Old Money (play)
Encyclopedia
Old Money is a play written by Wendy Wasserstein
. The play is "a comedy of manners, one that examines the theme of materialism."
Lincoln Centre production at the Mitzi Newhouse Theater on December 7, 2000 and closed on January 21, 2001. Directed by Mark Brokaw
, the cast featured John Cullum
, Mary Beth Hurt
, Mark Harelik
, Emily Bergl
, and Kathryn Meisle. Choreography was by John Carrafa and original music was by Lewis Flinn. Jane Greenwood
won the Lucille Lortel Award, Outstanding Costume Design.
. It time-travels between the present-day party goers and the "Gilded Era" of the early 20th century.
wrote that the play was " busy, frazzled" and "emphasize[s] theme and situation over character...Every so often an unexpected surge of emotional current electrifies Old Money, touching on feelings that range from the loneliness that follows the death of a family member to the anger that propels an outsider who wants in. But these eruptions subside all too quickly. What we're left with as we contemplate the lucre-worshipers of today and yesterday is a surface comparison of worlds defined by surfaces."
Wendy Wasserstein
Wendy Wasserstein was an American playwright and an Andrew Dickson White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University...
. The play is "a comedy of manners, one that examines the theme of materialism."
Production history
Old Money premiered in an Off-BroadwayOff-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...
Lincoln Centre production at the Mitzi Newhouse Theater on December 7, 2000 and closed on January 21, 2001. Directed by Mark Brokaw
Mark Brokaw
Mark Brokaw is a stage director. He won the Drama Desk Award, Obie Award and Lucille Lortel Award as Outstanding Director of a Play for How I Learned to Drive.Brokaw was raised in Aledo, Illinois and graduated from the Yale Drama School...
, the cast featured John Cullum
John Cullum
John Cullum is an American actor and singer. He has appeared in many stage musicals and dramas, including On the Twentieth Century and Shenandoah , winning the Tony Awards for Best Leading Actor in a Musical for each...
, Mary Beth Hurt
Mary Beth Hurt
Mary Beth Hurt is an American actress of stage and screen.-Personal life:Hurt was born Mary Supinger in 1946 in Marshalltown, Iowa, the daughter of Delores Lenore and Forrest Clayton Supinger. Her childhood babysitter was actress Jean Seberg, also a Marshalltown native...
, Mark Harelik
Mark Harelik
Mark Harelik is an American television, film, and stage actor, as well as a playwright.-Career:Harelik has appeared in the films Election, Jurassic Park III and For Your Consideration; He was the voice of Rogers in The Swan Princess, and he has played parts on the television sitcoms Seinfeld,...
, Emily Bergl
Emily Bergl
Anne Emily Bergl is an English-born American film, stage, and television actress. She is best known for her role as Rachel Lang on the film The Rage: Carrie 2 , Annie O'Donnell on the ABC television show Men in Trees , Beth Young on Desperate Housewives and Tammy Bryant on the TNT drama series...
, and Kathryn Meisle. Choreography was by John Carrafa and original music was by Lewis Flinn. Jane Greenwood
Jane Greenwood
Jane Greenwood is a costume designer for the stage, television, film, opera, and dance. Born in Liverpool, England, she works both in England and the United States. She has been nominated for the Tony Award for costume design seventeen times.-Biography:Greenwood attended Liverpool Art School and...
won the Lucille Lortel Award, Outstanding Costume Design.
Plot
The play takes place at a party at the private house of Jeffrey Bernstein on the Upper East Side of ManhattanManhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
. It time-travels between the present-day party goers and the "Gilded Era" of the early 20th century.
Critical response
New York Times critic Ben BrantleyBen Brantley
Benjamin D. "Ben" Brantley is an American journalist and the chief theater critic of The New York Times.-Life and career:...
wrote that the play was " busy, frazzled" and "emphasize[s] theme and situation over character...Every so often an unexpected surge of emotional current electrifies Old Money, touching on feelings that range from the loneliness that follows the death of a family member to the anger that propels an outsider who wants in. But these eruptions subside all too quickly. What we're left with as we contemplate the lucre-worshipers of today and yesterday is a surface comparison of worlds defined by surfaces."