"POTUS: Or Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive" closed its Broadway run last August with the strongest week of its entire run. Less than a year later, the show lands at the Laboratory Theater of Florida, a venue known for edgy, avant garde productions.
Just how edgy is "POTUS?" Well, the political satire starts with the President unwittingly triggering a PR nightmare and global crisis when he disrespects the First Lady, in her very presence, by referring to her using one of the most heavily-tabooed words in the English language. In this introductory scene, POTUS’ Chief of Staff and Press Secretary try to assess the damage.
Press Secretary: “Who exactly was there?
Chief of Staff: “Ah, Washington Post. Huffington Post.
Press Secretary: “They’re hardly …
Chief of Staff: “CNN.
Press Secretary: “Okay.
Chief of Staff: “New York Times, BBC and three Chinese diplomats.”
Chief of Staff: “Everyone heard it. Everyone got it. Two people gasped.
Press Secretary: “ No.
Chief of Staff: “ These are not questions, Jean. Please stop saying no. He said the word.”
The show is full of wry humor. For example, the President is scheduled to deliver a speech that very night to the Female Models of Leadership, which goes by the acronym FML.
Chief of Staff: “Literally, I have bullied 200 feminists into attending tonight’s gala and written 37 drafts of POTUS’ speech so that our female base doesn’t shrink literally smaller than a nut sack in the snow. It’s final hour. We’re heading into re-election. FML.
Press Secretary: But when someone texts you FML, it means …”
Since this is a madcap farce, matters predictably take a turn for the worse when the President’s drug-dealing sister arrives on furlough from federal prison to talk her brother into giving her a pardon, followed by a sweet Iowa farm girl who the President flew in on a private jet because, ahem, she’s carrying their love child. Then the president’s secretary gobbles up some Tums that, unbeknownst to her, contain hallucinogens. And there’s an ambitious female reporter with free run of the White House who’s recording all the lively banter on her cell phone!
What else could go wrong?
Celene Evans, who plays the President’s wife, says that POTUS is perhaps the funniest script she’s ever read.
“When I read this script, I was laughing out loud. I was sitting in a doctor’s office laughing out loud and people were turning around looking at me. It just is so gut-busting funny … And, you know what? I think laughter is what we all need. We need a little more laughter in our lives. It’s good for the soul. And I’m enjoying just being a part of it.”
Gabrielle Lansden, who plays POTUS’ mistress, Dusty, says the show has the same cross-generational appeal as Barbie.
“If they saw Barbie, they would like this show is all I can say. It’s very feminine powered, very smash the patriarchy, but also like a very long SNL skit, kind of Molly Shannon type humor. It can captivate an audience of Millennials, Gen Z, all the way up to, you know, older generations.”
Stacy Stauffer, who gives off an unscripted but definitive Jen Psaki vibe as POTUS’ Press Secretary, Jean, thinks the show’s appeal lies in its ability to resonate with audiences, particularly women. After all, what woman hasn’t been called upon to fix a mess created by their dumbass boss, whether male or female?
“Yeah, that that’s what you’ll see unfold throughout this whole show. I think probably every woman in it basically is finding themselves in that position where they are the under-appreciated, unnoticed … and if they are noticed, they are determined to be a threat and looked at as potentially needing to be gotten rid of.”
For a show that takes place in the White House and involves POTUS, FLOTUS and White House Staff, the comedy is refreshingly nonpartisan and apolitical. You may, or may not, see strains of past presidents and their First Ladys, in the characters on stage.
But there’s one line that is political which routinely garnered standing ovations on Broadway. It occurs when the President’s sister asks his Press Secretary why his more competent female Chief of Staff isn’t president. The curt reply, “That’s the eternal question, isn’t it?”
As with the Broadway show, Lab Theater’s POTUS is produced and directed by women and features a strong, all-female cast.
POTUS: Or Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive runs August 4th through the 20th at the Laboratory Theater of Florida in downtown Fort Myers.
MORE INFORMATION:
- Go here for play dates, times and a cast list.
- While she admittedly admires the way Jen Psaki handled herself at the microphone, Stacy Stauffer purposely did not watch video of the press briefings conducted by female press secretaries over the past few administrations since she wanted to draw her character strictly from the four corners of the script. “Jean is a woman basically created out of the text of the script and talking to the other cast members on the stage as we kind of talk about how we felt our characters interacted with each other.”
- Want to know just how much Celene Evans likes the script for the show? “I live in East Naples, but I wanted to be a part of this because I haven’t ready anything so funny in such a long time. So I’m driving back and forth every day just to be in this show.”
- While Evans may not be on stage throughout the entire show, she’s still in every scene. “When I’m not only stage, I sit in the audience cracking up at these women. It’s funny. It’s really, really funny. The actors that have been cast in these roles are all phenomenally great actors and I think we’re all perfectly cast for our roles, and it’s just a joy. It’s so much fun to do. And it’s so much fun to watch.”
- Gabrielle Lansden says that not only are the characters written as strong, resilient women, but the play illustrates a number of very modern feminist themes such as the social obstacles that women encounter when they try to assume leadership roles, whether in politics or business. “Lot of the same type of things just like the Barbie movie, not to keep comparing it, but it was the same type of ideas, like why can’t women be the CEO? Why can’t women be the boss? When women are in power, they’re not looked at as women, and sadly, that’s the case still in today’s society. I have all sisters and all nieces and I would never want them to be not given a position that they deserved or not given something that they deserved in life just because they’re a woman. Ever.”
- Lansden has been called upon more than once to play a “blond, bobble-headed bimbo-type,” but her character in POTUS is more akin to Elle Woods in Legally Blonde, “a very secretly intelligent Gen Z-Millennial” woman. “She’s actually very wise. She is very aware of what people think of her, what her place in society is, and what she’s doing with her life and her relationship that she’s in, and she’s very self-aware of it. But she’s also very confident in who she is and the fact that she’s a strong woman and knows what she wants to do and she also wants to empower other women and help other women, even if they don’t want her help.”
- Lansden is not only in the cast, she also serves as Lab Theater’s set designer.
To read more stories about the arts in Southwest Florida visit Tom Hall's website: SWFL Art in the News.
Spotlight on the Arts for WGCU is funded in part by Naomi Bloom, Jay & Toshiko Tompkins, and Julie & Phil Wade.