Similar to how Hamilton swung racial roles by portraying white Founding Fathers as mostly black and Latino, this biographical blitzkrieg of our nation’s 44 all-male presidents features a flip-flopped all-female cast. “Seeing actors do nontraditional portrayals of these real-life people adds another element,” says co-director Dan Kilbane. The somewhat-satirical play moves chronologically in quick-paced vignettes of each president’s time as commander-in-chief. There are moments that spawn laughs, but the play doesn’t shy away from our country’s challenges, like the partisanship clogging today’s political arena. Seven female actors take on 158 different roles, from Andrew Jackson’s controversial hand in the Trail of Tears to Richard Nixon’s tumultuous tenure at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. “It’s 44 stories added together to become one distillation of America’s history,” says co-director Caitlin Lewins.
Oct. 6-29, Cleveland Public Theatre, cptonline.org
