A Userã¢â‚¬â„¢s Guide to Hell Featuring Bernard Madoff Reviews
The Money's Gone; the Drama Lingers
How to brand sense of Bernard L. Madoff? Afterward his $65 billion Ponzi scheme unraveled, cultural critics looked to literary and theatrical antecedents: the shady financier Augustus Melmotte in Anthony Trollope's "Way We Alive Now"; the corner-cutting man of affairs Joe Keller in Arthur Miller's "All My Sons"; and, particularly, the thieving investor in Harley Granville-Barker'due south play "The Voysey Inheritance."
With time, this famous bamboozler has become a literary character in his own correct, as take members of his family unit, whether straight represented or thinly veiled. Information technology's hard to imagine Woody Allen not thinking of Ruth Madoff, the society wife brought low, as he created Cate Blanchett'due south indelible title figure in the new picture show "Blueish Jasmine." And this autumn, another Mrs. Madoff-like figure volition nurse her wounds in "The Eatables of Pensacola," a Manhattan Theater Club production of Amanda Peet's play. "What makes you then sure I knew near my married man's business dealings?" she insists, as her two daughters (no Madoff sons hither) figure out how to put their own lives back together.
Ms. Peet'southward play is something of a one-act, and in its own blackhearted fashion so is Lee Blessing'southward, which begins previews at Atlantic Stage 2 on Sept. 5. To a real-life saga replete with hubris, tragedy, religion and faithlessness, and innocent (or are they?) victims, this playwright makes room for "y'all think that's bad?" joking. Hither's a guide to his play and others.
Epitome
'The Commons of Pensacola'
By Amanda Peet
Begins previews Oct. 22 at Metropolis Center
PLOT No sooner has Judith (Blythe Danner) adjusted to downsized life in a Florida condo than her daughter (Sarah Jessica Parker) and her girl's beau propose a reality TV series about the aftermath of the financial scandal that put her there.
SPECIFIC INSPIRATION "I was curious about what happens to the wives and children of notorious people," Ms. Peet said. "What would it be like if you lot found out, toward the end of your life, that your marriage wasn't what you thought it was?"
HOW CLOSE TO MADOFF STORY Similar to Ruth Madoff (and "Blue Jasmine"), though with comic dimensions and Hollywood knowingness. Information technology'south the first play from Ms. Peet, a TV and film extra.
TELLING LINE "What matters is whether or not yous had an clue. A sense, fleeting, or not, that something wasn't as it should be."
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'A User's Guide to Hell, Featuring Bernard Madoff'
By Lee Approval
Previews begin Sept. v at Atlantic Stage 2
PLOT Mr. Madoff (Edward James Hyland) is back dwelling, but this New York isn't the place he left behind, equally a satanic tour guide (David Deblinger) and various furious residents are quick to remind him.
SPECIFIC INSPIRATION "What I wanted to do," Mr. Blessing told a video interviewer, "is examine my concept, and other people'southward concepts, of the afterlife — hell specifically — and I imagine that I chose Bernie Madoff because, yous know, if there's anyone we can theoretically presume perhaps going to hell, should in that location really exist a hell, Bernie would be a pretty universal candidate."
HOW CLOSE TO MADOFF STORY Mohammed Atta and Josef Mengele make guest appearances, and the comedy is very, very, very black. When he hears that Mr. Madoff fleeced his fellow Jews, Mr. Atta announces: "You are my hero. God rain peace upon y'all."
TELLING LINE "Come on, Bernie. Lie down here. Stay a couple millennia."
Video
'The Unavoidable Disappearance of Tom Durnin'
By Steven Levenson
Concludes Sunday at Laura Pels Theater
PLOT A disgraced lawyer (David Morse) moves in with his son (Christopher Denham) looking for forgiveness — and money.
SPECIFIC INSPIRATION Mr. Levenson has said that the story is based on the father of a high school friend, a prominent Washington lawyer who went to jail for white-collar law-breaking: "Information technology made me wonder what it must be like for her father, who had recently been released from prison, how impossible a task to try to rebuild all that you've lost, to start over."
HOW Shut TO MADOFF STORY The mortgage crisis is the backdrop, and the milieu is not most as loftier flight, just the familial brew of acrimony and self-justification rings true.
TELLING LINE "Obviously I made mistakes, and I take every, I have full responsibility for that. But yous know, nosotros all make mistakes. And I for one have learned to live with that."
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'Imagining Madoff'
By Deb Margolin
Played at Stageworks/Hudson, Theater J and other regional theaters; slated to open up at New Repertory Theater outside Boston in 2014
PLOT The jailed financier debates philosophy and ethics with Solomon Galkin, a poet and Holocaust survivor. Interspersed are scenes of his longtime secretary providing testimony to the Securities and Commutation Commission.
SPECIFIC INSPIRATION Ms. Margolin envisioned an meet between Mr. Madoff and one of his most famous victims, Elie Wiesel, who lost a personal fortune in the Ponzi scheme.
HOW Close TO MADOFF STORY Afterwards Mr. Wiesel objected, the playwright wrote a new character, who still has stiff echoes of the original inspiration.
TELLING LINE "Allow'south go to a baseball former together, I'll have my girl get some tickets, would you lot like to go? I think actually, Sol, we accept a company box for visiting investors, I don't actually keep track."
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/25/theater/bernard-l-madoff-or-his-influence-takes-the-stage.html
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