The Balusters review – a Pulitzer-winning playwright returns with mixed results

By Jesse Hassenger · The Guardian Culture

Samuel J Friedman Theatre, New York Rabbit Hole writer David Lindsay-Abaire takes on a list of modern American conflicts in a fun, if ultimately underdeveloped, comedy drama Playwright David Lindsay-Abaire has an impressively eclectic bibliography that includes the Pulitzer prize-winning play Rabbit Hole , the Tony-winning musical Kimberly Akimbo , and providing book and lyrics for a singing and dancing version of Shrek. His new comedy The Balusters doesn’t exactly bring all of his talents together in a single sum-up work, but it does require a versatility of imagination in the pulling together the nine-member Vernon Point Neighborhood Association. Not quite as officious as an HOA but not quite as benevolent as a friendly get-together, the group assembles to discuss various issues affecting the safety, sanctity and aesthetic qualities of a neighborhood in an unnamed US area. (Based on a few stray references, somewhere around suburban DC seems likely.) They’re remarkably polite, even friendly, considering how much some of them seem to not-so-secretly dislike one another. It’s sometimes hard to tell whether they know each other too well for passive-aggressive behavior, or if Lindsay-Abaire doesn’t have quite the right ear for it. The newest member of the group is Kyra (Anika Noni Rose), freshly moved from a Baltimore-area neighborhood where, we learn, her family’s departure was hastened by an incident with a previous neighborhood group. Kyra is well-to-do – almost anyone living in Vernon Point is – firm in her convictions, and aware, as any Black woman in her position would be, of what reactions she may inspire in her rich white neighbors. Her first order of business is to address a dangerous corner outside her house, where speeding drivers have been diverted following the installment of a new traffic light elsewhere in the neighborhood. She hopes for another light, or at least a series of stop signs; association president Elliot (Richard Thomas) insists any further…