About the Play:

Old Money is a full-length dramatic comedy by Wendy Wasserstein. A unique social commentary in which the characters move between two time periods (the early 1900's and modern New York City) while discovering that some things in society never change.

Old Money a comedy of manners that explores social climbing, generational gaps, money, art, and real estate in New York City, from the Gilded Age of the early 20th century to the present day. People from opposite ends of the 20th century gather for rich banker Jeffrey Bernsetin's posh dinner party in a fashionable old Manhattan mansion, at first unaware of each others' existence and then eventually they mingle and collide across the constraints of time. A wealthy robber baron and his family, their descendants and assorted characters in their midst an Irish maid, a Hollywood producer, a social climbing decorator, confused teenagers and eccentric artists mingle in a contrast of "old money" and "new money" New York. In a satirical and witty style Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning-author Wendy Wasserstein deftly observes how social conventions, professional eminence and familial relationships have remained remarkably similar throughout the last century.

Old Money premiered in 2000 at the Mitzi Newhouse Theater in the Lincoln Center off-Broadway in New York City. The play has been performed in regional repertory, college, and community theatre productions.

Cast: 4 female, 3 male

What people say:

"The Tony Award-winning playwright has channeled her flair for witty social commentary into a portrait of two very wealthy families who live a century apart... A sharply written... rumination on how the other half lives, and a reminder that some of the best things in life truly are free even in Manhattan." — USA Today

"Wasserstein believes in the power of laughter [and]... she has a good eye for the foolish ways of the moneyed people then and, especially, now." — New York Post

"This is a simply lovely, funny play, and such family values benefit from small revelations." — The Spectator

About the Playwright:

Wendy Wasserstein (1950-2006) was an American playwright, novelist, and an Andrew Dickson White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University. She received the Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1989 for her play, The Heidi Chronicles, often touted as a precursor to the HBO television series, Sex and the City. Over the course of her career, spanning four decades, she wrote eleven plays and is one of those rare playwrights whose work is performed regularly in schools and community theater as well as commercial venues. She was admired both for the warmth and the satirical cool of her writing; each of her plays and books captures an essence of the time, makes us laugh, and leaves us wiser.