The Right Kind of People: The Wrong Kind of Play

You know your play's in trouble when a yarmulke gets the biggest laugh of the night.

Shortly before the conclusion of Charles Grodin's unbearably unfunny comedy about the bigotry of a co-op board at a Fifth Avenue luxury building, there's a scene involving a Jewish couple who would like to buy in. Their entrance feels like a call to the comedy cavalry. We're not getting any laughs! Quick, send in the Jews!

Based on his experiences serving on a co-op board himself, The Right Kind of People is a sadly missed opportunity. Though Grodin occasionally hints that an interesting theme may develop, or that, heaven help us, a joke may actually land, for ninety dreary minutes the cast, carrying out Chris Smith's molasses-paced staging on Annie Smart's overly bland set, is stuck trying to inject life into exchanges like, "What's a social register?" / "It's a social register" and "What is limestone?" / "It's lime stone."

"To Live on Fifth Avenue isn't a right, it's a privilege", pronounces a member of the committee, a gathering of conservatively dressed white people who seem straight out of a casting call for a guest spot as the racist-of-the-week on The Jeffersons. A newcomer to the mix is young Broadway producer Tom Rashman (Robert Stanton), who, despite the fact that he buys his suits off the rack, has been invited to join the board where he lives, thanks to the influence of his uncle, Frank (Edwin C. Owens).

Tom is surprised by the grim seriousness with which the board debates such quality-of-life issues as the maximum height of dogs to be allowed in the building (and who would be responsible for measuring them), whether or not couples with children should be allowed to buy in (and what to do about existing residents who become pregnant) and whether or not domestic help and other employees should be allowed to ride in the main elevators.

Eventually, every topic smacks of racism or some other form of bigotry, even though they all claim to disregard race and religion in their decision-making. ("I'm the least prejudiced person in the world, but…") Their argument in defending seemingly closed-minded practices is that allowing someone who is not of their exclusive social status to share their roof would be considered a threat to the value of their investments. ("Well, maybe a very light-skinned head of the U.N….")

Disappointed and confused at seeing this side of the uncle that raised him, Tom is approached by a group from the building who want to replace the co-op board with members they claim will be more open-minded. Their spokesman is the current board's token liberal, played by Mitchell Greenberg, who tries to teach Tom that human nature is inherently bigoted. Naturally, this "more inclusive" group that wants to take over has their own personal prejudices.

Grodin ends the play with Tom giving a monologue explaining how his life has progressed since the events we've just seen. This is the first time in the play anyone addresses the audience directly and though this sharp change in presentation is an unnatural jolt that probably wouldn't make it past any Playwriting 101 course, it does provide Stanton with a chance to be rather amiable for the first time in the evening. I won't offer a critique on the rest of his or of any other performance, as the actors are obviously climbing uphill on roller skates in this one.

By far the best contribution to the production is the uncredited, hard-driving, muscular jazz music played between the piece's many scenes. It does a terrific job of indicating that something dramatic and half-way interesting may be going on.

Rather than taking in a performance of The Right Kind of People I'd suggest getting hold of an Avenue Q CD and listening to track 5. It's quicker, cheaper, deeper and infinitely wittier.

Photos by James Leynse: Top: Robert Stanton
Bottom: Keith Jochim, Edwin C. Owens and Evan Thompson