Many thanks to Ben Miles at ShowMag.com for this great review of “Fifteen Men!”

Review of “Fifteen Men in a Smoke-Filled Room” by Ben Miles (ShowMag.com)

Until the start of the 20th century, Warren G. Harding, the 29th president of the United States, was considered by most historians to be the low man on the presidential totem pole. Harding’s administration—from 1921 until his mysterious death in 1923–was ridden with scandals; some of which, such as the Teapot Dome incident and Harding’s clandestine extramarital affair, came into public consciousness after his tenure was cut short by his cardiac arrest at the age of 57.

Now in a premiere production of Fifteen Men in a Smoke-filled Room, penned by playwright Colin Speer Crowley, we get an imagined  peek behind the scenes of the 1920 Republican National Convention held in Chicago, which made the unlikely choice of the anodyne Warren G. Harding as the GOP’s presidential standard-bearer; his less-than-awe-inspiring campaign slogan was a plea to “return to normalcy.”

In spite of sturdy direction by Jules Aaron, Crowley’s script tends to meander in the gaping chasm between the practical and political, as represented by Harry M. Daugherty—who was Harding’s campaign manager and later became U.S. Attorney General (played with much believable bluster by John Combs) and the mystical and metaphysical as represented by Harding’s clairvoyantly obsessed wife, Florance Kling Harding (performed with supercilious condescension by  Roslyn Cohn).

But it is David Hunt Stafford as Harding who infuses the president-to-be with self-doubt and portentous dread. Along with Sarah Walker, who portrays Nan Britton, Harding’s nubile mistress, Stafford brings heart to the historic figure and a moment or two of hilarity as Nan attempts to avoid the gaze of culpability from Mrs. Harding.

Also deserving of honorable mention are Roger K. Weiss as the ghostly-appearing radio broadcaster and Kevin Dulude doing double-duty as the railway tycoon and magazine editor George Harvey and as “the waiter.”

Technically Fifteen Men runs with the proficiency of a Swiss watch, from the set design by Jeff G. Rack, which is elegant and a period-perfect replication to Michelle Young’s equally impressive costumes, which evoke 1920s fashion, to Joseph “Sloe” Slawinski’s sound engineering, which alludes to the cacophony of noises that might come with a political convention and Brandon Baruch’s lighting motif, which provides shadings in mood and variations in location.

However corrupt and inept the Harding Administration may have been, the fact that our country was able to overcome the detriments of that epoch gives us hope in our own age of political incompetence. That’s the value in experiencing Fifteen Men in a Smoke-filled Room.

Thanks to Rich Borowy for this fine, very fair review of “Fifteen Men!”

Review of “Fifteen Men in a Smoke-Filled Room” by Rich Borowy (Inaccessibly Live Offline)

Theatre 40 of Beverly Hills presents for the third entry in their 2019-20 season, the Los Angeles premier of Colin Spear Crowley’s FIFTEEN MEN IN A SMOKED FILLED ROOM, a drama about the campaign nomination of Walter G. Harding for president, and the back story behind it all.

The setting is during the Republican National Convention in Chicago in the early summer of 1920. David Hunt Stafford plays Harding, a senator from rural Ohio. He was set to become nominated during the convention as the presidential candidate. His campaign manager Harry M. Daugherty (John Combs) is getting his name across during the convention’s day of balloting. Harding’s wife, Florence (Roslyn Cohn) holds an uneven feeling toward the outcome. Being in a superstitious nature, she even went ahead to consult a fortune teller on what may transpire once her husband takes over the candidacy for the possible winning of the election. Adding toward this is Nan Britton (Sarah Walker) a younger woman who happens to be Harding’s second mistress! These aspects that materialize on that day in Chicago brought forth the political based “smoked filled room”, where secret meetings would take place under heavy cigar smoke through the power brokers that could settle the results of a political movement with a lot of deal making on the side!

Jeff G. Rack, Theatre 40’s residential set decorator, creates a set that portrays a plush hotel suite at the Congress Hotel where much of the “smoke filled room” events did come to pass. This time around, no spoke is depicted on stage!! Michele Young’s costuming shows the same period fashion that was standard as worn during the political arenas.

Also appearing in this presentation is Kevin Dulude as George Harvey, a journalist and central figure into the smoke filled room proceedings, and Roger K. Weiss as a radio announcer.

Directed by Jules Aaron, FIFTEEN MEN IN A SMOKED FILLED ROOM is a play that takes an inside look to the forming to one of America’s least preferred presidents in terms of running the nation through scandals, affairs, and other back handed details. Although what did came about happened nearly a century ago, it’s another part of preferred drama that adapts well on the Theatre 40 intimate stage set.

Very nice review of “Fifteen Men” from Willard Manus of TotalTheater.com!

Review of “Fifteen Men in a Smoke-Filled Room” by Willard Manus (TotalTheater.com)

Warren G. Harding becomes a sympathetic figure in Fifteen Men in a Smoke-Filled Room, Colin Speer Crowley’s political drama, which is now running at Theatre 40, directed by Jules Aaron. Although history has always treated Harding cruelly, owing to the scandals that marred his term as 29th president, Crowley believes that he was essentially a decent, honest chap who was betrayed by his closest friends and confidants.  Not only that, he didn’t even want to be president, preferring instead to run off with his mistress and put the world of politics far behind him.

Fifteen Men is set in June 1920, in a Chicago hotel room during the Republican convention. Harding (David Hunt Stafford), an Ohio Senator, seems to have little chance of winning his party’s nomination for president.  But his big, boisterous campaign manager Harry M. Daugherty (John Combs) believes that they can pull off an upset.  A shrewd, ruthless political operative, he knows how to guy the system and come out on top.

Opposing him is Florence Kling Harding (Roslyn Cohn), Harding’s cold, sharp-tongued wife. Although she and Harding are no longer close, she still cares about his well-being.  A fanatical believer in astrology, she has read the stars and divined his future: “If you win the nomination and become president, you will die in office. That is your fate,” she tells him. “You cannot escape it.”

Daugherty scoffs at that and tells Harding to ignore her and focus on winning his party’s nomination, pointing to all the glorious things they will do for America should he become its next president.  The reluctant Harding agrees to stay in the race, largely because his mistress Nan Britton (Sarah Walker) urges him to obey Daugherty.  Smitten with love, she truly believes that Harding is a great man, someone who will leave his mark on history.

It’s at this point that playwright Crowley pulls a trick out of his sleeve. His play makes a sudden jump in time, via a radio broadcast in which the announcer (Roger K. Weiss) reports on Harding’s first two years in the White House. That’s when two of his appointees, Albert B. Fall (interior) and Harry Daugherty (attorney general) became involved in the Teapot Dome scandal.  The disillusioned Harding was so shocked by their corrupt behavior that he considered resigning the presidency and returning to civilian life (where he’d play his beloved cornet and dally with his mistress). However, Nan once again begged him to stay the course and keep running the country. It was not long after that, August 2, 1923, that Harding died of a stroke in a San Francisco hotel.

Fifteen Men is certainly relevant to our times—once again widespread corruption is undermining our democracy—but the play is more of a character study than a political expose. Its portrait of Harding as a hapless, tragic figure is maybe too much of a whitewash—as a senator Harding opposed the League of Nations and voted for anti-strike legislation—but Crowley does succeed in making us feel sorry for this flawed, not-too-bright human being. Fifteen Men is skillfully acted (the cast also includes Kevin Dulude doubling as a newspaper publisher and a hotel waiter). It is also crisply directed by Jules Aaron…and looks historically  accurate,  thanks to Jeff G. Rack’s sumptuous, detailed  set.