NY Review: 'Obama in Naples'

For those who wonder whether Barack Obama can still fill people with hope, playwright Claudio Angelini offers an answer: Yes he can—in Naples. "Obama in Naples" pictures the 44th president of the United States telling the Neapolitans tearfully, "They don't want me anymore in America." "Then stay here with us," one of them says. Another, a nun, likes him so much she would have him replace San Gennaro as Naples' patron saint.

Whether or not this is a promising satirical premise is hard to judge, as the character of Obama only appears in the last 10 minutes or so of the play, except for once during an earlier song, when he boogies silently next to a trio of sexily dressed singers. For more than 90 minutes, "Obama in Naples" is a disjointed, largely incoherent, and consistently unfunny comedy, frequently interrupted by pleasant-enough tunes with lyrics that one can only hope sound better in the original Italian. Sample: "Obama you are a true bully boy/A president with no political ploy/Economics might not be your cup of tea/It`s justice you want, no bargain plea."

Angelini, a well-known Italian journalist who has been living for years in the United States and who wrote a book about Obama, focuses his play on the character Paolo (Brian Childers), an Italian-American journalist who covers the president. Paolo is paying a return visit to Naples to report on the many continuing problems of the region three decades after a devastating earthquake. The concierge in his hotel (Beau Allen), having seen Paolo on television with Obama, gets the mistaken idea that the scribe is making preparations for a visit by the chief executive and spreads the news on the Internet. Nothing much comes of this, though. Instead, Paolo has many scenes with various characters: that nun (Lin Tucci), meant to be a comic figure, who more than once puts her fist in the air and shouts a political slogan, a female journalist (Elyse Knight) with whom Paolo had a fling long ago, and a young man and his loving girlfriend (Scott Johnson and Lauren Maslanik) who cannot find work and must resist the corruption all around them. There are also quick scenes with a mobster, a mugger, a mayor, a bikini-wearing moll, and Hillary Clinton.

Among the misused cast of 12 professional performers, Toby Blackwell stands out for his impersonation of Obama. Perhaps he'll get to play him again in a satire that makes sense.

Presented by Olga Cortese, the Capri Foundation, and the Great American Play Series at Abingdon Theater Arts Complex's June Havoc Theater, 312 W. 36th St., NYC. April 26–May 6. Tue.–Sat, 8 p.m.; Sun., 3 p.m. (212) 868-4444 or www.smarttix.com.