Review: Hub Theatre Company of Boston's 46 PLAYS FOR AMERICA'S FIRST LADIES is Delightfully Irreverent

With the 2024 presidential election season in full bloom, Hub Theatre Company of Boston is presenting the well-timed “46 Plays for America’s First Ladies,” a delightfully irreverent look at all of the women who have held that title so far.

Written by Chloe Johnston, Sharon Greene, Genevra Gallo Bayiates, Bilal Dardai, and Andy Bayiates – all members of “The Neo-Futurists,” a Chicago-based theater group behind “44 Plays for 44 Presidents” – the 2020 play, at Boston’s Club Café through August 3, doesn’t leave a single first lady out. Indeed, between the laughs, you may learn a thing or two about some of them that you may never have even given thought to before. There are abundant guffaws, but also serious takes on stories that deal with slavery, slave-owning first families, the Equal Rights Amendment, and more.

Hub’s producing artistic director, the delightful and multi-talented Lauren Elias kicks off the action as a free-thinking, semi-maniacal Martha Washington. Under the brisk and clever direction of Ilyse Robbins, that first vignette sets the tone for the show which is part variety-style, part drama, with a nod to TV’s “Laugh-In.”

Joining Elias in the facile and funny company are Yasmeen Duncan, Eleni Kontzamanys, Sophia Muharram, and Katie Pickett, who bring the first ladies to life and play a few of the presidents, too. Each has their moment – especially Duncan, who is a moving Sally Hemmings, Thomas Jefferson’s slave and mother to several of his children, and a delightful Dolly Madison, wife to James Madison and Washington, D.C.’s hostess-with-the-mostest of her era. Duncan is also terrific as a serious-minded Michelle Obama.

Katie Pickett is spot-on as the grandmotherly Barbara Bush, who lets loose on everything from Nancy Reagan to her husband George H.W. Bush. Laura Bush, wife to George W. Bush, is played to dispassionate perfection by Muharram – skewered for being a librarian who won’t stand up for freedom of expression and other ideals. When it comes to skewering, however, perhaps no former first lady takes it on the chin more than Hillary Clinton – portrayed here in the form of a ghoulish over-sized puppet. Kontzamanys also does good work as Abigail Adams, wife to Braintree-born John Adams, Rachel Jackson, wife of Andrew Jackson, and Elizabeth Monroe, wife to James Monroe.

Eschewing the fourth wall, and benefiting from Club Café’s cabaret-style seating, the actors connect with the audience, some of whom even join in the silliness on stage  One vignette, about Pat Nixon, involves a questionnaire asking the participant to respond either “Yes” or “God Bless America” to such queries as “Are you a good person?” and “Do you hate democracy or just kittens?”

Scenic designer Justin Lahue keeps things interesting while evoking both time and place. Costume and puppet designer E. Rosser and puppet designer Samantha Mastrati add to the off-kilter nature of some of the proceedings with a considerable assist from puppet captain Brooks Reeves. And by keeping the presidents in matching coats, Rosser keeps the focus on the first ladies. Music director Jack Cline provides finely tuned support to the quintet, who show off their fine voices on solos and duets, and in harmony.

Photo caption: Yasmeen Duncan as Dolly Madison in the Hub Theatre Company of Boston production of “46 Plays for America’s First Ladies.” Photo by Brian Higgins.

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