Harriet and White House Press Secretary Jean. They combine efforts to keep the President’s drug dealing sister Bernadette, played with bold machismo by Angelia Prather, out of the way and hidden from a snooping reporter played by the riotous Laurell Renea Costello.  

POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive is filled with absurd sight gags, whacky dialogue, and absurdly comedic performances from an all-in ensemble. Fillinger has penned and absurdly preposterous script filled with seven irrational and comical characters Winingham mines load of laughs from her collaborative direction and lively blocking. 

Tesseract’s POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive is chaotic raucous fun. It will keep audiences laughing through June 1, 2025, at the Kranzberg Arts Center. Tickets can be purchased by clicking the link below.

PHOTO CREDIT: Florence Flick