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NY Theater: “The Right Kind of People” skewers snobby richA biting satiric look at bigoted Fifth Avenue coop boardBy Lucy KomisarPlaywright Charles Grodin served on a Fifth Avenue coop board from 1986 to 1992. He wrote in a program note, “Early on, a board member casually commented that a prospective buyer clearly bought his clothes off the rack. I said, ‘I get my clothes off the rack.’ The board member said, ‘I know.’ When I realized that none of this was meant to be amusing, the idea of a play was born.”
However, one of the owners who votes down Jewish applicants as unsuitable is Jewish. The board member he succeeded is getting divorced. They think that owners shouldn’t have children or animals. But one board member has a dog and another plans a child. So, the rules are for new owners. Concern about drinking is expressed at the same time that a wondrous amount of red wine is consumed by all.
Even Frank Rashman (Edwin C. Owens), the successful theatrical producer, makes his judgments on the basis of nepotism and back-scratching. He gets his nephew, Tom (Robert Stanton) into the building and on the board, then turns against him when he agrees with board critics. Tom, perhaps representing Grodin, is first bewildered and then increasingly angry and disgusted at the board. Most of the coop board meetings are taken up with expressions of bigotry. Members wonder, for example, if they should require all employees to use the freight elevator to avoid having to share the passenger car with a new black health care aide. “Could black people get into the building [as owners]?” Tom asks. “Maybe a very light-skinned head of the UN,” replies Doug Bernstein (Mitchell Greenberg), who presents himself as the “liberal,” announcing that he’s in “the ADL.” (The Anti-Defamation League, which is not spelled out for an audience assumed to be au courant.) As directed by Chris Smith, the work has the feel of a long sketch rather than a play. The characters are caricatures that do reflect real people but never seem real themselves. But perhaps if they didn’t talk like caricatures, some in the well-heeled audience might take them seriously. “We’re not prejudiced. We’re just protecting our investment.” Some coop owners might have agreed. “The Right Kind of People.” Written by Charles Grodin. Directed by Chris Smith. Starring Doris Belack, Stephen Bradbury, Fred Burrell, Mitch Greenberg, Keith Jochim, Katherine Leask, Ed Owens, Robert Stanton, Evan Thompson, John C. Vennema. Primary Stages at 59E59, 59 E. 59th St. Tue 7pm; Wed - Sat 8pm; Sat 2pm; Sun 3pm. Through March 5, 2006. $60. 212-279-4200. http://www.primarystages.com/. by James Leynse. |
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TM
For snobby Fifth Avenue coop owners in Grodin’s biting
satiric play, “the right kind of people” have gone to Ivy League schools, are
impeccably and expensively tailored and have “social standing.” That means they
are listed in the for-profit “Social Register.” They probably work at white shoe
law firms or investment companies. They certainly didn’t attend CCNY, wear baggy
suits with socks that aren’t black, or appear too stereotypically Jewish. Nor
should they be divorced. Prospective tenants with the aforementioned undesirable
attributes are blacklisted.
After a while, it is clear that these “rules to improve the
building” are actually scripts for power trips to establish the superiority of a
collection of decidedly unimpressive, smug men and women. Ironically, these
upper class worshipers of money even dismiss the Barretts of Kansas (Fred
Burrell and Katherine Leask), who are worth a few hundred million, and the
Goldbergs of New York (Doris Belack and Keith Jochim), who’ve established a
chain of stores. These folks built their own fortunes, which apparently gives
them no points. The Barretts are not chic and the Goldbergs are too “garment
center” Jewish. One doesn’t learn the professions of the coop board members, but
it would be hard to imagine them doing anything that took grit and ability. They
more likely play “suck up / kick down” roles in business or the professions.
