B'way Review: The Balusters

Richard Thomas and Anika Noni Rose in
The Balusters.
Credit: Jeremy Daniel

In The Balusters, David Lindsay-Abaire’s scorching and stinging new comedy from Manhattan Theater Club at the Samuel J. Friedman, the titular “vertical molded shafts or posts used to support a handrail on staircases, balconies or railings” are the seemingly inconsequential catalyst in an outrageous war of cultures, values, and identity. The central focus is on a homeowners association’s meetings where nine diverse individuals clash over traffic signs, renovations, and aforementioned balusters. (The tenth character is the housekeeper of one of the board members and she’s vitally important to the story.) But their subtextual squabbles are over defending what each character regards as their way of life and what community means. Kenny Leon stages the action with a precise sense of timing and pace, letting the barely-buried resentments simmer just long enough and then boil over at the right moment.

Lindsay-Abaire, whose previous insightful and moving works include Kimberly Akimbo (both play and musical), Good People and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Rabbit Hole, builds a solid template with small details planted like time bombs ready to go off for maximum impact. The observations on cultural norms and political correctness are sharp and painfully true. They elicit riotous laughter and leave a painful ache as you realize their Swiftian conclusions on the pettiness of humans attempting to live together.

(Back row) Ricardo Chavira, Carl Clemons-Hopkins
Richard Thomas, (seated) Anika Noni Rose,
Kayli Carter, Jeena Yi and Marylouise Burke
in The Balusters.
Credit: Jeremy Daniel

The meetings are held in the well-appointed home of Kyra Marshall (assured Anika Noni Rose), an African-American professional (Derek McLane designed the handsome set).  She has just moved in and wants to make a good impression, having allowed her passions to get the better of her in her previous neighborhood. Her principal antagonist is older white real estate agent Elliot Emerson (Richard Thomas using smiles and joviality to hide the character’s deviousness.) Elliot who serves as the association’s long-time president and appears to be open to new ideas and people (“I’m a lifelong Democrat,” he protests), reacts with stony inflexibility at any change to his beloved historically-designated block. Thomas’ casting is resonant since he is most famous for playing John-Boy on The Waltons, which featured a sentimental view of the past shared by Elliot.

Kayli Carter, Carl Clemons-Hopkins,
Anika Noni Rose and Jeena Yi in
The Balusters.
Credit: Jeremy Daniel

At first, the remaining characters seem to be a collection of minorities and stereotypes as if Lindsay-Abaire were checking off a list of  cliches—one African-American gay, one Asian lesbian, one Jewish wisecracker, one Hispanic construction boss, one dear but slightly daffy elderly lady, one radical leftist with an off-stage non-binary partner, and one token younger white guy who jokes his family of adopted children and gay siblings is like “the freakin’ United Nations.” But the playwright endows each, as well as the steely-spined housekeeper (Maria-Christina Oliveras expertly suppressing rage and hiding secrets), with intelligence and dimension and the able cast plays them that way. Margaret Colin is a shower of savage wit as Ruth Ackerman who relishes being politically incorrect, flaunting a rabbit-skin jacket before her PETA worker neighbor Willow Gibbons (Kayli Carter humorously displaying wokeness in the extreme.) 

Marylouise Burke is endearing as the befuddled senior Penny Buell who is sharper than she initially appears. Michael Esper hilariously limns the frustration of the constantly-interrupted and corrected Alan Kirby as he futilely attempts to give his security report and ultimately erupts at the oppressive political correctness around him. Jeena Yi is spiky and sarcastic as Melissa Han, Ricardo Chavira solid as Isaac Rosario, and Carl Clemons-Hopkins fiery as Brooks Duncan.  

Rose and Thomas have the biggest confrontations and most complex characterizations, but the entire company is on its A game in the funniest and scariest Broadway comedy of the season.

April 21—May 24. Manhattan Theatre Club at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater, 261 W. 47th St., NYC. Running time: one hour and 45 mins. with no intermission. telecharge.com.