Just in time for election day is the world premiere of Jon Robin Baitz’s political comedy, Vicuña, at the Kirk Douglas Theater, directed by Robert Egan. In it, a Donald Trump-like presidential candidate called Kurt Seaman (a swaggering Harry Groener) shows up at the swanky NYC workshop of Anselm Kassar (Brian George), an elderly Iranian-American bespoke tailor, to order a suit he can wear at a crucial TV debate with his Democratic Party opponent. The suit, Seaman insists, must rival the one Kassar made for Ronald Reagan when he won the TV debate that helped secure the presidency for him. Kassar at first declines the job, complaining that he can’t produce elegant, hand-crafted work in such a short time (the debate’s just three weeks off), but the very rich and bullying Seaman won’t take no for an answer and keeps badgering the tailor. Finally, Kassar caves in and reluctantly agrees to make Seaman a suit–for the sum of a hundred and forty thousand dollars. To justify the expense, he explains that the suit will be made of vicuña, an exotic wool that comes from an endangered species, “the little cousin to the llama.” Seaman is tickled to death by the news. The Jewish but secular and non-political Kassar has a youthful and idealistic apprentice, Amir (Ramiz Monsef), who, as an Iranian Muslim, takes exception to Seaman’s anti-immigration, anti-minority views and tries to convince Kassar to have nothing to do with him. Amir becomes a mouthpiece for Baitz’s obviously liberal, anti-Trump convictions, but I never did quite believe him as a character; he was just a little too profane, polemical and strident; over the top, really. Two women also make their presence felt: Seaman’s daughter, Srilanka (Samantha Sloyer), and Kitty Finch-Gibbon (Linda Gehringer). Srilanka, an obvious take-off on Ivanka, is her dad’s beleaguered assistant, tasked with the responsibility of providing damage control when the impulsive, motor-mouthed Seaman insults women or Mexicans or Muslims in public. Kitty doesn’t turn up until the second act, but it’s a good thing she does because she brings a much-needed satirical bite to the proceedings. A stalwart, old-school Republican, Kitty has been sent by her Party bosses on a secret mission. So dismayed by Seaman’s rude, crude, egomaniacal behavior are they that they’re willing to pay him billions of dollars to quit the race. Vicuna comes strongly to life here, but just when it seems Baitz was going to demolish Seaman in comic fashion, he actually falls a bit in love with the character’s populist rhetoric, his purported love for the little man, the forgotten man. Thus, what should have been a devastating portrait of a demagogue became a wishy-washy sketch. That said, the play is well-acted and directed and handsomely produced by the Center Theater Group.
