Review: Nashville Repertory Theatre's POTUS...

Nashville Repertory Theatre closes out its 39th season with one of the best laugh-out-loud comedies we’ve ever seen on a Tennessee Performing Arts Center stage: Selina Fillinger’s brilliant and uproariously funny, if all-too-real, POTUS or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive. Directed by the acclaimed Lauren Shouse and performed by an all-star cast that’s filled with seven of the best actors in Nashville, it’s a smart, incisive and topical farce that’s certain to lift your spirits and feed your soul during this American election cycle that features what seems to be the longest presidential campaign in the history of the free world.

Fillinger’s play is a prime example of feminist political farce, of which the theatrical canon is in short supply. To put it bluntly, we want to see more.

In just over two hours, Shouse and her exceptional cast – which includes a virtual who’s who of local theater: Lauren Berst, Tamara Todres, Tamiko Robinson Steele, Kris Sidberry, Rachel Agee, Quincey Lou Huerter and Darci Nalepa Elam – take us beyond the velvet rope to show us the behind-the-scenes travails and histrionics of a White House staff focused on keeping the rest of the world at bay as they cover up the latest foolishness wrought by an unseen (after a fashion) commander-in-chief ill-suited to be the leader of the free world on most days, but who on the one in question has raised the ante by describing this morning as particularly “cunty” because he’s pissed off at his wife, aka FLOTUS.

If it didn’t sound so reminiscent of events that regularly made the pundits chatter during the last presidential administration, it might seem far-fetched or, at the very least, a logline from an episode of HBO’s beloved comedy series Veep, starring the inimitable Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

Have we become so jaded by politics in the 21st century that the plot fails to shock us? Not exactly. Are the profanity-laced conversations we are privy to at all surprising? Nope, again, thanks in large part to Louis-Dreyfus’ expressive Selina Meyer – and my own experiences as a campaign operative back in the olden days that convinced me I was better suited for writing theater reviews (even if I curse like a sailor on crack). Instead, this behind-the-velvet-rope tour of the Executive Mansion somehow frees us from the restraint of mid-20th century mores and allows us to laugh at ourselves and at the pomposity of so many American sacred cows in the process.

It's like a pressure cooker valve is opened to let steam escape before those jars inside blow up and cover our metaphorical kitchen walls with canned tomatoes, causing our suburban homes to look more like a murder scene than one of domestic bliss. At any rate, in this day and age, we’ll take our hearty laughter and guffaws any way we can get ‘em.

Shouse and her multi-talented cast bring Fillinger’s whip-smart and evocatively written script to life with a sharp focus and a well-paced sense of timing that ensures audiences will be totally caught up in the behind-the-scenes intrigue of POTUS…, to create a no-holds-barred production that is, by turns, immersive, subversive and more fun that a barrel of congressmen gathered in a circular firing squad.

Fillinger fills her cleverly plotted play with everything that classic farce demands – which the Oxford English Dictionary tells us is “buffoonery and horseplay and typically crude characterization and ludicrously improbable situations” – which delights rather than perplexes.

Clearly, POTUS or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive is one of the best contemporary farces we’ve ever experienced. Shouse and her ensemble are, without being reductive, the icing on the cake, i.e. responsible for making it live and breathe on the stage of the Andrew Johnson Theatre, with fight choreographer Carrie Brewer deserving of her own turn under the spotlight for her spirited and inventive and cleverly staged action.

Lauren Berst is perfectly cast – shall we just stipulate here and now that every actor has been cast in her perfect role by the sublimely aware and confident Shouse? – as Harriet, the presidential chief of staff who should be the one sitting behind the Resolute Desk since she’s already doing the job, anyway. Berst’s Harriet is all-business all of the time, to the point that she’s unaware of what “FML” means in the vernacular of the little people – and like every other capable and far superior person behind the throne, is always in command of every situation in which she finds herself.

Harriet’s essential aide de camp, known in popular parlance as the White House press spokesperson (or is she WH communications director?), is Tamara Todres’ Jean, who always has a well-measured response to any question directed to her by the press corps. Todres and Berst make a very good team, something other Nashville directors have realized over the years, and together they deliver authentic performances – any candidate would be advised to hire them (both their characters and the women themselves).

Tamiko Robinson Steele is the very picture of our nation’s elegant and refined First Lady and her character, Margaret, is waging her own personal campaign to convince the electorate she is really “earthy,” choosing to pair Crocs with her power suits and designer gowns instead of the stilettos for which she’s been criticized. Robinson Steele’s stage presence is palpable and she is convincing enough to get my vote for whatever office she might seek now or in the future.

Nashville Rep newcomer Darci Nalepa Elam delivers an astoundingly impressive physical performance as Stephanie, the over-qualified president’s secretary, who is trying to be more forceful and self-assured and who regularly puts her new efforts at self-awareness on full display. When she downs a handful of Gummies (or perhaps something less acceptable yet more psychedelic in the White House), she shifts into overdrive, making the already comical drama unfolding before us seem even more circus-like, the innertube she wears throughout notwithstanding.

The first interloper we meet among all these dedicated White House workers is Chris, a journalist working on a story about Margaret. Kris Sidberry brings her to life with great authenticity, playing a hard-working and devoted reporter who is juggling a home life that includes multiple children and an errant ex-husband. Sidberry captures the essence of so many women in D.C. who, like her character, are constantly juggling multiple roles and are, in the process, unappreciated and undervalued.

Rachel Agee, one of Nashville theater’s most beloved personalities, delivers a showstopping performance as Bernadette, the president’s drug-dealing sister, who arrives carrying a bag full of recreational drugs and assorted paraphernalia  which, amid the already crazy day, is akin to throwing gasoline on an already raging fire. Loud and borderline obnoxious, Agee’s acerbic Bernadette propels the action ever-forward, adding another startling character to her already tremendous resume.

Finally, as a young woman who’s had a sexual dalliance with the president, Quincey Lou Huerter injects a sense of wide-eyed wonder into the proceedings, which belies the sense of never-say-die that makes her character someone everyone would want to have around in the time of a burgeoning White House scandal.

Gary Hoff, Nashville Rep’s longtime scenic designer, provides a physical structure on the stage of the Johnson Theatre that will convince audiences they are at the actual White House. Hoff’s design is instrumental in keeping the laughs coming at a remarkable pace with his moving walls and set pieces that give POTUS… a sense of “you are there.” Darren E. Levin (with the able assistance of Logan Purcell) designs the lighting plot that assists the audience in focusing on the matter at hand (and this show is full of consequential matters) and beautifully bathes the ersatz White House with gorgeous illumination.

Melissa K. Durman outfits her seven-woman cast in costumes that are particularly suited to their roles in the White House and in Fillinger’s imaginative world, while Lauren Yawn provides the perfect props for every occasion.

There is only one more weekend in which to become enthralled by all the zany happenings and convoluted (yet completely plausible) events that happen in POTUS or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive and you are advised to avail yourself of the opportunity to experience all the hijinks and mayhem of a sublimely entertaining modern comedy.

POTUS or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive. By Selina Fillinger. Directed by Lauren Shouse. Assistant direction by Natalie Rankin. Stage managed by Isaac Krispin. Fight choreography by Carrie Brewer. Presented by Nashville Repertory Theatre at the Andrew Johnson Theatre in the Tennessee Performing Arts Center, Nashville. For details and for tickets, go to www.nashvillerep.org. Running time: 2 hours (with one intermission). Running through Sunday, May 19.

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