Theater for the New City Presents The Capitalist Ventriloquist 10/6-23

"The Capitalist Ventriloquist" is a new musical comedy about dynastic hedge funds, the demands of billionaire investors, misguided parental expectations, and the struggle of the son of an imperious hedge fund owner for self-determination. He's a mathematical whiz-kid whose father expects him to report directly to work after graduate school and create a trading algorithm that will protect the firm against lightning-fast computer trades, which sway the market to perplexing and perilous extremes. But the son's inner voice since childhood tells him he'd rather be a ventriloquist - specifically, a singing ventriloquist.

The son's alter ego is his dummy, Randy, who longs to be in show business but whose acerbic quips prompt the son to say, "Sometimes you sound just like my father."

After graduation, the son dutifully takes his place at the fund. But instead of crunching numbers, he engages in stealth rehearsals with Randy behind closed doors. His father is in an especially touchy spot, because the boy is engaged to the daughter of his biggest investor, who only keeps his money in the losing fund for her sake. The girl loves our hero, but she's not too keen to walk down the aisle with a ventriloquist. Worst of all, the dummy is awfully easy to kidnap or maybe sell on line. The son's only allies are his father's secretary, who secretly admires him, and a wily talent agent who, remarkably, can't exactly be bought.

"The Capitalist Ventriloquist" is the seventh collaboration among Tom Attea (book and lyrics), Arthur Abrams (score) and Mark Marcante (director) and the trio's second with Angela Harriell (choreographer). The foursome last assembled for "Living in a Musical" (TNC, 2010). It was a romantic musical comedy about a song-and-dance man, an admirer of Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, who lives in an imaginary world of the classic American musicals but tumbles for a girl from the rock-and-rap world. The Village Voice (Leslie Minora) pronounced it "... as appealing and enjoyable as the vintage glass bottles of Coca-Cola in its lead character's fridge," adding, "Naturally wholesome but nonetheless hilarious, 'Living in a Musical' is plain and simply charming."

At The Actors Studio, Attea and Abrams enjoyed a ten-year apprenticeship with Charles Friedman, the original director of the stage classics "Pins and Needles," "Sing out the News," the musical version of "Street Scene," "Carmen Jones" and other shows. At that time, Friedman had been collaborating with Oscar Hammerstein, who had died. The trio collaborated on the revue,"Brief Chronicles of the Time," which premiered at The Actors Studio in 1982.

Tom Attea (book, lyrics) has had seven musicals with Arthur Abrams presented by TNC, which also produced one of Attea's plays, "Life Knocks" ("Great humor and ebullience ... good, genuine laughs ... Attea's talent as a playwright is evident." -- Kessa De Santis, PunchIn International). Attea has received a TNC/Jerome Foundation emerging playwright grant and is an active member of The Dramatists Guild. He first came to TNC at Abrams' urging to contribute skits for a revue Attea would name "It's an Emergency, Don't Hurry," on the theme of the world's lethargy in responding to urgent issues. Mark Marcante was the director. Attea went on to write a musical a year with Abrams, all of which were directed by Marcante. Attea says of the theater's artistic director, "Crystal Field deserves credit for being a steady champion of us and of all people who write for the theater and hope to make a distinguished contribution. She has been kind enough to be a steady champion of mine. In fact, I don't know another person in the Off-Broadway venue who is as supportive of emerging talent, and I don't know, in this competitive and political world, if I could have found another artistic director or theater as inviting and supportive as the one she administers. She is to creators of theater every bit as great a mentor as Lee Strasberg used to be for actors at the Studio."