This clever distillation of an outsize American legend's colorful life and career is both written and performed by the masterful Michael O. Smith. By turns nostalgic, confiding, blustering and jovial, Smith adeptly reveals many sides of a complex man who had vowed as a youth to "live life to the hilt until he turned 60."

The premise of the show, directed by Byam Stevens, has a group of admirers taking tea at Roosevelt's Sagamore Hill home in October 1918, enjoying a lecture by the ex-president on his 60th birthday.

The warm, inviting set by Charles Corcoran recreates TR's study, where Smith, as Roosevelt, bounds energetically back and forth, jovially telling - and acting out - stories about his life's achievements and sorrows, both public and private.

TR engages the live theater audience as if they are his visitors, regularly throwing out comments and jokes, asking them to complete some of his famous phrases, such as "Speak softly ..." and promising to reveal a few "unpleasant truths" about himself along the way.

Smith had a wealth of biographical material and quotations from which to choose. Roosevelt was not only the 26th president of the United States (1901-1909) but he also was a cowboy, environmentalist, explorer, founder of the Rough Riders volunteer cavalry unit, corruption-fighting politician, Nobel Peace Prize winner, enthusiastic speech-giver, and devoted father.

Somehow, Smith has condensed Roosevelt's adventure-packed life into a fast-paced, amusing, often sentimental portrait, while managing to look and act uncannily like the real Teddy Roosevelt, as remembered in old photos and on old black-and-white newsreel footage.

His gestures, mannerisms and robust delivery are smartly aided by appropriate costuming and props. Multiple hats, jackets and scarves are swiftly interchanged as TR exuberantly recounts some of his greatest adventures with humor and gusto.

Highlights from his major speeches are accompanied by scratchy, old-fashioned recorded music, with cheers and applause on the soundtrack that intensify the mood of authenticity.

Among the closing words of Smith's performance are, "I wonder if you will ever know how much this country means to me?" Smith has movingly answered this question through his informative, entertaining tea party.

"The Bully Pulpit" runs through June 29 at the Samuel Beckett Theatre.

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