Elizabeth Molloy & Mike Dennis. Photo by Mikki Schaffner.
New Edgecliff Theatre brings its 2013-14 Season (“Best Laid Plans”) to a close with Jerry Sterner’s timely and cautionary tale of Wall Street versus Main Street.
Wall Street takeover artist Lawrence Garfinkle’s computer is going tilt over the undervalued stock of New England Wire & Cable. If the stockholders back his take over, they will make a bundle but what will happen to the 1,200 employees and the community when he liquidates the assets? Opposing the rapacious financier are the genial man who has run the company since the year one and his chief operations officer. They bring in a young lawyer who specializes in fending off takeovers. Should she use “green mail”? Find a “white knight”? Employ a “shark repellent”? This compelling drama explores whether corporate raiders are creatures from the Black Lagoon of capitalism or realists.
During the 1980’s, Wall Street was seeing a rise in new strategies of investments, often bringing in big profits at the expense of smaller companies, their employees and the communities they supported. Originally produced Off-Broadway in 1989, “Other People’s Money” presented audiences with a new financial player – the corporate raider. With its accurate portrayal of legal and financial wheelings and dealings in this new era, it received the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Off-Broadway Play and garnered the John Gassner Playwriting Award for Jerry Sterner. In 1991 it was made into a major motion picture starring Danny DeVito in the role of the tactless and obnoxious “Larry the Liquidator”. Today, the play is almost prophetic with its warnings about Wall Street and the future of small businesses.
“This is a very timely play,” comments Producing Artistic Director Jim Stump. “The recent financial crisis reminded me in a lot of ways of what went on in the 1980’s. Americans saw many smaller businesses disappear as Wall Street investors saw a new way of getting a quick profit. Many people lost not only their jobs but the pensions and investments they had at small companies that were bought out, divided up and sold out from under them. This play intelligently addresses this phenomenon from multiple sides”
Directed by former New Edgecliff Theatre Artistic Director Greg Procaccino, the show runs April 16 through 26, 2014 at the Fifth Third Bank Theater, Aronoff Center for the Arts. The cast features Robert Allen, Mike Dennis, Christine Dye, Mike King, Elizabeth Molloy, and Mindy Seibert. Tickets are $25.25 for Adults, $20.25 for Seniors (60+) and $17.25 for Students. Tickets can be purchased now by calling 513.621.ARTS or online at www.cincinnatiarts.org.
TRAGEDY: A TRAGEDY
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