History comes cracklingly alive in Straight Line Crazy, David Hare’s not-to-be-missed dissection of power broker Robert Moses. New York history? United States history? Not quite; the rise and fall of Moses, in Hare’s telling, is more a saga of Shakespearean proportions. Here is a man of the people, a man for all seasons until unrestrained and unhampered power converts him into an enemy of the people for all seasons.
Dedicated outdoorsman Moses (1881-1981) noticed in 1926 or so that an isolated six-mile strip off New York’s Long Island called Jones Beach could be transformed into a playground for the people, if only someone would construct a causeway from the mainland, and, further, motorways linking said causeway to Manhattan. This became the cornerstone of an interconnected system of roads and parks Moses built across the Empire State, ensconcing himself in an empire of his own making. He did so without being elected to office, maintaining an iron grip on power through political influence and canny drafting of legislation.
This has been comprehensively detailed by historian Robert Caro in his Pulitzer Prize-winning 1,300-page 1974 tome, The Power Builder. Hare, author of Skylight and Plenty, works not from Caro but myriad sources. He skillfully compresses the complex tale into a cascade of two-and-a half ultra-compelling hours.
Ralph Fiennes commandeers the stage from his initial entrance—barefoot, in beachcomber guise—gliding out of the darkness with unstoppable force from the upstage wall of Bob Crowley’s deep set. This stage, and this city, and this world belong to Fiennes’s Moses, and woe to those who impede his progress. “Nothing’s going to happen to me,” he asserts; or is that a threat?
Fiennes has provided dynamic film performances over the last three decades, from Schindler’s List to The English Patient to the Harry Potter series. He is also remembered, hereabouts, for his Tony Award-winning Hamlet in 1995, but his portrayal of Moses is even more monumental. First, the enigmatic conservationist of 1926 grappling with Robber Barons to establish a chain of state parks and beaches for the common man; later, the all-powerful, highway-building urban planner of 1955. Fiennes shows us how this wily-but-charming idealist transformed himself into a power-engorged monster. Character, and actor, tower over everything and everyone, brooking no interference—let alone discussion. Fiennes seems, somehow, to be standing with his ears behind his heels; whether this is the case, or even within the realm of the physically possible, it sure is commanding.
He is joined by a cast of 12, half of whom have transferred to New York’s Shed—a Moses-scaled edifice if ever there was one—from the original London Theatre Company production at the Bridge Theatre. Newcomers Judith Roddy (as principal assistant Finnuala Connell) and Adam Silver (as draftsman Ariel Porter) provide ballast for the star; loyal lieutenants through Moses’ years of triumph, their ultimate departures signal his unwinding. (For those just being introduced to this cautionary tale, the man’s ultimate flaw was—in effect—that his personal definition of “common man” did not extend across lines of class and color.)
Also doing battle with Moses—and standing firm opposite Fiennes—are Helen Schlesinger (as Greenwich Village preservationist Jane Jacobs) and Alisha Bailey (as the much younger architect, Mariah Heller). A good deal of humor comes from two mouth-watering roles Hare has contrived out of historical characters, Gold Coast millionaire Henry Vanderbilt (Guy Paul) and long-time New York governor Al Smith (Danny Webb). Both Paul and Webb serve as splendidly canny foils.
That Straight Line Crazy is straight line wonderful owes much to Hare’s key collaborators. It has long been evident that director Nicholas Hytner knows how to grab hold of theatrical enchantment and explode it; recall The History Boys and One Man, Two Guvnors, if you will. Jamie Armitage, co-director of the international juggernaut Six, shares the Straight Line Crazy directing credit with Hytner (although he was billed as associate director of the London production).
The climactic highpoint of the play comes when Fiennes and Roddy face off in a fierce battle over Manhattan—literally so, thanks to the stage wizardry of Hytner and Crowley. (The latter, a frequent West End presence, has no less than seven Tony Awards on his mantle—and no wonder!) The directors and designer have been spare in filling the vast stage, letting a series of drafting tables and bulletin boards tell us all we need know. No need for extensive multi-media projections when there is an abundance of theatrical imagination.
The nine-week engagement through December 18 appears to already be virtually sold out. Let us hope that the play and Fiennes are headed for Broadway. As with last season’s excellent The Lehman Trilogy—another superb, New York-centered saga created by our friends overseas—theatergoers are advised to be ready to pounce at the first announcement of available seats for Straight Line Crazy.
Straight Line Crazy opened October 26, 2022, at The Shed and runs through December 18. Tickets and information: theshed.org
