If “Hamilton” is the show of the Obama age, what show will we think of as representative of Donald Trump?
We needn’t ask. It already arrived, a quarter of a century ago. It’s called “Other People’s Money.” You might recall Trump actually using that exact phrase on the campaign trail.
Marc Bruni, who’s directing the play at the Long Wharf Theatre, where it runs through Dec. 18, shares that “on the back cover of the published script, there’s a quote.” It reads:
“‘Other People’s Money’ is an extraordinarily insightful, timely and witty play.”
— Donald Trump
“Other People’s Money,” which is subtitled “The Ultimate Seduction,” was a long-running off-Broadway hit in the late 1980s and early ’90s. It won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Off-Broadway Play of 1989 and gained a reputation as a play that could be enjoyed by businessmen who were dragged to the theater by their wives.
The plot concerns a corporate takeover specialist named Larry Garfinkle, who sees a wire and cable factory in Vermont as undervalued and ripe for liquidation. The company hires a lawyer to fend him off. Detailed financial dealings are outlined, amid a human drama of community and survival.
“Trump had seen the show several times,” Bruni says. “He obviously saw a lot of himself in that character.” Bruni’s own description of Garfinkle goes like this: “a rampant capitalist, a bit of a misogynist.”
“Other People’s Money” was made into a movie starring Danny DeVito as Garfinkle (renamed Garfield), Gregory Peck as the owner of New England Wire & Cable and Penelope Ann Miller as the lawyer. The play was popular at small and community theaters, but its popularity eventually waned.
“It fell out of fashion,” Bruni says. “It felt like a period piece.” Now “Other People’s Money” is suddenly relevant again — not just because a businessman is the president-elect but because the other characters in the play are factory owners and workers going through hard times and becoming easy prey for financial wheeler-dealers.
“It’s about these small-town, blue-collar workers,” Bruni says, “and what happens when those jobs leave, the feelings that are left in the wake of that.” The play has a romantic subplot as well. “There’s kind of a crackling battle of the sexes at the heart of it,” the director says, “so it’s entertaining in that way.”
Long Wharf artistic director Gordon Edelstein had political relevance in mind when he chose to do “Other People’s Money” this winter. The timing of the production — in the second slot of the new season — meant it wouldn’t be seen until after the election, but now the scheduling seems prescient.
“Gordon had programmed it already. Then he brought it to me,” Bruni says. “I was startled by how timely it seems.” The director is known for helming the Broadway hit “Beautiful” (the national tour will be at The Bushnell in January). He was looking for a change of pace. “After doing a number of big musicals in a row, it’s exciting to be in a room with a play, working on the text, spending time with actors.
“I like to be driven by telling a story truthfully, with honesty and humor. I like finding that score. This show is written so it has 12 scenes in Act 1 and 12 scenes in Act 2 — short, quick scenes, with energy and momentum moving them forward.”
Bruni has never worked at the Long Wharf before, though he’s seen shows at the theater. He says he’s excited to be working with the theater’s distinctive thrust stage.
Timeliness and newfound relevance aside, the Long Wharf isn’t looking to set “Other People’s Money” in the present day, or dress up actors to resemble real-life celebrities. The Garfinkle character is played by Jordan Lage, who last appeared at the Long Wharf in 2013, in a different sort of blustery, take-no-prisoners role: mobster Sam Giancana in William Mastrosimone’s drama about the Kennedy presidency, “Ride the Tiger.”
“We’re not trying to make Jordan Lage look like Trump,” Bruni says. “Because this particular actor is not overweight, there are some fat jokes in the script that we’ve tempered a bit. We haven’t changed the period, because there are a lot of 1980s references. It’s pre-social media. We really have not changed much of it.”
What comes through in the play that couldn’t 30 years ago, Bruni says, is “the things we know now. How the housing market changed. All the Wall Street shenanigans.”
…and whatever happened to that real-life real estate tycoon who found this play so insightful, timely and witty?
OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY by Jerry Sterner, directed by Marc Bruni, is at the Long Wharf Theatre, 222 Sargent Drive, New Haven, through Dec. 18. Tickets are $34.50 to $89.50. 203-787-4282, longwharf.org.
