‘Money’ profits from timely plot and rich casting

By Bill Hagen

Tribune Film/Theater Critic

San Diego Tribune

Monday, January 14, 1991

At Intermission of the Old Globe Theatre production of “Other People’s Money,” a theatergoer was expounding rather authoritatively to a small circle of friends on a problem he was having with Jerry Sterner’s caustic, thought-provoking and bittersweet comedy about greed, venality, betrayal, amorality and a lot of other stuff that made the recently expired decade really special.

It would be highly unlikely, he said, that a corporate raider who inspired enough fear and loathing on Wall Street to be branded – or is it anointed? Larry the Liquidator would prey on a company as relatively inconsequential as New England Wire & Cable. The potential for profit in taking over and then cannibalizing such a company, and in the process economically destroying a town and eliminating 1,200 jobs, would only be in the 10s of millions of dollars. Small potatoes for a guy like Larry.

Well, maybe it’s considered minor league the financial community, but in the world of theater “Other People’s Money,” which opened Saturday night on the Cassius Carter Centre Stage, is a blue-chip investment.

Sterner has cleverly- and once in a while maybe a little floridly- couched with a comedy a subject that is no laughing matter, basically the disintegration of morals and ethics in big business, which nowadays is so riveted on the bottom line that it can no longer read between the lines. Otherwise it would see all the telltale signs of the inevitable collapse of a paper empire founded on the sale principal of maximizing profits, part of the instant-gratification syndrome.

Maximizing of a more pleasant kind has been done by director Milton Katselas with his thoughtful, imaginative and fast-paced staging, and a very fine cast of five furnishes a full measure of gratification.

The pivotal character is Lawrence Garfinkle (Robert Walden), the Liquidator, Bronx-born, Bronx-abrasive, an unattractive man physically, intellectually and, most defiantly, spiritually. He knows that. He also knows that money and power, which are symbolically linked, make him a lot less unattractive.

Anyhow, one day while sitting in his chromium-and-glass Manhattan office having one of his near-orgasmic sessions with his computer, Garfinkle runs across a Rhode Island-based company, New England Wire & Cable, which seemed to have more or les bottomed out in the market, but has some interesting assets. And it’s probably ripe for take over, largely because of the long, very benevolent reign of Andrew Jogenson (Richard Herd), son of the founder as chairman.

Jorgenson is the total antithesis of Garfinkle. He’s honest, compassionate, fair, moral, ethical, concerned and responsible. He also doesn’t care about becoming obscenely rich. He cares deeply, though, about his company, it’s the employees and the town the company supports. Jorgenson is throwback. He’s also, alas, pretty much an anachronism.

Well, Garfinkle starts gobbling up shares of the company and then arrives by stretch limousine for a meeting with Jorgenson. Despite warnings about Garfinkle from the more modern and astute president of the company, Williams Cole (Allen Williams), a cover –your-assets, Jorgenson naively scoffs at the threat. Jorgenson is, after all, driving up the stock with his purchases, apparently to the benefit of everyone. But Jorgenson finds Garfinkle so distastefully unprincipled that he practically throws him out of the office.

The battle lines are drawn for what promises to be a short war unless Jorgenson enlist some legal expertise on his side. Such expertise is available in the person of a New York lawyer named Kate Sullivan (Laura Johnson), who for years has been Jorgenson’s right-hand woman and, for some of those years, his lover.

The story keeps shifting briskly from Jorgenson’s nondescript office to Garfinkle’s ivory tower., which also includes offices for his 17 lawyers, and each side discusses strategies, makes proposals and counterproposals, none of which are acceptable to the inflexibility principled Jorgenson. What he finally decides is to leave the matter to the stockholders, most of whom he has known for years. It’s decency vs. greed. No contest.

Walden, defiantly padded by costume designer Shigeru Yaji, is marvelous as the Liquidator, a ruthless and venal man, who is surprisingly honest in his dishonest but not legal way. He openly admits, for instance, that he loves what he does and that he doesn’t need the money he gets from pillaging. He wants the money. He also wants, and maybe needs, the excitement and the challenge. So convincing is Walden that he at times even elicits a little sympathy for the predator he is playing.

Herd’s Jorgenson is the perfect counterpoint to Garfinkle. Herd brings much needed dignity, strength and decency to the part, as well as anger, anguish and other human traits. It’s a splendid piece of work.

Johnson is sometime a mite too strident as the lawyer suddenly afforded the opportunity to make a big name for herself in a male-dominated milieu but overall is very effective. Marshall adds much warmth as fiercely loyal woman who is also a throwback to another generation and a kinder, gentler time. Williams is convincing, as bend-with-the wind Coles.

“Other People’s Money” is a timely and interesting play, and director Milton Katselas and a solid cast make it pay dividends.

“Other People’s money” will be presented on the Cassius Carter Centre Stage through Feb 24.