One of Manhattan Theater Club’s best and funniest offerings in recent years was Jonathan Specter’s Eureka Day, about the contentious meetings of a private elementary school board. Its current production, David Lindsay-Abaire’s The Balusters, concerns the similarly contentious meetings of a neighborhood homeowners’ association, and it’s even better. It’s a theatrical niche you wouldn’t think would work, but at this point if MTC announces a play about the contentious meetings of a small-town library committee, I’ll be the first in line to buy tickets.
Of course, it’s not totally surprising that The Balusters would be amusing since it comes from the author of such works as Kimberly Akimbo (both play and musical) and Fuddy Meers, among many others. Here, the playwright takes a simple conceit and mines it for hilarious social satire featuring a gallery of memorable characters played by a top-flight cast.
The play takes place in the fictional Vernon Point, a landmarked suburban neighborhood littered with Victorian houses not so far away from a less well-off part of town. We become privy to the meetings of the local Neighborhood Association, led for many years by the friendly but officious Elliott (Richard Thomas), a local realtor who has lived in the neighborhood all his life and is determined that it remain exactly as it is.
[Read Melissa Rose Bernardo’s ★★★★☆ review here.]
Kyra (Anika Noni Rose), the newcomer to the association, has recently moved to the neighborhood as one of its relatively few African-American residents. Hosting the meetings in her handsomely appointed living room, she’s eager to fit in. But when she begins to advocate for a stop sign to be installed at a nearby intersection because of a recent series of accidents, it sets her on a collision course with Elliott, who sees the signage as an eyesore that must be prevented at all costs.
As the association grapples with that issue and others —including a series of package thefts from porches and someone leaving bags of their dog’s poop in a resident’s garbage can — arguments break out, secrets are revealed, and hypocrisies are displayed. Along the way, there are vigorous debates about such things as the difference between speed bumps vs. speed humps.
It may all sound deadly, but thanks to the playwright’s gift for hilarious dialogue, especially of the bitchy kind, The Balusters, after an admittedly slow start, delivers 110 minutes of hilarity. Under the unusually light-footed direction (other than the deafening pop and hip-hop music preceding the play and between scenes) of Kenny Leon, the play crackles with fierce comic energy. The ten-member ensemble perform as if they’ve been acting together for years, defining their characterizations with precise strokes and delivering one-liners with pitch-perfect timing and inflections.
Among those scoring some of the funniest moments are Lindsay-Abaire mainstay Marylouise Burke as Penny, the group’s elderly secretary who always arrives early to snag a prime chair; Carl Clemons Hopkins (Hacks) as Brooks, a gay travel writer who loves neighborhood gossip, except when it’s about himself; Michael Esper as Alan, who can’t seem to get through his reports about neighborhood security without being interrupted or criticized; and Margaret Colin as the politically incorrect Ruth, who loves to taunt PETA member Willow (Kayli Carter) with her extravagant rabbit fur coat.
But all of the cast, especially Noni Rose and Thomas as the sparring association members whose feud becomes deeply personal, are terrific, with Ricardo Chavira, Maria-Christina Oliveras and Jeena Yi each given chances to shine as well. You can imagine the playwright carefully allotting laughs to each of the characters in equal amounts in order to spread the wealth.
MTC has afforded the play its typically expert production, with Derek McLane’s gorgeous set and Emilio Sosa’s incisive costuming making important contributions. The Balusters ultimately doesn’t have enough thematic heft to feel like much more than an entertaining diversion. But like the object that gives the play its title, it provides sturdy support for an evening of solid laughs.
The Balusters opened April 21, 2026, at Samuel J. Friedman Theatre and runs through May 24. Tickets and information: manhattantheatreclub.com
