Playwright: Sean Benjamin
At: Neo-Futurists, 5153 N. Ashland
Phone: 773-275-5255; $15
Runs through: May 26
By Jonathan Abarbanel
For the second time since February we have a world premiere about a Republican president who slaughters English; surrounds himself with home-state cronies; is regarded by many as a moron; and whose administration sinks under the weight of its own incompetence and oil-linked corruption. That's right: It's Ohioan Warren G. Harding, who ran in 1920 on a post-World War I slogan of 'America First' and was the first sitting U.S. Senator elected President.
With Porchlight Music Theatre's The Teapot Dome Scandals, audiences were allowed to connect the dots themselves between the 1920s and now. This Neo-Futurist enterprise spells it out: 'It was a time when a man with friends in high places, money and a simple catch phrase could be elected president, not like now. We have learned,' the narrator solemnly intones early on. The differences between Harding and George Bush, though, are that Harding knew he was out of his league as president and said so, and then had the grace to die two years into his first term. Harding was a drinker, gambler and womanizer and Bush is not, but Bush's pietism hasn't made for better government, has it?
The opening-night audience found everything hilarious and, while not quite as genuinely raucous as all that, much of this show is funny, imaginative and well-executed. Poker Night at the White House borrows puppet techniques—a life-size Harding mannequin and very clever shadow puppets—from Redmoon Theatre and a satirical comedy edge from Second City. In 100 fast-moving minutes, three actors play characters ranging from journalist H. L. Mencken—Harding's most scathing critic—to First Lady Florence Harding, to a Secret Service agent, to various Harding mistresses ( heard but not seen ) . Luke Hatton, dressed as a woman, operates the Harding puppet in a type of double drag. It's a highly physical show—there's lots of door-slamming and chasing-about—but the essence of it is copious quoting of Harding's and Mencken's actual words. An onstage 'Quote' sign lights up every time real words are cited, and it lights up a lot.
The show is a fairly linear narrative of Harding's nomination ( engineered in the original 'smoke-filled room' in Chicago's Blackstone Hotel ) , election, presidency and mysterious death. ( Was Harding poisoned by the missus because of his womanizing? ) Its shortcoming is that it speaks in headlines rather than details, so you never actually learn what the Teapot Dome Scandal was all about or who was involved, or why two cabinet-level officials killed themselves, or how many Harding mistresses were blackmailing Republican officialdom. The show deserves high marks for originality and entertainment, and players Hatton, Noelle Krimm, Jay Torrence and Barbara Whitney perform with zest. But a little more historical depth and detail—beyond mere quotation—wouldn't hurt.