Full Article Text
HuffPost EDITION
US
THE BLOG 03/22/2016 11:29 pm ET | Updated Mar 23, 2017
Theater: Claire Danes In "Dry Powder" Ignites (Small)
Explosion
By Michael Giltz
DRY POWDER ** 1/2 out of ****
PUBLIC THEATER
I'm going to short Dry Powder, the generally amusing new play by Sarah Burgess about Wall Street. It's
strongly acted, fluidly directed, impeccably designed...and a little disappointing. Anyone with tickets to this
sold out show will be pleased by the talent on display: Claire Danes, John Krasinski, Hank Azaria and SanjitDe Silva are all good in a story that's momentarily entertaining. But just two days later it's fading from mymemory. For starters, the would-be sucker punch of an ending needs two of the four characters to betraymost of what we know about them (not to mention some financial realities) in order to get there. I'm not sold.
Here's the deal. Azaria (in top form) is Rick, the head of a private equity firm facing a tsunami of bad press.
The same day they fired thousands of American workers from a grocery store chain their firm was stripping forits assets, Rick staged a garishly lavish engagement party. Oops. Bad press is par for the course these daysfor shark-like private equity firms. But this negativity is so vicious that investors are starting to panic and pulltheir money. Rick is panicking too. He wastes time vetting the speech that Jenny (Claire Danes, going all-in onher emotionally vacant character) is giving to college students, worried over her tone deaf response to anycalls for humanity. (It's a waste of time because she's so utterly out of touch with the average person that herspeech would be a PR disaster. Surely Rick would just tell her to cancel.)
Rick is hoping for a quick adrenaline rush of good news via a new take-over target. Golden boy Seth is the yin
to Jenny's yang and he (played by the very appealing Krasinski) has discovered an American luggagecompany ripe for acquisition. Seth sees value in the company where no one else does, thanks to a plan to goonline and venture into bespoke luggage. Seth has engineered a bargain asking price from the company'shead and a plan for growth that will mean they can actually increase American jobs, get good press and make
money in the process.
Needless to say, Jenny crunches the numbers and decides they can make more money with less risk by
simply stripping the company of its assets, selling off the corporate office, firing all but six employees andmove manufacturing to Asia. Who's plan will triumph? And does Rick have the luxury of choosing long-termgrowth over a short, sharp takedown that would mean a big chunk of change? Let the battle royal begin.Theater: Claire Danes In "Dry Powder" Ignites (Small) Explosion
PHOTO BY JOAN MARCUS
More complications ensue, especially when Jeff (De Silva), the acting head of that luggage company, shows
up to finalize the deal. He's focused entirely on making sure his employees are taken care of and trusts Sethto do right by them. Seth of course is wracked with guilt over not telling Jeff that the employees may in fact betossed aside after all, like some cheap carry-on that doesn't fit into the overhead rack (or their plans). A lastminute twist means Jeff innocently tempts his new best friend with another idea: what if Seth left Wall Streetto join Jeff, they raised their own money and put the plan they've developed into action on their own? Sethcould become a real businessman, an honest to goodness jobs creator, make a lot of money and sleepsoundly at night! Is Seth willing to take the same risk that he's urging on Jeff?
Dry Powder is slickly enjoyable as far as it goes. Director Thomas Kail ( Hamilton ) keeps the brisk show moving
without ever losing focus. The story is staged with the audience on all four sides. In a good show done in the
round, you rarely feel like you're in the wrong spot as a viewer; that's certainly the case here. The elegant setby Rachel Hauck employs some brightly colored cubes stacked this way and that to suggest an office, a barand so on, ably aided by the lighting of Jason Lyons and the seamless music and sound design of LindsayJones. (Sometimes, the highest compliment one can pay to a sound design is that you didn't consciouslynotice it.) The costumes by Clint Ramos are spot on, right down to the sleek corporate look of the stage handswho move the set pieces around. (I may be imagining it, but I thought that the outfits of Danes rathercounterintuitively went from more restrictive to more flattering, a nice reflection of her corporate fortunesrather than her inner life.)
The problems begin with Jenny. Most audiences will immediately be sympathetic to Seth and his desire to
actually NOT demolish yet another company for short term gain. So for the drama to be heightened, we needto have Jenny seduce us with her worldview. Instead, much of the humor of the show comes from Jenny, whois so heartlessly clueless to the opinion of others that we laugh in horror. It's like Data on Star Trek: The NextGeneration -- she literally can't understand or care to understand the attitudes of anyone else. That's a bad
comparison, actually, since Data at least tried.
Danes I believe gives the performance of the character as written and desired by Burgess. Certainly her
opinions are voiced by many of the 1% and not just on CNBC. But her inability to even comprehend the idea
of public image or how others might interpret her comments beggars belief. It makes Jenny such a pooropponent for Seth to challenge that we never have to worry about secretly thinking she kind of makes sense.
To stack the deck even further, Jenny is so monomaniacal about her job that she stays up for two or three
days straight crunching numbers, practically collapsing on her boss's floor and in the process overworking anunderling so much he is rushed to the hospital. Needless to say, she doesn't know the lackey's name orcurrent condition and wonders why Seth would care. Jenny, in short, is literally a stick figure to mock,throwing the entire tug of war between her and Seth out of whack. She may or may not win the battle butshe'll never win our grudging respect or even convince us she's anything but a conceit.
Similarly, De Silva is wonderfully decent as Jeff, which any theatergoer can sense will lead either to his being
crushed or corrupted. Indeed, Rick and Jenny dangle a big fat bonus in front of Jeff to abandon his belovedemployees and sign on the dotted line. One can see the plot twist a mile away but since it means ignoringevery single word this character has uttered and every single thing he's done, whether or not he takes themoney it feels like a cheat. As a final dig, Jeff's "price" (he's asked to give a figure, just for argument's sake) isso low we have to assume he's a sucker on top of it all who would sell himself cheap.
Finally, two financial issues confuse things. One, Jeff off-handedly mentions having a failing vineyard on the
side. Well, maybe. But given what we know it seems unlikely since the founder of the company has yet tocash out. Since that guy has not had his real payday yet, how could Jeff be rolling in so much money he has a
frickin' vineyard? It's not out of the realm of possibility but stretches credulity. We eventually know why thisseemingly innocuous detail is offered up early on but it doesn't convince. Plus, the private equity firm isswirling in disaster throughout the play and on the brink of collapse. Money is fleeing left and right and theonly potential source of new funds is questionable at best. When Seth sees the possibility of jumping ship andworking with Jeff at this luggage company, it's presented as a complete risk for him, rather than the lifeline itmight actually be.
Ultimately, Dry Powder enlivens some painfully real issues with humor. But it's hard to feel genuinely engaged
with a morality play when everyone in it is so determined to be immoral. The show is bracketed by that
speech Danes is going to give to NYU finance students. At the beginning, she's delivering the highlights to herboss. At the end, she's actually giving the speech. Her monologue -- which should be revealing and biting tous -- simply reveals this paper thin character is just as clueless as ever. We're none the wiser about how anactual flesh and blood person might actually feel and, thus, we're ultimately as unmoved as Jenny by thedrama around her.
THEATER OF 2016
Employee Of The Year (Under The Radar at Public) ***
Germinal (Under The Radar At Public) *** 1/2
Fiddler On The Roof 2015 Broadway revival with Danny Burstein ** 1/2
Skeleton Crew ***
Noises Off (2016 Broadway revival) ** but *** if you've never seen it before
The Grand Paradise ***
Our Mother's Brief Affair * 1/2
Something Rotten ***
Sense & Sensibility (Bedlam revival) *** 1/2
Broadway & The Bard * 1/2
Prodigal Son **
A Bronx Tale: The Musical **
Buried Child (2016 revival w Ed Harris) **
Nice Fish ***
Broadway By The Year: The 1930s at Town Hall ***
Hughie **
Pericles (w Christian Camargo) * 1/2
Straight ** 1/2
Eclipsed ***
Red Speedo ***
The Royale ** 1/2
Boy ****
The Robber Bridegroom ***
Hold On To Me, Darling ***
Blackbird ** 1/2
Disaster! *
The Effect ** 1/2
Dry Powder ** 1/2
_____________
Thanks for reading. Michael Giltz is the founder and CEO of the forthcoming website BookFilter, a book lover's
best friend. Trying to decide what to read next? Head to BookFilter! Need a smart and easy gift? Head to
BookFilter? Wondering what new titles came out this week in your favorite categories, like cookbooks and mystery
and more? Head to BookFilter! It's a website that lets you browse for books online the way you do in a physical
bookstore, provides comprehensive info on new releases every week in every category and offers passionate
personal recommendations every step of the way. It's like a fall book preview or holiday gift guide -- but everyweek in every category. He's also the cohost of Showbiz Sandbox , a weekly pop culture podcast that reveals the
industry take on entertainment news of the day and features top journalists and opinion makers as guests. It'savailable for free on iTunes. Visit Michael Giltz at his website and his daily blog. Download his podcast of celebrity
interviews and his radio show, also called Popsurfing and also available for free on iTunes.
Note : Michael Giltz is provided with free tickets to shows with the understanding that he will be writing a review.
All productions are in New York City unless otherwise indicated.
Follow Michael Giltz on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/michaelgiltz
Michael Giltz
Freelance writer
US
THE BLOG 03/22/2016 11:29 pm ET | Updated Mar 23, 2017
Theater: Claire Danes In "Dry Powder" Ignites (Small)
Explosion
By Michael Giltz
DRY POWDER ** 1/2 out of ****
PUBLIC THEATER
I'm going to short Dry Powder, the generally amusing new play by Sarah Burgess about Wall Street. It's
strongly acted, fluidly directed, impeccably designed...and a little disappointing. Anyone with tickets to this
sold out show will be pleased by the talent on display: Claire Danes, John Krasinski, Hank Azaria and SanjitDe Silva are all good in a story that's momentarily entertaining. But just two days later it's fading from mymemory. For starters, the would-be sucker punch of an ending needs two of the four characters to betraymost of what we know about them (not to mention some financial realities) in order to get there. I'm not sold.
Here's the deal. Azaria (in top form) is Rick, the head of a private equity firm facing a tsunami of bad press.
The same day they fired thousands of American workers from a grocery store chain their firm was stripping forits assets, Rick staged a garishly lavish engagement party. Oops. Bad press is par for the course these daysfor shark-like private equity firms. But this negativity is so vicious that investors are starting to panic and pulltheir money. Rick is panicking too. He wastes time vetting the speech that Jenny (Claire Danes, going all-in onher emotionally vacant character) is giving to college students, worried over her tone deaf response to anycalls for humanity. (It's a waste of time because she's so utterly out of touch with the average person that herspeech would be a PR disaster. Surely Rick would just tell her to cancel.)
Rick is hoping for a quick adrenaline rush of good news via a new take-over target. Golden boy Seth is the yin
to Jenny's yang and he (played by the very appealing Krasinski) has discovered an American luggagecompany ripe for acquisition. Seth sees value in the company where no one else does, thanks to a plan to goonline and venture into bespoke luggage. Seth has engineered a bargain asking price from the company'shead and a plan for growth that will mean they can actually increase American jobs, get good press and make
money in the process.
Needless to say, Jenny crunches the numbers and decides they can make more money with less risk by
simply stripping the company of its assets, selling off the corporate office, firing all but six employees andmove manufacturing to Asia. Who's plan will triumph? And does Rick have the luxury of choosing long-termgrowth over a short, sharp takedown that would mean a big chunk of change? Let the battle royal begin.Theater: Claire Danes In "Dry Powder" Ignites (Small) Explosion
PHOTO BY JOAN MARCUS
More complications ensue, especially when Jeff (De Silva), the acting head of that luggage company, shows
up to finalize the deal. He's focused entirely on making sure his employees are taken care of and trusts Sethto do right by them. Seth of course is wracked with guilt over not telling Jeff that the employees may in fact betossed aside after all, like some cheap carry-on that doesn't fit into the overhead rack (or their plans). A lastminute twist means Jeff innocently tempts his new best friend with another idea: what if Seth left Wall Streetto join Jeff, they raised their own money and put the plan they've developed into action on their own? Sethcould become a real businessman, an honest to goodness jobs creator, make a lot of money and sleepsoundly at night! Is Seth willing to take the same risk that he's urging on Jeff?
Dry Powder is slickly enjoyable as far as it goes. Director Thomas Kail ( Hamilton ) keeps the brisk show moving
without ever losing focus. The story is staged with the audience on all four sides. In a good show done in the
round, you rarely feel like you're in the wrong spot as a viewer; that's certainly the case here. The elegant setby Rachel Hauck employs some brightly colored cubes stacked this way and that to suggest an office, a barand so on, ably aided by the lighting of Jason Lyons and the seamless music and sound design of LindsayJones. (Sometimes, the highest compliment one can pay to a sound design is that you didn't consciouslynotice it.) The costumes by Clint Ramos are spot on, right down to the sleek corporate look of the stage handswho move the set pieces around. (I may be imagining it, but I thought that the outfits of Danes rathercounterintuitively went from more restrictive to more flattering, a nice reflection of her corporate fortunesrather than her inner life.)
The problems begin with Jenny. Most audiences will immediately be sympathetic to Seth and his desire to
actually NOT demolish yet another company for short term gain. So for the drama to be heightened, we needto have Jenny seduce us with her worldview. Instead, much of the humor of the show comes from Jenny, whois so heartlessly clueless to the opinion of others that we laugh in horror. It's like Data on Star Trek: The NextGeneration -- she literally can't understand or care to understand the attitudes of anyone else. That's a bad
comparison, actually, since Data at least tried.
Danes I believe gives the performance of the character as written and desired by Burgess. Certainly her
opinions are voiced by many of the 1% and not just on CNBC. But her inability to even comprehend the idea
of public image or how others might interpret her comments beggars belief. It makes Jenny such a pooropponent for Seth to challenge that we never have to worry about secretly thinking she kind of makes sense.
To stack the deck even further, Jenny is so monomaniacal about her job that she stays up for two or three
days straight crunching numbers, practically collapsing on her boss's floor and in the process overworking anunderling so much he is rushed to the hospital. Needless to say, she doesn't know the lackey's name orcurrent condition and wonders why Seth would care. Jenny, in short, is literally a stick figure to mock,throwing the entire tug of war between her and Seth out of whack. She may or may not win the battle butshe'll never win our grudging respect or even convince us she's anything but a conceit.
Similarly, De Silva is wonderfully decent as Jeff, which any theatergoer can sense will lead either to his being
crushed or corrupted. Indeed, Rick and Jenny dangle a big fat bonus in front of Jeff to abandon his belovedemployees and sign on the dotted line. One can see the plot twist a mile away but since it means ignoringevery single word this character has uttered and every single thing he's done, whether or not he takes themoney it feels like a cheat. As a final dig, Jeff's "price" (he's asked to give a figure, just for argument's sake) isso low we have to assume he's a sucker on top of it all who would sell himself cheap.
Finally, two financial issues confuse things. One, Jeff off-handedly mentions having a failing vineyard on the
side. Well, maybe. But given what we know it seems unlikely since the founder of the company has yet tocash out. Since that guy has not had his real payday yet, how could Jeff be rolling in so much money he has a
frickin' vineyard? It's not out of the realm of possibility but stretches credulity. We eventually know why thisseemingly innocuous detail is offered up early on but it doesn't convince. Plus, the private equity firm isswirling in disaster throughout the play and on the brink of collapse. Money is fleeing left and right and theonly potential source of new funds is questionable at best. When Seth sees the possibility of jumping ship andworking with Jeff at this luggage company, it's presented as a complete risk for him, rather than the lifeline itmight actually be.
Ultimately, Dry Powder enlivens some painfully real issues with humor. But it's hard to feel genuinely engaged
with a morality play when everyone in it is so determined to be immoral. The show is bracketed by that
speech Danes is going to give to NYU finance students. At the beginning, she's delivering the highlights to herboss. At the end, she's actually giving the speech. Her monologue -- which should be revealing and biting tous -- simply reveals this paper thin character is just as clueless as ever. We're none the wiser about how anactual flesh and blood person might actually feel and, thus, we're ultimately as unmoved as Jenny by thedrama around her.
THEATER OF 2016
Employee Of The Year (Under The Radar at Public) ***
Germinal (Under The Radar At Public) *** 1/2
Fiddler On The Roof 2015 Broadway revival with Danny Burstein ** 1/2
Skeleton Crew ***
Noises Off (2016 Broadway revival) ** but *** if you've never seen it before
The Grand Paradise ***
Our Mother's Brief Affair * 1/2
Something Rotten ***
Sense & Sensibility (Bedlam revival) *** 1/2
Broadway & The Bard * 1/2
Prodigal Son **
A Bronx Tale: The Musical **
Buried Child (2016 revival w Ed Harris) **
Nice Fish ***
Broadway By The Year: The 1930s at Town Hall ***
Hughie **
Pericles (w Christian Camargo) * 1/2
Straight ** 1/2
Eclipsed ***
Red Speedo ***
The Royale ** 1/2
Boy ****
The Robber Bridegroom ***
Hold On To Me, Darling ***
Blackbird ** 1/2
Disaster! *
The Effect ** 1/2
Dry Powder ** 1/2
_____________
Thanks for reading. Michael Giltz is the founder and CEO of the forthcoming website BookFilter, a book lover's
best friend. Trying to decide what to read next? Head to BookFilter! Need a smart and easy gift? Head to
BookFilter? Wondering what new titles came out this week in your favorite categories, like cookbooks and mystery
and more? Head to BookFilter! It's a website that lets you browse for books online the way you do in a physical
bookstore, provides comprehensive info on new releases every week in every category and offers passionate
personal recommendations every step of the way. It's like a fall book preview or holiday gift guide -- but everyweek in every category. He's also the cohost of Showbiz Sandbox , a weekly pop culture podcast that reveals the
industry take on entertainment news of the day and features top journalists and opinion makers as guests. It'savailable for free on iTunes. Visit Michael Giltz at his website and his daily blog. Download his podcast of celebrity
interviews and his radio show, also called Popsurfing and also available for free on iTunes.
Note : Michael Giltz is provided with free tickets to shows with the understanding that he will be writing a review.
All productions are in New York City unless otherwise indicated.
Follow Michael Giltz on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/michaelgiltz
Michael Giltz
Freelance writer