A comedic cautionary tale about an imprisoned New York City political boss during the Gilded Age, Boss McGreedy kicked off Berkeley’s Central Works Theater Company’s 34th season this week with outstanding performances by Michael Ray Wisely, Anna Ishida and Brian Herndon.
The play, written and directed by Gary Graves, resident playwright and co-director of the company, is the first in a series of shows on the theme, “History Repeating Itself: Cautionary Comic Tales Of Political Intrigue, Social Justice and Artistic Freedom.”
Boss McGreedy, Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave., through April 7, $35-$45. Ticket
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Bill “Boss” McGreedy, excellently portrayed by Wisely, is down but far from out in 1876. After 200 convictions for fraud and corruption, he’s living in the prison warden’s office, not down in the dreaded “Tombs” with the other prisoners. He has millions of dollars in gold stashed away from his days of running New York’s political machine. And as the one-act, 90-minute play begins, he still acts and thinks like the Boss he was. He arrogantly struts around the stage, handsomely encased in a silk dressing gown and loudly proclaiming his innocence to his lackey lawyer, Dudley Townsend, played by Brian Herndon in a first-rate performance. “I built this city,” he’s fond of declaring as he puffs on a cigar.
He soon meets his nemesis in the unlikely guise of O’Brian Bryant, the outstanding Anna Ishida, a woman lawyer representing the State of New York. All she wants from the Boss is for him to confess his sins under oath and return four million dollars of his ill-gotten gains, and he can go home a free man. A narcissist, misogynist, and bully, the Boss berates, brawls, and doesn’t take the lawyer seriously. Instead, he uses tactics that will remind you of the Donald Trump-Hillary Clinton debate — McGreedy insulting, standing too close, yelling, and generally using his physicality to intimidate, while lawyer O’Brian Bryant, steady, and steely holds her ground.
Wisely’s Boss is never guilty of anything — he has underlings for that. He thinks that nothing can touch him and anyone can be bought. Watching Michael Ray Wisely command center stage with his chest puffed up like a rooster’s is a pleasure. Yet his performance is just as effective as things go awry for the Boss later in the play.
Yes, despite all of McGreedy’s maneuvers and schemes, unlikely circumstances intersect to carry the seasick-prone Boss on three different sea voyages (one in a rowboat and two on steamships) to Cuba and elsewhere before his ultimate comeuppance. And yet, although we expect that good will triumph over evil, the too-quick final ending of Boss McGreedy was not as satisfying as one would hope. I left the theater feeling that the play had ended too abruptly.
I highly recommend Boss McGreedy for its three outstanding performances and portrayal of the quintessential corrupt politician.
Boss McGreedy opened Saturday and runs through March 31, 2024, on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Avenue.
The theater only seats about 50 people, so get your tickets early. Fridays through Sunday, advance tickets are $35-$45 (service fee: $2.95), and all remaining tickets are available on a sliding scale at noon on the day of the show, $20-$45. Pay what you can on Thursdays. Reserved seats are only for subscribers. Masks must be worn in the theater. For information, extended dates, and tickets, call 510.558.1381 or visit http://centralworks.org/
This post has been updated to reflect its extended run date through April 7.
