Money, Morals Focus of 'Old Money'

NEW YORK (AP) â€” On the stage of Lincoln Center's Mitzi Newhouse Theater, eight actors swirl around and around and around. They have to keep moving as fast as they can. <br><br>In Wendy Wasserstein's

Friday, December 8th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

NEW YORK (AP) â€” On the stage of Lincoln Center's Mitzi Newhouse Theater, eight actors swirl around and around and around. They have to keep moving as fast as they can.

In Wendy Wasserstein's time-traveling ``Old Money,'' these hard-pressed performers portray two sets of characters: one group living in the gilded first two decades of the 20th century, the second in the flush days at the end of the millennium.

Money, manners and morals are on Wasserstein's mind in this play, a less personal and more ambitious work from the author of ``The Heidi Chronicles'' and ``The Sisters Rosensweig.'' It's a confusing effort, unfocused and unfinished as if Wasserstein still hasn't decided who or what her play is about. What she seems to have done is splice a faux Edith Wharton novel with scenes from a contemporary comedy about people with a lot of cash.

As it stands, ``Old Money'' offers quite a parade of millionaires, and much is made of how folks in the past dealt with all their loot compared with today's new-money people.

The old days were all about bloodlines, sighs Flinty McGee, a present-day party impresario, social consultant and A-list arbiter. ``Now society has merged with celebrity. Cash frankly has superseded class,'' she says.

Flinty (an aggressively seductive Kathryn Meisle) is speaking in the sunroom of a Beaux Arts mansion on New York's Upper East Side. The room is a light, airy space, opulently appointed by designer Thomas Lynch. It's the perfect setting for recalling the past, particularly the house's former owner, his descendants and friends.

The current owner is Jeffrey Bernstein, a banking executive who pioneered his company's fixed income arbitrage into a multimillion-dollar operation â€” at least, that's the story told by 17-year-old Ovid Walpole Bernstein, the man's impressionistic son.

``Money is the road to liberation,'' says Jeffrey Bernstein, who finds satisfaction in the practicality of having money, a variation on the greed exhibited by the robber barons of yore. ``There's no glory in not having it.''

What sets ``Old Money'' in motion is a party Jeffrey Bernstein is giving â€” in August, no less, when everyone should be away. Ovid has invited Vivian Pfeiffer, the 70-something grandson of the building's original owner. Vivian is a novelist and university professor, returning for the first time to the house where he spent his early childhood.

Ovid and Vivian seem to be the center of Wasserstein's play. At least, they are the most sympathetic characters, particularly in the performances of Charlie Hofheimer and John Cullum.

Hofheimer is all gawky eagerness as the inquisitive Ovid, and Cullum exudes courtly charm as the unofficial historian of Bernstein's luxurious home. These two men nearly span the century, linking two different generations who had very distinct ideas about what to do with their wealth.

When the play switches to the early part of the century â€” cued by the appearance of designer Jane Greenwood's beautiful period costumes â€” Hofheimer portrays the father of Cullum's character â€” as a teen-ager. Got that?

Director Mark Brokaw has a hard time smoothing over the time transitions. Eventually past and present collide, meeting up with each other in a jumble that makes more of a muddle out of an already confusing situation. Consider the ending of the play, too, which seems to draw to a close only to start up again for more exposition that carries the action well into the 21st century.

The actors grapple as best they can with the shifts of story and costume. They generally have more success with people they play in the present.

In it, Dan Butler portrays a crude, rude Hollywood producer, a man not unlike the gruff sportswriter he plays on television's ``Frasier,'' and Jodi Long is his aggressively name-dropping trophy wife. Both characters verge on stereotypes. Emily Bergl shows great range, jumping from the movie producer's mixed-up teen-age daughter to a sweet-tempered Irish maid in the past.

A game Mary Beth Hurt plays two eccentric artists, the modern one a sculptor â€” ``Oldenberg, but feminist,'' says another character in the play â€” and a Greenwich Village bohemian when ``Old Money'' returns to days gone by.

Mark Harelik has the self-assurance for Jeffrey Bernstein, as well as the controlled deference for his early 20th century character, Arnold Strauss, a department store magnate trying to break down the closed door of WASP society.

When all else fails, Wasserstein and her director have the characters dance around the stage. It's a lovely image, particularly when accompanied by tinkly, old-fashioned tunes. Yet nothing can disguise the fact that ``Old Money'' is still an idea looking for a play.