Susan Granger’s review of “Enron” (Broadhurst Theater 2009-2010 season)
Quick – before it closes…Oops! You missed it. After being snubbed for most major awards, including the Tony, and perhaps because many critics were not given access, Lucy Prebble’s satirical show about the collapse of the infamous Texas-based energy conglomerate posted its closing notice after only 15 performances – and a $4 million loss.
When the curtain goes up, three allegorical blind mice are center-stage, ready to relate the story of four people. There’s Enron’s religious, courtly CEO Kenneth Lay (Gregory Itzin from “24”); his ambitious protégée Claudia Roe (Marin Mazzie); arrogant, avaricious company president Jeffrey Skilling (Norbert Leo Butz from “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels”); and numbers-crunching chief financial officer, smarmy Andy Fastow (Stephen Kunken). And testosterone-fueled greed is what propels the play.
Intellectually stimulating playwright Prebble cleverly delineates several complicated financial concepts, like “mark to market,” while director Rupert Goold cleverly alternates between naturalism and the highly stylized caricatures, though he’s often far from subtle. And their use of ravenous, debt-eating, “Jurassic Park” ‘raptor’ dinosaurs is fiendishly brilliant, offering a corollary with Greece’s current financial disaster. For an even more incisive explanation, rent the dvd “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room” (2005).
Highlighting Anthony Ward’s smart corporate set and flashy, flamboyant costumes is Jon Driscoll’s perceptive, multimedia video/projection with Mark Henderson’s incisive lighting, Adam Cork’s sound and Scott Ambler’s fast-paced ‘Light Saber’ choreography. Memorable as Enron’s employee ‘victims’ are Lusia Strus and Brandon J. Dirden.
Since commercial success is not always synonymous with artistic merit, it does not necessarily mean that a “hit” – like “The Addams Family” – is a good show, while a “flop” is a bad show. Often, it just comes down to economics. And while nobody loves a loser, this provocative, inventive musical concept from Britain deserved a better fate.