Other People’s Money

Reviewed by Julio Martinez
InterAct Theatre Company at Pico Playhouse
Through November 20

RECOMMENDED

Other People’s Money, Jerry Sterner’s 1989 examination of a Wall Street raider’s grab for an undervalued Rhode Island company, is a good fit for InterAct Theatre company. Oliver Muirhead directs this double-cast production at the Pico Playhouse.

The story is narrated by William Coles (Barry Heins), the patient but nervous second-in-command at New England Wire and Cable Company. Coles, who has been waiting for years to run things, now reveals his suspicions about the stock market maneuverings of Wall Street tycoon Lawrence Garfinkle (Rob Shapiro), infamously known as “Larry the Liquidator.”

The first act deals rather languidly with the disarmingly open aspirations of Garfinkle, who readily admits he is gobbling up the company stock and will do what any good capitalist would do when he has acquired a majority ownership — make money. Portrayed with a relaxed charm by Shaprio, Garfinkle sees himself as a modern-day Robin Hood. He reveals, “I steal from the rich and give to the middle class — well, the upper middle class.” As far as he is concerned, the townspeople who work in the factory are not his responsibility. His obligation is to the stockholders.  They will make money. And he will make a lot of money.

Pitted against him are the stern, unyielding head of the company, Andrew Jorgenson (Kent Minault), Jorgenson’s loyal and loving assistant Bea (D.J. Harner), the ever-brooding Coles, and Bea’s daughter Kate (Robyn Cohen), a small town girl who’s fled to the Big Apple to become a hot shot attorney, and who can’t wait to take on the reportedly sexist Garfinkle.

The first act witnesses an evolving gamesmanship between Sullivan and Garfinkle that is a mix of sexual attraction and corporate chess playing. Cohen’s Sullivan is a whiz at dealing with Shapiro’s twinkle-eyed innuendos and outright raunchy propositions, while at the same time combating his relentless corporate surge forward with such defense stratagems as “poison pills,” “white knights,” “greenmail” and other tactics that her company could use to defend itself. The fact that she has to painstakingly define these corporate maneuvers to the intractable Jorgenson does not bode well for the old firm.

Director Muirhead keeps the pace brisk, and he’s aided by designer Gary Lee Reed’s set, which has the corporate offices of New England Wire and Cable in Rhode Island on one side of the stage and Garfinkle’s New York digs on the other. It’s like watching a tennis match as Sullivan maneuvers between the two battlegrounds.    

Mitigating the action only slightly are Kate’s unsettled hostility towards her mother Bea for abandoning her father to follow her true love, Jorgenson, along with Coles’ ongoing nervousness about his financial future with a  company that he will never get to run. As Bea, Harner offers a compelling presence, especially when she confronts Garfinkle in a feeble effort to save the company. As Coles, Heins is pitifully open and vulnerable as he attempts to ensure from Garfinkle some kind of financial security for himself and his family.

The second act moves more diligently towards the climactic stockholders meeting, wherein Minault’s Jorgenson exhibits the compelling leadership of a man who has been head of the company for 38 years, and who speaks eloquently about the needs of factory workers and the role their community should play in the decisions made by stockholders.  Shapiro’s Garfinkle is equally compelling, offering a strong argument for the importance of money in an everchanging world.

InterAct Theatre Company at Pico Playhouse, 10508 Pico Blvd., West LA; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m., Sun, 3 p.m.; through Nov. 20. (818) 765-8732. Running Time: 2 hours with an intermission.