WITHIN THE LAW

Written by BAYARD VEILLER
Directed by MICHAEL HARDART

Featuring
ROBERT K. BENSON, KELLY DEAN COOPER, JAY T. JOHNSON, OLIVIA KILLINGSWORTH, JOHN D. McNALLY, DAVID O'HARA, ELISABETH PRESTON, DEB RADLOFF,
DAVID LOGAN RANKIN, RYAN REILLY, CHRISTIAN ROZAKIS,
ANDREW SPIEKER, & MEREDITH M. SWEENEY

Set Design: ALEX ROE
Lighting Design: CHRISTOPHER WESTON
Costume Design: SIDNEY FORTNER
Fight Choreography: SCOTT BARROW

Metropolitan Playhouse
220 East 4th Street
New York, NY 10009
(800) 838-3006 or www.metropolitanplayhouse.org/tickets
June 7, 2014 through June 29, 2014

This four-act melodrama dates from 1912. It ran a profitable 541 performances on Broadway. It combines all the popular elements of that period: the wronged maiden, the wealthy business magnate, his beloved charming son, crooked cops, a gang of small-time thugs, revenge, and redemption. With a murder thrown in. The title refers to the irony of the story. The “good” girl learns how to go “bad” by playing by the rules, within the law, and becomes quite successful. All by throwing away her moral compass and sailing with the prevailing winds of “legal” injustice.

Mary Turner, shop girl in Mr. Gilder’s Emporium, is wrongly accused of theft, and convicted. The socially prominent Mr. Gilder talked to the judge and encouraged a severe prison sentence. People must be taught a lesson. It’s a philosophy he will come to regret. In 1912, as now, what goes around comes around.

Mary doesn’t spend her three-year sentence idly. Her mind is working all the time, learning from her fellow prisoners, perfecting her game. She grows into something resembling The Count of Monte Cristo with a splash of Medea. Mary emerges as a cunning grifter, reappearing in town as a refined, prosperous lady with fine clothes and a lovely home. A couple of her old jail pals live with her, being trained to dress for success and act like high-class ladies and gents. It’s part of her plan.

The key to her revenge is Mr. Gilder’s son, Dick. The whole scheme revolves around him. While she works out the details, her roommates are tempted by an outsider, who wants them to join in a very profitable burglary. Mary tells them no, it’s not worth it. We can make more by staying within the law and playing the system.

Greed and stupidity are a bad mix, unfortunately. Behind Mary’s back, the others agree to go for the big payday. The cops have been watching and hassling Mary ever since she got out of jail, hoping to put her back behind bars. Once a crook, always a crook, they believe. (The cops are more crooked than the crooks, just so you know.) Her friends’ big heist will surely lead to her being implicated, even though innocent.

Now begins a tangled struggle of father versus son, friend versus friend, burglar versus burglar, and police versus everybody. Act IV, the last act, has more entrances, exits, and characters than the rest of the play put together. A cop comes in one door with some news. A lady comes in another door with an announcement. On and on it goes, with Mary, Mr. Gilder, and Dick Gilder being alternately shouted at, threatened, cajoled, and “reasoned with.” Some people lie, other people lie to protect the people who are lying, others believe the lies must be the truth. It’s a mess up in there. It’s he-said/she-said until a twist of fate, the trusty Deus ex machina, intervenes. But in whose favor?

WITHIN THE LAW keeps its old-fashioned flavor while presenting lively, believable characters. One must assume that the original was acted in the over-the-top melodramatic style of 1912. It’s a tribute to the playwright that the story remains understandable and sympathetic more than 100 years later. It’s a tribute to the cast that they have created modern realistic portrayals to bring us a production that is enjoyable and engaging for today’s audiences.

-Karen D’Onofrio-