Ladies First

metroweekly.com:

POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive.Politics ain’t for babies, especially at the highest level, so blowing off steam by cursing like a sailor just seems to be what gets an overtaxed, under-appreciated staffer through a tough day.And this day, as it careens ahead into one disaster after another, will be especially tough for staffers, the First Lady, and POTUS himself, who never actually appears onstage.

But he gets the whole shitstorm started by referring to his wife as “cunty” — and not in a good way — during a meeting with foreign dignitaries.Managing potential fallout from the flub falls to the President’s harried Chief of Staff, Harriet (Naomi Jacobson); officious press secretary, Jean (Natalya Lynette Rathnam); and, begrudgingly, the First Lady, Margaret (Felicia Curry).A million other complications, from petty to Presidential, threaten to further derail the day: determined journalist and new mom, Chris (Yesenia Iglesias), hiding out in the West Wing; an unexpected visit from POTUS’ much-younger mistress, Dusty (Sarah-Anne Martinez); and a really unexpected visit from his ne’er-do-well lesbian sister, Bernadette (Kelly McAndrew).Meanwhile, the President’s secretary, Stephanie (Megan Hill), tries to control the increasing flow of traffic in and out of the Oval Office.

But she becomes nearly uncontrollable herself, thanks to an ill-timed encounter with hallucinogens. Ah, the supposedly funny drug trip, played to the cartoonish hilt by Hill, who takes Stephanie’s acid-fueled shenanigans way past over the top.Margot Bordelon’s fleet, sleek, in-the-round production at Arena hits best when it’s just shy of over-the-top, as in Curry’s vividly vain, but trying to seem “earthy,”.