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ORIGINAL
urL:
Theater
Review (Copyright © The New York TImes)
Back From the ’80s, Eyeing
Other People’s Money
By AILEEN JACOBSON
Published: May 11,
2008
Would Larry the
Liquidator have been able to take over Yahoo?
Anthony Caporale
MAN
WITH PLAN Wilbur Edwin
Henry, as Larry the Liquidator, trying to work his
charms on Martha Byrne, as the lawyer Kate Sullivan, in the John W. Engeman
Theater’s production of “Other People’s Money.”
Wondering
how the go-go-’80s hero of “Other People’s Money” might behave in the 21st
century is natural while watching a play that was the darling of Wall Street
two decades ago. There’s plenty of opportunity to muse during the slow-moving
first act of the production at the John W. Engeman Theater in Northport.
Fortunately, the play
roars to life after intermission, generating the laughs and gasps that made it
a megahit after it opened in February 1989 at the
Jerry Sterner’s
examination of a Wall Street raider’s grab for an undervalued
The play was always a
bit didactic, providing definitions for poison pills, white knights, greenmail
and other tactics that New England Wire and Cable, an old-fashioned concern,
might use to fend off the advances of Larry, formally known as Lawrence
Garfinkle. It also addresses weighty issues, most notably whether the needs of
factory workers and their community should play a role in the decisions made by
stockholders.
On the continuum
between comedy and drama, Michael Licata, the director, initially seems to list
toward the somber. Contributing to the first-act malaise during opening
weekend, the actors’ timing seemed off on some jokes, allowing their sitcom
flavor to poke through painfully. The play, however, also trades in clever wit
— much of it raunchy — and looks into the hearts of people passionate about
their work.
The narrator is
William Coles, New England Wire and Cable’s second in command, who has been patiently waiting to run the company and is
panicked by Garfinkle’s plans. The play’s most nuanced role, it is subtly
portrayed by James DePaiva, known to soap opera fans from “One Life to Live.”
Another soap star, Martha Byrne, a two-time Emmy winner on “As the World
Turns,” moves sleekly through her part as the sexy, ambitious lawyer Kate
Sullivan.
But the pivotal role
belongs to Wilbur Edwin Henry as Garfinkle, a voracious shark who sees himself
as a modern-day Robin Hood. “I steal from the rich and give to the middle class
— well, the upper middle class,” he says. He has charm and shtick, both of
which Mr. Henry delivers. What this Garfinkle lacks is a grimy edge that would
make him simultaneously more repellent and more compelling.
In a major subplot, Garfinkle
makes a play for Kate Sullivan, the lawyer. She has been drawn into the battle
by her mother, Bea (Neva Rae Powers, outstanding in a quiet role), the adoring
assistant to the
The production is
handsomely framed by Court Watson’s set, nicely lighted by Jen Schriever.
Could Garfinkle gobble
up Yahoo? They don’t call him Larry the Liquidator for nothing.
“Other People’s
Money,” by Jerry Sterner, is at the John W. Engeman Theater,