Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Anthony Giardina’s DAN CODY’S YACHT is a Shavian treatise, for better or worse

• By drediman
• June 7, 2018
• No Comments

Kristen Bush and Rick Holmes in Anthony Giardina’s “Dan Cody’s Yacht” at New York City Center, courtesy of Manhattan Theatre Club.

One of the best plays to open in New York in recent seasons was Anthony Giardina’s politically-minded The City of Conversation (starring the late, great, and much-missed Jan Maxwell) staged by Lincoln Center Theatre. It was with this in mind that I approached Mr. Giardina’s latest, Dan Cody’s Yacht, courtesy of Manhattan Theatre Club. The play’s Off-Broadway mounting at New York City Center is a worthy effort, even if it somewhat strains to push its agenda and lacks the effortless grandeur of his previous effort.

Dan Cody’s Yacht depicts the moral dilemma faced by a lower middle-class single mother when confronted with the prospect of elevating her family’s socio-economic status, and the price she must pay to do so. If the premise sounds Shavian to you, it’s because it is – it investigates and debates the moral corruption inherent in our capitalist socio-economic system on a cleanly delineated intellectual battlefield. In doing so, the play strikes a few awkward notes. However, the play is so compellingly written and performed that I was able to easily set them aside. In many ways, the play is derivative of a number of recent similarly-inclined works, notably David Lindsay-Abaire’s Good People and Josh Harmon’s Admissions (both are admittedly superior plays).

Luckily, the production, fluidly and tastefully directed by Doug Hughes (he also helmed The City of Conversation), is top notch. The acting, in particular, I found to be quite affecting. As the mother, Kristen Bush (who, like Mr. Hughes, contributed greatly to The City of Conversation) is giving a quietly impassioned performance that sneaks up on you with its cumulative impact. As her wealthy Mephistophelian influence, Rick Holmes gives a duplicitous show boat of a performance that’s at once seductive and off-putting.

RECOMMENDED

DAN CODY’S YACHT
Off-Broadway, Play
Manhattan Theatre Club at New York City Center
2 hours, 10 minutes (with one intermission)
Through July 8