Vanessa Williams, Rachel Dratch Star in Broadway Comedy ‘POTUS’ – The Hollywood Reporter
Vanessa Williams, Rachel Dratch and Julianne Hough will star on Broadway this May in Selina Fillinger’s new play HOT POT: Or, behind every great failure are seven women who try to keep him alive.
The trio will star Lilli Cooper, Lea DeLaria, Suzy Nakamura and Julie White in the main cast of 28-year-old Filinger’s Broadway play, which will premiere at the Shubert Theater on May 9. The show, which also stars Anita Abdinezhad, Gisela Chipe, Jennifer Fouché and Lisa Helmi Johanson as singles, will run through August 14, with tickets currently on sale at Telecharge.com.
“I am so excited to be working with this talented and fun group of women,” said the Nakamura star. “As soon as I read the script, I couldn’t wait to be a part of it. The fact that I was reunited with my friends, Julie White and Rachel Dratch, for a Broadway debut made this my dream project! ”
“All my life I have been inspired by the unparalleled talent that has graced Broadway,” said Hough, who will also make his Broadway debut. “Being a part of a production like this speaks volumes about the artistry, dedication and guts it takes to be such an entertainer. I am deeply humbled and honored to join Susan, Selina and this incredibly talented cast and crew for my Broadway debut. ”
Directed by Susan Stroman, a 5-time Tony Award winner (Producers, Scottsboro Boys), The show focuses on “women in charge of men in charge of the free world.” Modern farce shows the US President turning a PR nightmare into a global crisis, forcing seven “talented and despised women” who helped him run the nation’s “risky, free and pursue sanity to keep the commander-in-chief of trouble,” according to the play’s diary.
“Selina’s wickedly humorous satire questions how complicit we really are in the world’s woes – and what if we simply stood back instead of moving on. Continuing to empower leaders has brought us to where we started,” Stroman said in the report.
“To premiere my play at Shubert, with this extraordinary cast and legendary director, Susan Stroman, is truly the thing of dreams,” Fillinger said in his own statement. “I hope the show brings the joy, the madness and the strength to keep fighting at a time when the world needs all three.”
The show is produced by Seaview, the Tony Award winning production company behind Play slavesand Oscar-nominated producer Lynette Howell Taylor’s 51 Entertainment (A star was born). Glass Half Full Productions, produced Treacheryand Tony Award-winning entertainment company Level Forward are also producing the world premiere.
The production team includes Salman Al-Rashid, Sony Music Masterworks, Mark Gordon Pictures, Imagine Equal Entertainment, Jonathan Demar, Luke Katler, Thomas Laub and David J. Lynch.
Level Lead Producer Forward will also act as the play’s “Impact Producer,” announcing key partnerships in the coming weeks with organizations supporting women to run for office and register. voters.
DeLaria described the show as “the funniest damn play I’ve read,” and Williams, who is returning to Broadway, called it “a wild comedy” that “has some of the power of a tough girl”.
HOT POT‘landscape design is by Beowulf Boritt (Action one, coming from Away), with costume design by Linda Cho (Grand Horizons, Anastasia), lighting design by Sonoyo Nishikawa (Once Upon a One More Time, Prince of Broadway On Tour) and sound design by Tony Award winner Jessica Paz (Hadestown, Dear Evan Hansen).
Hair and wig design courtesy of Cookie Jordan (Play slave, trouble in mind) while intimacy and combat direction come from Rocio Mendez (The Joyful Wives of Windsor, Romeo y Julieta at the Public Theater). Casting is performed by Taylor Williams, with production management from Johnny Milani and general manager of Foresight Theatrical (The Phantom of the Theater, Moulin Rouge!).
