The Santa Monica Daily Press has published this belated, but very positive, review of my play “Fifteen Men in a Smoke-Filled Room!”

Play Time – President Harding Drops Out Of A Second Term

If David Hunt Stafford were running for president, you might want to vote for him. But not for the man he portrays in “Fifteen Men in a Smoke-Filled Room”: Warren G. Harding.

According to playwright Colin Speer Crowley, Harding apparently didn’t want to run at all, “I’m strolling for office, not running,” he said. But after a deadlock among the candidates and four days of voting he was chosen on the tenth ballot to be the Republican candidate and was then elected to become the 29th president of the United States.

Initially popular at first, he and his administration, rife with corruption and scandals, served to earn Harding the historical ranking as “one of the worst presidents” — at least until the election of our current head of state.

Paramount among the scandals was Teapot Dome, in which the Secretary of the Interior, Albert Fall, was charged with leasing Navy petroleum reserves in Wyoming to private oil companies and was convicted of accepting bribes from them. Fall then became the first member of Harding’s Cabinet to go to jail.

Another “scandal” was Harding’s ongoing adulterous affair with a young woman named Nan Britton (Sarah Walker) which was considered unacceptable in the 1920s. Britton confessed to having had a crush on Harding since she first saw his face on a campaign poster, but she was cautious about the relationship because she didn’t want to interfere with his role as president or his marriage to a harridan named Florence Kling Harding (Roslyn Cohn). “I don’t want to ruin your destiny,” Britton said. Nevertheless, she bore him a daughter, a girl named Elizabeth Anne.

Harding apparently sincerely loved his mistress, and David Hunt Stafford played the role with all the yearning and passion that an older man might feel for a lively younger woman. He desired nothing more than to give up the presidency and spend the remainder of his life with her. Which would seem reasonable, considering that Florence, his wife, was a sharp-tongued woman who treated him with contempt and perpetually harangued him.

The other major influence upon him (in addition to his wife) was Harry Daugherty (John Combs), his campaign manager, who also harangued him. Daugherty was adamant in insisting that Harding run for a second term, perhaps because Harding had appointed him Attorney General in his Cabinet.

Florence, however, believed in astrology and often consulted a clairvoyant who told her that her husband was “inclined to melancholy” and would die before he finished his first term. Which caused Florence, who wanted her husband to “pull out” of the presidency, to confront Daugherty at the top her lungs and admit that “People don’t like me” and “Warren is all I have.” “Desolation is my home town,” she concluded.

All this activity takes place in The Florentine Room of Chicago’s posh Congress Hotel, in an opulent maroon and velvet set designed by Jeff G. Rack. The room is serviced by a busybody waiter (Kevin Dulude) and the activity is periodically interrupted by a radio broadcaster (Roger K. Weiss) situated behind a screen onstage who reports “another day, another scandal! It seems like nothing can prevent further improprieties from staining President Harding and his administration… Congressmen from both parties can only wonder if there will be an end to the wide-spread corruption sweeping the nation’s capital.”

And in the end, Florence’s clairvoyant was right! Warren G. Harding died of a heart attack in 1923, in the middle of his first term as president. He was 58 years old.

This gripping and timely political tale was boldly directed by the multi-award-winning Jules Aaron and was seen until mid-December at Theatre 40 in Beverly Hills.

This is the closing weekend for my historical drama “Fifteen Men in a Smoke-Filled Room” at Theatre40 of Beverly Hills and I wanted to salute the entire cast and crew for the wonderful job they did bringing the show to life!

This is only the second staged production of “Fifteen Men” after a prolonged period of development (and development and development… across seven readings and seven theaters over eight years!).

“Fifteen Men” is also the first major play I ever wrote, meaning it has great sentimental value for me, so the fact that Theatre40 handled the show so brilliantly is especially meaningful and satisfying.

The stellar actors, from left to right, starting clockwise from back: Roger Weiss, Sarah Walker, Kevin Dulude, David Hunt Stafford, Roslyn Cohn, and John Combs.

Above all, I would like to highlight the following people:

• Director Jules Aaron for his beautiful, fast-paced staging and his tender care with my words
• Actress Roslyn Cohn for her powerful, emotion-laden portrayal of Mrs. Harding and all her complicated nuisances
• Actor John Combs for his folksy, even sympathetic portrayal of Harry Daugherty, which underplayed the Machiavellian
• Actress Sarah Walker for her bright, sunshiny portrayal of Nan Britton, which completely changed the feel on the stage
• Actor Kevin Dulude for his sly portrayal of George Harvey and (later) his comical French waiter
• Set Designer Jeff G. Rack for his BEAUTIFUL set, filled with details and elegance
• Costume Designer Michèle Young for her wonderful period pieces, which truly captured the (turn of the) decade
• Lighting Design Brandon Baruch for cleverly taking us into and out of the future (and into Warren Harding’s mind) with his deft lighting changes
• Sound Designer Joseph Slawinski for his wonderful “soundtrack” blaring (and sometimes beckoning) from the streets of Chicago

A special thanks goes to David Hunt Stafford, the Artistic Director of Theatre40 and also the gentleman who played the character of Warren G. Harding in the play. David first reached out to me in October, 2018 after a happy subscriber at Theatre40 loved “Fifteen Men'” during its world premiere run at Elite Theatre Company of Oxnard, CA. David diligently hunted me down, started to chat with me, and before I knew it, “Fifteen Men” was lined up for Theatre40’s 2019-2020 season. I can’t thank David enough for his trust and faith in the play and for leading such a magnificent theatrical organization. He is a stellar actor, as well, giving a heartfelt, deep portrayal of Warren G. Harding and beautifully using the words I wrote to greater effect than I could ever have imagined.

Many thanks to Theatre40, David, and the cast and crew for a job well done!

I came across this great website – Goldstar – which promotes discounts to entertainment events and also encourages reviews of the same.

It just so happens Goldstar has an entry for my historical drama “Fifteen Men in a Smoke-Filled Room” playing at Theatre40 in Beverly Hills from November 14-December 15, 2019.

Above all, I’m happy to see that 6 theatre-goers (unbiard, non-official critics) rated “Fifteen Men,” giving it an average of 4 out of 5 stars and including some really great comments.

Thanks so much, whoever you all are!

Last Thursday and Friday, I was blessed (truly) to travel to Los Angeles and see Theatre40’s production of my historical drama “Fifteen Men in a Smoke-Filled Room” (playing through December 15th). I had been in correspondence for over a year with Artistic Director David Hunt Stafford, so it was exciting to witness the show seeing the light of day. (“Fifteen Men” was only premiered last year at Elite Theatre Company of Oxnard, CA during their 2018-2019 season.)

Upon entering the theater, I saw this extremely well-done cast board, interspersed with pictures (many, many pictures) portraying the actual historical figures featured in the play:

Above all, I have to give a special shoutout to this wonderful period set by Jeff Grack, portraying the Florentine Room in the Chicago Hotel in Chicago, IL, 1920, chock full of detail and style:

As for the play itself, I was extremely, extremely impressed by the depth of the acting, the spot-on directing of Jules Aaron, and the deft lighting design of Brandon Baruch, which cleverly brought the audience in and out of the show’s “present” during flash-forward moments.

Stay tuned for another post of mine that goes into greater depth on the actors!

“Fifteen Men” plays through December 15th… go and check it out!

Many thanks to Karen Salkin for this all-around fun (and very favorable) review of “Fifteen Men!”

Review of “Fifteen Men in a Smoke-Filled Room” by Karen Salkin (ItsNotAboutMe.TV)

Not to brag, but there are very many categories I can run on Jeopardy.  But “US Presidents” is definitely not one of them.  So I especially enjoy learning about them when I can, and this very interesting play by Colin Speer Crowley afforded me one such opportunity.

Fifteen Men in a Smoke-Filled Room is about the presidential nomination of Warren G. Harding in 1920. All of the action takes place on the night of the nomination, with updates about the ensuing years given by radio notifications, done cleverly on-stage by having the “broadcaster” highlighted behind a transparent screen as he gives us the scoops.

I have to admit that the topic of politics has always bored me, but I was relieved to finally be learning about a different unpopular Republican Presidential nominee, even though the situation kept reminding me of the horrors this country has been enduring for the past few years.

The play is really short, at about only an hour and twenty minutes. I really appreciate when an entire scenario can be accomplished in a brief period of time like that. No more words were needed.

Speaking of words, this play is perhaps a tad too heavy with monologues. Even though my former TV show was one, I always prefer to hear dialogues. Yes, these monologues are within the context of conversations, and delivered superbly, but a bit more interaction between sentences would have better captured my interest.

As always, I had no idea what the show is about going in—I like to just go on the journey with each production. In this case, since political happenings are not my thing, when I realized Fifteen Men in a Smoke-Filled Room is about Warren G. Harding being nominated for President in 1920, I semi-tuned-out. But as soon as an extra-marital affair was brought into the narrative, I became all ears. (I have often admitted my shallowness in this e-zine, so don’t be surprised by which subject matter I prefer.) Actually, this time it was not just me–the energy of the whole show picked way up when newcomer-to-the-biz Sarah Walker showed-up as Harding’s mistress and baby mama. [Note: His paternity has never been proven, but is accepted as truth.]

All six actors in this production do an admirable job, and are perfect for their roles. They make it feel like we’re watching a much bigger cast. (That is correct—there are only six actors. And only three, not fifteen, are men! And there’s no smoke, not even prop cigarettes, in the room, so no worries there. But a brief odorless cloud does waft up from the indicated convention floor at one point. You’ll just have to see the play to figure-out the significance of the title.)

I have only one tiny complaint about this entire presentation, and that is with a bit of stage “business.” If the powers that be felt that knitting is an important action for the character of Mrs. Harding in a couple of scenes, Roslyn Cohn, (as excellent as she is in the role,) should have really learned how to do that craft before taking the stage! Knitters always work at a revved-up pace, no matter what else is happening in the room. When I saw the play, Roslyn barely did a stitch the entire time! She just sort-of held the needles and yarn still most of the time, and moved them around occasionally. Since that was the case, there seemed to be no need to have knitting be her busy work. I’m just sayin’. (One more nitpicky thing about her stage business is that she left the room with a purse and re-entered without it.)

While I’m on the subject of creative arts, (which knitting is,) Fifteen Men in a Smoke-Filled Room featured yet another outstanding set by Jeff G. Rack. His designs always set every scene so beautifully, no matter the location or era. His work is one of the perks of seeing shows at Theatre 40.

This company is also known for its ease of experience, along with little extras, and in this case, my friend and I were fascinated by the lobby display. It was filled with photos of all the real-life players, which were very educational. What a great idea that was!

On top of that, I had never been to Theatre 40 for a matinee before, so I was very pleasantly surprised to see such a packed house on a Sunday afternoon! But both the theatre and play deserve that respect.

I’ve never known even one thing about President Harding, but I researched him the second I got home. And when a play can inspire a thirst for knowledge, that’s a very good thing. So Jeopardy, bring on that “Warren G. Harding” category! I know I’ll run it now, thanks to Theatre 40.

I wanted to take a moment to give a shout-out to this nifty, rather awesome website serving the greater Los Angeles are a- Better Lemons!

I came across this site while researching review for my historical drama “Fifteen Men in a Smoke-Filled Room” (currently playing at Theatre40 of Beverly Hills from November 14th through December 15th).

Lo and behold, I came across Better Lemons, a website that (very helpfully) accumulates theatrical reviews from a variety of sources for shows in the LA area – and well, they found all the reviews of “Fifteen Men,” and I’m pleased to see an 88% positive score for the show!

You can check out the page for “Fifteen Men” here!