Review Roundup: A.R. Gurney's LOVE & MONEY Opens Off-Broadway

Signature Theatre presents the world premiere of A.R. Gurney's new play LOVE & MONEY, directed by Mark Lamos. The production opened last night, August 24, and runs through October 4, 2015 in The Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre at The Pershing Square Signature Center (480 West 42nd Street between 9th and 10th Avenues).

The cast includes Maureen Anderman as Cornelia Cunningham, Gabriel Brown as Walker "Scott" Williams, Pamela Dunlap as Agnes Munger, Kahyun Kim as Jessica Worth and Joe Paulik as Harvey Abel.

Determined to donate almost everything she owns before her life of grace and privilege ends, wealthy widow Cornelia Cunningham's plan hits a snag when an ambitious and ingratiating young man arrives to claim his alleged inheritance. A.R. Gurney paints an incisive and hysterical portrait of the trials of class, family, legacy and race in this world premiere comedy.

Let's see what the critics had to say...

Charles Isherwood, The New York Times: "Love & Money," somewhat misleadingly titled, since love makes only a glancing appearance, is another of Mr. Gurney's intimately observed studies of the American upper class...If the notion of a smooth-talking black man insinuating himself into the life of a Manhattan upper-cruster strikes a familiar note, you are probably recalling John Guare's "Six Degrees of Separation"..."Love & Money"...cannot really stand comparisons to Mr. Guare's rich and funny play. It's much slighter, although as always in Mr. Gurney's work, the dialogue is peppered with wit and warmth...The director, Mark Lamos, hasn't elicited performances that might give the relationship between Cornelia and Walker the intriguing emotional undertow suggested in the script. The veteran Ms. Anderman capably renders Cornelia's genteel humor and her sharp sense of self-awareness, but I wish she'd put more emphasis on the hints of haunted regret in Cornelia, her belief that her family has been irreparably damaged by this excess of wealth. Mr. Brown's Walker, himself possessed of a ready wit, parries Harvey's sharp questioning with smoothness. He certainly gleams with a confident magnetism that's surely part of Cornelia's susceptibility to him, but were we to see something more dark and urgent in his mission, the play would cut a little deeper.

Michael Dale, BroadwayWorld.com: ...this is A.R. Gurney and there's enough of his gentle, cleverness to keep the proceedings genial for this 75-minute quickie. There's also Maureen Anderman, who is just delightful as the central character, the elderly Cornelia...Brown is playing one of those roles where the character may or may not be putting on an acting job. If he is, he doesn't seem very good at it. His Scott continually sounds scripted to say the right things to push Cornelia's buttons. He seems fake to the audience...The lady of the house seems enchanted with Scott, but is she merely going along with him because she enjoys the attention? Or is it the actor, not the character, who is giving the unconvincing performance? The Signature Theatre Company's production is LOVE & MONEY's world premiere and perhaps some further tinkering can resolve its problems. At this point, while certainly flawed, the lightly philosophical comedy can provide a pleasing, if not totally satisfying time.

Helen Shaw, Time Out NY: A. R. Gurney's dead-behind-the-eyes comedy Love & Money reveals the one downside of Signature's Playwrights-in-Residence program: the pressure, on both sides, to produce. Gurney, of course, has skill, but asking him for a world premiere seems to have caught him uninspired. The play fills out the season, but no more...Gurney's recipe is three parts exposition to one part pandering wheezes about Wall Street and Buffalo...Eventually Cunningham turns from talking about money's evils to the egalitarianism of the theater, but the brief piece doesn't bother to develop the theme: a sure sign of a play written for a reason other than love.

Joe Dziemianowicz, New York Daily News: "Love and Money" has all the hallmarks of an A.R. Gurney play, including references to WASPs, dining rooms, cocktail hours and the city of Buffalo. But this unfocused and unfunny comedy has none of the wit, insight and clarity of Gurney's better works...Unbelievable characters and an unclear message about class, culture and legacies are major liabilities as the play lurches toward a conclusion. The acting is so-so at best. The script gives director Mark Lamos little to work with. At just 75 minutes, the show strains patience, credulity and goodwill.

Elisabeth Vincentelli, New York Post: "Love & Money" runs just 85 minutes and still seems padded. The latest by A.R. Gurney...is a trifle of a show, a soufflé that collapses as soon as you start thinking about the plot's holes. And that moment comes pretty early on...Gurney mines his usual territory: the last gasp of the WASP establishment, the guilt of having a lot of money - so hard! - and his Buffalo, NY, hometown. Both Cornelia and Scott hail from "the Queen City of the Great Lakes," and the script is studded with loving references to this symbol of faded grandeur. Mark Lamos' production goes down easy, but it's also nutrient-free and meandering.

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Photo Credit: Joan Marcus