There are an infinite number of ways a comedy can get its audience to laugh. Selina Fillinger’s Broadway-debut play, “POTUS,” successfully tries its hand at most. Raunchy language? Well, that starts with the play’s opening word. Wordplay? A “Female Models of Leadership” feminist group is referred to as FML. Slapstick? A woman maims the president with a marble bust of Alice Paul. The new comedy, whose full title is “POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive,” has got the giggles covered. The harder task often assigned to political comedies, however, is to present the hard truths of the day in a way that’s fresh. “POTUS” proves that difficulty to be true.
During an early exchange between two members of the cast, a reporter named Chris (Lilli Cooper) warns the president’s press secretary, Jean (Suzy Nakamura), that she is here to get a scoop:
