Review: In ‘POTUS’ at Steppenwolf Theatre, it’s hard to keep track of the chaos in this White House
Despite mixed Broadway reviews last year, playwright Selina Fillinger’s “POTUS” has become the most produced play at American regional theaters this season, according to the nonprofit Theatre Communications Group. It’s not so hard to see why.
The full title of this out-and-out farce now at Steppenwolf Theatre is “POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive,” and struggling theaters have convinced themselves that audiences most want to laugh right now. (I’m not convinced that’s true; I think many prefer plays with complex approaches to things that matter.)
Still, “POTUS” is a fresh title that plays into the perennial fear of Donald Trump, given that the fictional White House of its setting is run by a Trumpian president, the kind of crass chief executive who takes a blowtorch to diplomacy and creates a cascade of crises in a single day that firefighting staffers have to extinguish, even as touring fifth graders stare at a White House in comical disarray.
And since those staffers holding the place together are entirely female, “POTUS” also comes with a feminist sensibility and a lot of great roles for comedically inclined women.
Steppenwolf Theatre Company is one of the first out of the regional gate with this title, directed here by co-artistic director Audrey Francis in an earnest if uneven staging that’s cast and directed very differently from Broadway. (That original New York production was directed by Susan Stroman.)
Even Stroman, a master farceur, couldn’t solve some of the problems baked into the premise. The play implies that the president is a Republican, which would suggest his senior staffers, such as the chief of staff Harriet (Sandra Marquez) and press secretary Jean (Karen Rodriguez) would be Republicans, too, or at least sympathetic to the cause. But Fillinger isn’t really satirizing a Republican White House, which would make a fine comedy, she’s a more moralistic writer trying to write supportively of all these women, each far more talented than the louse of a man they serve. Effective satire typically takes down power rather than mount campaigns, and that complexity of purpose puts the play at war with itself.
Often, Fillinger goes for the gag instead of political cohesion. For example, Harriet rages against trickle-down economics to score a laugh, but that would suggest she’s a closet Democrat running a Republican administration, and, if so, that would need more exploration.
Francis’ staging, which has some most amusing moments but not much consistency of tone, also moves further away from satire. Chloe Baldwin plays Dusty, a presidential girlfriend and walking scandal machine, as far more sophisticated than she was written and although I think Fellinger had in mind a Marjorie Taylor Greene model for the first lady, the great Chicago actress Karen Aldridge is just too subtle and complex to play such a plastic, one-dimensional narcissist who keeps trying and failing to be “earthy.”
The staging absolutely has its moments, but it ultimately lacks a full sense of rising tension and a consistent set of rules. At one point, a little turntable starts to move and add to the fun but then that device gets mostly dropped and we never really get the sense of the White House geography the play actually demands.
Aside from much inspired wackiness from Caroline Neff’s neurotic presidential secretary, the best scenes here are between Marquez, the crucial normative character who puts you in mind of the famous C.J. of “West Wing” fame, and Rodriguez, who well understands how farce, like tragedy, is actually an experience of chaos. The two women are very funny in the early parts of a play that eventually starts to cloy, especially given its weird obsession with all that can be done with, and to, one’s rear end. Rather than all the talk of boils and penetrations, you find yourself craving sharp political humor of the kind of which Fillinger, a young, big talent, is perfectly capable of writing. And will, I think, in the future.
I’m honor-bound to note that the audience around me Sunday appeared to have a blast, hooting and hollering at all of the dysfunction on display.
For the record, you don’t actually see the president. Or do you?
Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.
Review: “POTUS” (2.5 stars)
When: Through Dec. 10
Where: Steppenwolf Theatre Company, 1650 N. Halsted St.
Running time: 1 hour, 50 minutes
Tickets: $20-$114 at 312-335-1650 and www.steppenwolf.org
