Gay billionaire is right(eous) on the money
When the economy tanks and your savings dwindle and the future looks bleak, to whom can you turn for a solid financial plan?
A closeted gay billionaire might not be the first person who comes to mind-but could that choice really be any worse than heeding the advice of infotainment monkeys like "Mad Money" host Jim Cramer?
Like a stock market investment made at the right time, writer and performer Michael Yates Crowley’s satire "Righteous Money" arrives at a point when Occupy Wall Street’s call to close the gap between the incredibly wealthy and the 99 percenters continues to bubble and boil.
Even during hard times, the infomercial’s lure of quick and easy wealth followed by perpetual financial security continues to cast its spell. "Righteous Money" rides that wave, says Crowley, by taking its premise from, "that hyperactive approach to finance as entertainment."
A downward spiral
What makes this staging unique is that it is comprised of two versions of "Righteous Money." The first half consists of Crowley’s one-man version; the second a German adaptation (performed with supertitles) that opens the play up to a two-hander.
In Crowley’s one-man show, a foul-mouthed closeted billionaire hosts a financial advice television show that serves as a hard sell promotion for his new book ("Buy The Recession").
Sold to prospective real life audiences as "a hilarious and bitter allegory for the collapse of the U.S. economy," the aggressive host’s personal downward spiral plays out in real time over 60 minutes-thanks to a revenge plot instigated by an assistant who’s pushed to the edge over a broken promise.
First performed in 2009 (at the at East to Edinburgh festival), "Money" next played Berlin and Dublin before making its way back to Edinburgh for that city’s prestigious Fringe Festival. Crowley says that by the time it reaches our shores, audiences will see a version that’s "a lot angrier and more intense" due to the fact that the show has continued to evolve in step with the growing global economic crisis.
In the early days, he recalls, "We were in Edinburgh and people were still sorting out what that [the economic collapse] meant. Then, the play was about how people felt they were lied to. There was confusion early on, that things would change. Now, nothing has really changed. So I think there’s a lot more anger now."
Audience members who feel betrayed will find they’re in good company as "Righteous Money" plays out. The two characters, like the economy, have their own falling out when certain assurances fail to materialize. The charismatic but troubled host, his creator explains, is, "someone who is a very successful trader and a successful TV host. Just before this particular show, a live taping, he promised his male assistant they would come out and live together-now he’s gone back on it. This is the story of the assistant blackmailing him, so he has to make a choice. "
A potent premise
That potent premise-the things we do in the name of preserving our own comfort at the expense of others-clears a path for the playwright to explore the true cost of one man’s failure to own up to the fact that he’s capable of love.
"The way he’s closeted is different," says Crowley. "He doesn’t see himself as gay or straight. He’s sort of a sexual conqueror; someone who has so much money and so much power, he does whatever he wants. What he’s in the closet about is having fallen in love. That’s the thing he’s trying to hide-the emotional struggle."
Crowley, who worked for six years at an investment firm, says this sort of emotional and moral compartmentalization isn’t exactly unheard of in the industry. "I have many friends who work in finance," says Crowley, "and I notice that people have to deny a part of themselves to be successful, the part that is generous. I saw a parallel between that and people who live a closeted lifestyle. The people in finance are denying their ability to be compassionate; and those in the closet are denying their ability to love."
If you find yourself contemplating those uneasy conundrums once the curtain comes down, stay for the second part of the bill-and prepare to read supertitles as you witness a German adaptation of "Righteous Money" that may be even more challenging to digest.
Originally produced in Bielefeld, Germany as part the Voices of Change Festival of English plays in Translation, "Gerechtes Geld" is the Schlosstheater Moers theater company’s "radically adapted" take on Crowley’s thoroughly American (but universally understood) TV huckster.
Of the adaptation, he says the Germans are, "much more creative in their staging. They have two actors, and ours is a one-man show. Their second actor plays a couple of different roles. They also make the sexual aspect of it much more apparent, much stronger. Because there’s two men on the stage, they can do a lot more with that element of it." Two other things the Germans bring to the table: chainsaws and blood.
That’s just fine with the playwright, who praises German theater as artistically daring. "I’ve been working in Germany for three or for year now," notes Crowley, "and I am a huge fan of their theater. They bring a real freedom to their interpretation. As a playwright, it’s exciting to see someone do something with your work that you didn’t expect."
"Righteous Money" plays January 4-7 at 3LD (80 Greenwich St., at Rector St.); and January 13-21 at The Red Room (85 E. 4th St., btw. 2nd &
3rd Aves.). All shows at 8pm. For tickets ($15 at the door, $10 in advance), call 212-352-3101 or visit the show’s website.
