©Joan Marcus
From left: Joe Paulik, Gabriel Brown and Maureen Anderman in 'Love & Money'

                                            by Eugene Paul

There’s a slight chance that A.R. Gurney, playwright purveyor of things WASPy, is writing a parody of his own work on the world he’s made his own in so many of his plays, but don’t hold your breath.  Director Mark Lamos has taken him at his words and delivered a stock company pastiche, which the Signature Theatre has dressed to the nines with a finicky setting by the estimable Michael Yeargan bawling “old money” and costumes of pulsing genteelness by  the estimable Jess Goldstein, except, of course, for the garb of the token Asian Kahyun Kim cheerfully playing Jessica Worth, a typical Neo-Old Jazz cutie who has come to Cornelia Cunningham’s brownstone to latch on to a player piano the old lady is giving away, among other things, all tagged. (Tagged?  Giving away?  Does not compute.)

Cornelia Cunningham, played with doggedly unimaginative style by Maureen Anderman, obviously giving a performance acceptable to her director, thus killing any chance playwright Gurney was kidding with us, is expiating her great sin: having too much money.  And so, she is giving it all away.  Now, after a long life lined with the plush of being flush. It’s just too much.  Her maid cum cook cum companion of thirty-four years, Agnes Munger (is that ever a maid’s name for you?  And “Cornelia” as grande dame-ish a handle as can be.  No, Gurney must be parodying, or he’d name the rich old woman “Agnes” and the oldish maid “Cornelia”.  Don’t you think?  Anyway, played by Panela Dunlap, Agnes assumes a spraddle-assed stance center stage every time she comes on, delivers her lines in perfect, standard counter-culture stock comedy maid mode and lurches off triumphantly each time.

Cornelia’s lawyer, Harvey Abels, played most ably, praise be, by Joe Paulik, arrives to dissuade her from her current madness as he sees it, and, doubtless as we are supposed to see it as well.  She does not recognize him;  he’s not one of the old practitioners who have handled the family affairs for generations.  After some not too charming, WASPish pressing Harvey about his family roots, they get along charmingly until Agnes assumes her usual stance and announces that there’s a young fellow in the kitchen who says he’s her unknown grandson and what do we do with him.  Lawyer Harvey  knows of no grandson. Neither does Cornelia. Both are taken by surprise when he appears, much to Agnes’ pleasure: he’s black.

Kahyun Kim, Maureen Anderman, and Gabriel Brown. Photo by Joan Marcus.

And very tall, and trying to be totally beguiling, perfectly dressed in just the wrong enough clothes.  We are definitely back in parody territory. As even more of our attentive audience members murmur. So that when playwright Gurney allows in the ensuing scene that perhaps overtones – or even more –of a well known play by another well known author employed a very similar dark intruder device and enjoyed a great success, there might be a touch of influence shown in the present situation we are seeing.

A bit further on, when the player piano merrily tinkles Cole Porter and Kahyun Kim as Jessica Worth entertains us with a non too subtle entr’acte, we find that the Cole Porter design is further employed, not only with a bit of dancing and singing  but also as a signal to a denouement.  By now, we’re positive we’re in parody territory, especially when Scott, the putative Grandson, easily, oilily played by Gabriel Brown, comes to terms about money with his not so dumb putative grandmother and her fiercely protective young lawyer, Harvey.  Scott keeps on troweling the charm. Its effectiveness dwindles dimple by dimple.  How is Gurney going to end this?  I care only because I am a long time admirer.

Love & Money. At the Signature Theatre, 480 42^nd Street at Tenth Avenue.  Tickets: $25. 212-244-7529. 75 min.  Thru Oct 4.