The show: “Love & Money” at the Westport Country Playhouse
What makes it special?: World premiere of A.R. Gurney play, before it moves to off-Broadway’s Signature Theatre.
First impressions?: There are tags on all the items in the elegant East Side living room owned by wealthy matron Cornelia Cunningham (Maureen Anderman). She has come to the conclusion that money is a “curse” and the root of much unhappiness, certainly for her family. She has decided to give away her home’s contents — rare books, prized artwork, antique furniture — and donate her money to charities.
There are also tags throughout Gurney’s cumbersome, simplistic and not-very-believable script that refer to his earlier works. Touchstones to F. Scott Fitzgerald, Cole Porter, Richard Cory, dining rooms and cocktail hours, and much conversation about the culture of WASPs and the city of Buffalo, are reminders of the clear-eyed pleasures and insight this distinguished playwright has created in the past — and what is missing here.
So what’s the story?: Harvey Abel (Joe Paulik), a lawyer, arrives to ascertain Cornelia’s seriousness about wanting to give her fortune away, leaving just enough for her two grandchildren to live comfortably. But things become complicated when Walker “Scott” Williams (Gabriel Brown), a handsome young black man, arrives at her doorstep claiming to be her grandson by her now-deceased daughter. Scott seems to be working his spell on the liberal-leaning Cornelia, despite misgivings from the lawyer and her housekeeper Agnes (Pamela Dunlap).
Sounds a little like “Six Degrees of Separation:” By a few degrees. But the problem at this point — the play is allegedly still in “preview” mode — is that the narrative and characters are unconvincing. A student from Juilliard, Jessica Worth (Kahyun Kim) arrives ostensibly for the purpose of eyeing a piano to be donated to the school. But the dramaturgical reason for her being there is more bizarre, especially when the plot takes a pause for her to sing a Cole Porter song (and a reprise!). At the end of her scene, a few lines of dialogue with Scott suggest a possible attraction — but it’s all very tenuous and strange.
Believability is the core challenge for the play, performances and staging, the latter by Mark Lamos, artistic director of the Playhouse and long-time Gurney collaborator.
At the heart of the work is Cornelia, who comes across both sharp and naive, willful and flighty, one who pines for cultured traditions but sees the demographic writing on the wall and is now open to fist-bumps, high-fives and “whatevers.” It’s hard to get a solid take on who she is and Anderman’s relentless chirpiness gives the character energy and determination but little else.
It’s hard to know if you’re to take her pronouncements about money seriously because at times she doesn’t seem to have a fair grip on things. She calls her granddaughter a “zombie,” merely for not having yet graduated from Harvard after many years; she blames money on the tragic fate of her two children but her daughter seemed to have embraced life until cancer claimed her. At play’s end, Cornelia proposes ridiculous and facile scenarios for one of the characters that brings into question her competency and the sanity of her Big Altruistic Idea.
Brown’s Scotty is so callow, charmless and transparent that the audience may begin to question Cornelia’s competency, even after a whimsical twist at the end is revealed. Paulik plays the Abel lawyer in broad boulevard style — and his leaving his client with a possible con artist in order to make a lunch date with a girlfriend suggests a future malpractice suit. Dunlap is effortlessly funny as the housekeeper. Kim is fine but she might be wondering what play she wandered into.
Who will like it? Some Gurney fans. Those who buy into the give-your-money-away theme.
Who won’t? The rich who want to keep it all.
For the kids? Only if they’re trust fund kids, and even then …
Twitter review in 140 characters or less: Trying to say too much — and symbolically summing up a culture and a career, Gurney’s latest needs more focus, clarity, credibility
Thoughts on leaving the parking lot: Gurney suggests this may be his last play. I hope not. He’s too much of a cultural treasure.
The basics: The show runs through Aug. 8 at the Westport Country Playhouse, 25 Powers Court, Westport. The show runs 1 hour and 20 minutes with no intermission. Performances are Tuesdays at 7 p.m.; Wednesdays at 2 and 8 p.m.; Thursdays and Fridays at 8 p.m.; Saturdays at 3 and 8 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m. Tickets are $40 to $70. Information at www.westportplayhouse and 203-227-4177 and toll-free at 888-927-7529.
