On & Off Broadway

‘Dry Powder’

Reviews by Elyse Trevers

Posted

There they were — less than 30 feet away — three performers I had only known through the magic of television. The intense Claire Danes (Homeland), affable John Krasinski (The Office) and multi-talented Hank Azaria (The Simpsons), were right in front of me, on stage at The Public Theater. The three star in the 95-minute play Dry Powder written by Sarah Burgess. Directed by Thomas Kail, the play, about the machinations of the financial industry, is both informative and distressing.

Founder of the company, Rick (Azaria) has unfortunately timed his extravagant engagement party (complete with an elephant or two) with the firing of hundreds of people in a company that his company has recently acquired. The bad press is overwhelming. So much so that eventually all of the company's limited partners withdraw their money, leaving him with too little in reserve to take advantage of the lucrative deal Seth (Krasinski) has brought to him. That is, unless Rick decides to do business with a shady Chinese businessman.

Seth is pleasant and creative and makes deals with his personality and friendliness. He also cares and wants to be liked. He insists that if Rick buys the family-owned luggage company that they not dismantle it or out source its production. Jenny, on the other hand, is consumed with making money. Perhaps with a touch of Asperger's, she is totally mirthless, having no personal life and has no social skills. She also cannot read social cues and rarely relaxes. In fact, one of the few times she smiles is when she tells Seth, her nemesis, that she heard about a man who was killed and totally dismembered by a bus. She tells him that she was hoping it was him.

The characters Danes and Krasinski portray are not totally dissimilar to the ones they play on television. Danes is tense, rigid and almost hyper. She rarely smiles and is totally fixated. She's not at all pleasant but you have to admire her focus. In contrast, Krasinski is likeable, always smiling and joking. You like him; you don't like her. As a viewer, you agree with Seth wanting to keep the company intact because that is the right thing. You don't care that Rick's company will make more money.

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