Theater review by Raven Snook
John Lee Beatty’s revolving wood-paneled set is an apt metaphor for the stiff and repetitive Dan Cody’s Yacht. Anthony Giardina’s drama attempts to humanize the hot-button topic of economic inequality but, like Giardina’s 2014 The City of Conversation, it is less a play than a polemic.
High-school English teacher Cara (Kristen Bush), a struggling single mother from a working-class Massachusetts community, gives a failing grade to the son of Kevin (Rick Holmes), a flush financial guru who lives one town over but a world away. Angry about it, Kevin barges into her life and makes her question her deepest values. They lock horns over a few issues, including a proposal to merge their two school districts, but he makes a generous offer: to help Cara play the stock market so she and her daughter can move up the social ladder.
Kevin’s rationale is unclear—he doesn’t suggest a specific quid pro quo—and Karen’s motives for tolerating him are even murkier, since he’s condescending, rude and vaguely threatening. But these characters have no relation to real people; they’re mouthpieces for oft-argued political positions, pressed into a narrative filled with plot holes and blind spots. Despite Doug Hughes’s handsome production, which includes committed performances by John Kroft and Casey Whyland as the two protagonists’ progeny, Dan Cody’s Yacht founders.
Manhattan Theatre Club (Off Broadway). By Anthony Giardina. Directed by Doug Hughes. With ensemble cast. Running time: 2hrs 15mins. One intermission.
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