That ever-remarkable playwright and performance artist Taylor Mac claims this latest event, Prosperous Fools, is inspired by Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, Moliere’s 1670 comedy about a rich slob who takes lessons in hopes of becoming a classy A-Lister. No need to brush up on it—this is not at all the story that the MacArthur and Guggenheim award-winning Mac presents in Prosperous Fools, which premiered on Thursday at the Polonsky Shakespeare Center in downtown Brooklyn.
Frankly, discerning where a story lurks amid Mac’s overly elaborate farcical feast is a challenge. Prosperous Fools labors for two heavy-handed acts to satirize present-day American oligarchs, celebrity philanthropists, money-hungry cultural institutions, pretentious artistic leaders, and the glitzy trappings binding everything upon a nasty red carpet of fawning mendacity.
[Read David Finkle’s ★☆☆☆☆ review here.]
The situation is a national ballet company’s annual fund-raising gala. The new ballet is Prometheus Bound. Two ridiculously wealthy luminaries are being celebrated that night. “This is how the money is raised,” somebody notes. “They honor people.”
Following preliminary hubbub, the honored duo arrives for the gala. A crass gazillionaire known as $#@%$ (his name pronounced like a censor’s buzzer) materializes atop a deus-ex-machina contraption featuring a pasteboard eagle. Initially $#@%$ (a chortling Jason O’Connell) is garbed casually à la Elon Musk and registers as a loud, swaggering lout. The character later changes into a bright blue suit and elongated red necktie and continues as the same loud, swaggering lout. In glowing contrast, the glamorous ####-### (pronounced like a heavenly whisper) is a golden-gowned global humanitarian (Sierra Boggess, hilariously vapid) fashioned after the Angelina Jolie/Gwyneth Paltrow superstar style, who shows up accessorized with her own Pot-Bellied Child (Aerina Park DeBoer) from the Third World.
Other figures running amok include a manic theater administrator (Jennifer Regan) who winds up in a strait jacket, a harried stage manager (Jennifer Smith), and a privileged intern (Kaliswa Brewster). Assuming the serio-comical pivotal character of the eye-rolling Artist, who depicts a god in the mythological ballet he has devised, is Mac, always a commanding presence. Oh, yes, at certain points Mac also dons a partial face mask and puppet appendages to imitate Wallace Shawn, complete with his croaking vocals. No, I am not telling why.
It is soon quite obvious Prosperous Fools wants to indict not-for-profit arts institutions that suck up to filthy rich philanthropists “for giving away what shouldn’t be theirs to begin with.” That’s all very well, except the play furiously thumps away at this message for over two increasingly tiresome hours. Mac’s madly scattershot text involves classical Roman satirical forms, insider culture remarks, SNL-type celebrity lampoons, acidic social commentary, Ronald Tavel-esque gabble, ballet spoofing, rhyming couplets and more, some of this content silly, some smart; whatever, far, far too much of it.
Darko Tresnjak, the director, apparently could not persuade the author to trim this excessive brilliance. Instead, Tresnjak heaps upon the play notably witty costumes by Anita Yavich, classy scenery by Alexander Dodge and capable contributions from other creative experts for this deluxe Theatre For a New Audience production, which looks like it cost the worthy organization a bundle. The acting company, doing their damnedest to keep these ponderous festivities aloft, includes Megumi Iwama, Cara Seymour and Em Stockwell as dancing divinities. As Prometheus, Ian Joseph Paget finds himself chained to a rock and looking bemused; a feeling many viewers of Prosperous Fools are likely to share long before the show ends.
Prosperous Fools opened June 12, 2025, at the Polonsky Shakespeare Center and continues through June 29.
