The definition of satire is “the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc.” In The Right Kind of People, actor and playwright Charles Grodin employs satire to its fullest to denounce the practices of a New York City Fifth Avenue Co-op board which allows its fears, prejudices and preferences to lead its decision-making on who can and cannot live in their building.
The play is based on Mr. Grodin’s personal experiences as a board member in the 80’s and 90’s, as well as research from brokers and real estate attorneys in New York City. While it targets the upper echelons of “old money” in New York, it speaks to the judgmental nature in all of us.
The story centers on Tom Rashman (played by John Cassidy), an up-and-coming theater producer who is enlisted to join the co-op board by his uncle, Frank (Frank Smith). New to the process, Tom soon discovers that the board members are all quick to exclude people based on petty snobbishness and personal prejudices. No one is safe, whether it be strange black men in the building, service staff who should remain hidden in back elevators, single women who may allow strange men into the building as dates, parents with children, families with dogs, or even hard-working businessmen who are newly wealthy enough to afford to live in one of the apartments. Even the one seemingly liberal holdout on the board, Doug Bernstein (Alexander Kulcsar), is limited by his own prejudices, as are Frank and, it turns out, Tom himself.
The lesson learned from The Right Kind of People is, as the song from Avenue Q states, “Everyone is a little bit racist.” But this racism run rampant is not as in-your-face as in Avenue Q, and therefore does not have the same shock value as biting social commentary. The racism here is insidious; it is hidden behind polite smiles, thinly veiled sarcasm, and the earnest attempts of the co-op board members to protect their property values and their own comfort. They don’t see themselves as judgmental or racist, but simply as doing the right thing for their neighbors and investors.
Unfortunately, the laughs are also not as loud for this show as they were for Avenue Q. The play is funny; however, the uncomfortable laughter is at the expense of the co-op board discussing things like measuring dogs, putting limits on the age of children in the building, or deciding if a person should be let into the building because they “buy their clothes off the rack.” Even when there is a hostile takeover of the board by more liberal co-op tenants, the new board continues the same type of exclusion based on a different set of values. Tom eventually quits the board, moves out, and establishes a growing family elsewhere, but at the end discusses joining the board of an exclusive daycare center to ensure that his child will be allowed to enter and be surrounded by the “right kind” of environment.
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