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Review
Burleigh Grime$
At the New World Stages
June 25, 2006
Morgan Wycks
mwycks@nyconstage.org
Burleigh Grime$ by Roger Kirby, the latest attempt in selling productions with celebrities and semi-celebrities, wants to be some kind of indictment against the world of finance but merely comes off as a bad made-for-pay-tv sitcom. The particulars are not worth going into since it's simply a series of people screwing each other over again and again. Fraud, entrapment, insider trading, revenge, scams, cons, blackmail, bribery - you name it, this group does it. The plots pile up until the play just ends - it has nowhere to go. To jazz it up and perhaps keep the audience off balance, there is a rock band that has the actors occasionally breaking into dance. The band also helps to snap your wandering attention back to the stage or, in the case of a gentleman sitting near to me, to wake you up.
In the title role, Mark Moses seems too nice a guy to be the unethical, immoral, cut-throat financial barracuda the part requires. He should have used his all-American demeanor to surprise us. Better at this game is the always reliable Wendie Malick who gets off a few laughs as does John Lavelle in the role of Grimes' associate, though he pushes toward pandering (but then one can't blame him). For the love interest couple, Ashley Williams goes for a realistic approach that does her in, and James Badge Dale goes for a summer stock approach which does him in. Nancy Anderson scores with the stereotypical greedy wife role but otherwise must do secretarial duty repeatedly bumping and grinding while pouring coffee.
David Warren manages the traffic around the set smoothly enough but hasn't brought a unifying style to what should basically be a cartoon. Some people with money decided to back this production, but should have known it would be beyond a risky investment. I hope the tax write-off will be worth it.
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