It would be interesting to see the chart of characters that David Lindsay-Abaire had to use to write his new play, “The Balusters,” which opened Tuesday at MTC’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. By today’s standards, its cast of 10 is large, but even then, while all three races are represented, a few ethnic groups, as well as a few letters of the ever-expanding LGBTQ+ minority, have been left out.
In the play’s sequel, Lindsay-Abaire might want to represent asexuals and members of the Inuit-Yupik-Aleuts community, formerly and controversially known as Eskimos.
A Black woman (Anika Noni Rose) has purchased a house in a gentrified part of town that preserves its past charms through the powers of a strong Home Owners Association whose members include an Asian lesbian (Jeena Yi), a gay Black man (Carl Clemons-Hopkins), a Jewish woman (Margaret Colin), a Latino man (Ricardo Chavira), a nonbinary person (Kayli Carter) and two white people (Marylouise Burke and Richard Thomas) who represent another demographic thanks to their being old.
A third white person (Michael Esper) doesn’t get to talk much, but when he does, it’s to tell us, “My wife is Jewish! My son was adopted from Ethiopia! And my daughter from Colombia! My brother is gay and his partner is Bhutanese. You should come to my house at Thanksgiving, it’s like the goddamn League of Nations over there!”
This character is named Alan Kirby, and he’s able to leave out the world’s largest religion, because in “The Balusters,” someone else gets to mention Muslims because his partner is having an affair with one, albeit offstage. Oh yes, and the Black woman who hosts all these HOA meeting in her Victorian house (lavish set design by Derek McLane) employs a Filipino housekeeper (Maria-Christina Oliveras).
“The Balusters” refers not to a family but rather a short column or pillar used to create a porch railing. A disabled neighbor has had the audacity to use a historically incorrect baluster in a newly constructed wheelchair-accessible ramp to her front door. Regardless of their race, gender, age, ethnicity or religious affiliation, these privileged bastards on the HOA all vote to level a fine on their disabled neighbor.
Regarding this architectural controversy and others, Lindsay-Abaire makes sure that every character manages to step on a landmine of sensitivites to offend someone during the course of this 105-minute one-act play. Everybody has the opportunity to come off as an insensitive jerk, although some get more stage time than others.
At its core, “The Balusters” is very conservative in its humor. The biggest laughs, and there are plenty, detonate when a character is roasted for being politically correct in his, her or their language. Lindsay-Abaire’s “their” jokes definitely score highest with the very mature Manhattan Theatre Club subscription audience. Tellingly, the Playbill bios for “The Balusters” do not offer a person’s pronouns.
Kenny Leon’s direction levels some of the imbalance in the play’s humor. He gives the supporting characters just enough edge to inflict pain without ever spilling so much blood that someone turns into a villain. He also sets up a marvelous two-person fight between Richard Thomas, the HOA’s long-time president, and Anika Noni Rose, the new member who hosts the meetings. Thomas and Rose deliver two completely different performances that make beautiful dissonance. From the beginning, Thomas exudes bonhomie to the HOA and the entire world beyond, while Rose remains reserved, almost faceless. But just you wait. She’s a tiger waiting her turn to pounce.
