Review: ‘How Obama Got His Groove Back’ is a cheerful satire

If politics is show business for ugly people, no wonder our current president wants a career change in “How Obama Got His Groove Back,” a cheerfully scattershot satire with music, now at the Fremont Centre Theatre in South Pasadena.

Obama (Derek Jeremiah Reid, who also directs and co-wrote with Nicholas Zill) has the White House blues. Policy change is a drag. Michelle (Constance Reese) keeps busting his chops. He feels he’d contribute more as a soul singer, and sets about releasing his lower chakras and finding an agent. Meanwhile, Mitt Romney (Phillip Wilburn) takes up improv to improve his comic timing, even though his wife, Ann (Courtney DeCosky), finds him as winning as their many offshore accounts.

“Groove” is funny when it gets things right, such as Obama’s vocal cadence and Mitt Romney’s irony-free affect. As Barack, Reid has charm, and Wilburn and DeCosky somehow manage to be the whitest people you have ever seen onstage. (Her wonderfully dreadful costumes are by Lois Tedrow). Reese’s first lady feels like a missed opportunity, but then again the playwrights didn’t give her much to do. When the show wanders off message, and throws in Palin, Trump and Hillary, it loses focus and wit. This 90-minute romp produced by the City in a Swamp company would play better without intermission or scene changes -- it’s really a light exercise in electorate catharsis. If only elections were over as quickly.

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“How Obama Got His Groove Back” Fremont Centre Theatre, 1000 Fremont Ave., South Pasadena. 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays. Ends Oct. 7. $30. Contact: 866-811-4111 or www.fremontcentretheatre.com. Running time: 90 minutes.