Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – A painful progress: Jessica Goldberg’s BABE explores generational friction in the music industry

• By drediman
• November 28, 2024
• No Comments

This week at the Pershing Square Signature Center, I also had the opportunity to catch up with Jessica Goldberg’s Babe starring Oscar-winning television and film star Marisa Tomei. The Off-Broadway production is being presented by The New Group, which this season celebrates an impressive three decades in business. In short, Goldberg’s new play tells the story of three employees of a fictitious record company — Gus, Katherine, and Abby — who become entangled in a generational battle royal for the very soul of the company (and by extension, the prevailing culture of the music industry at large).

Goldberg diametrically opposes aging Baby Boomer Gus (the head of the company’s A&R department) and fresh faced Gen Z’er Katherine (a newly hired upstart). Although he admits to being out of step of the times — settled in his ways, Gus refuses or is unable to evolve from a world in which misogyny, bullying, and sexual harassment was the norm — he’s also charismatic, hard-working, and a straight-shooter. Katherine, on the other hand, upon seeing the toxic environment she’s entered, self-righteously makes it her mission to comprehensively take down the regime. Both characters bring smugness and a black-and-white confidence that are intentionally grating to watch.

Gus’s regime includes his longtime right-hand-woman Abby, a Gen X’er who is caught in the middle of the crossfire (she also happens to be battling breast cancer at the same time). On one hand, she’s spent years enabling Gus and his cohorts in their path to success. But on the other hand, she’s also a feminist trailblazer in her own right, having been able to establish an accomplished career for herself in a male-dominated industry. This conflict of interest leads to Abby’s existential crisis, which forms the dramatic nexus of the play. Unfortunately, despite some compelling ideologically-driven exchanges that represent a sort of painful progression, much of the play comes across like a skeletal outline, leaving the characters somewhat underdeveloped. Ironically, Gus is the most fleshed out of the trio.

Babe has been directed by The New Group’s artistic director Scott Elliott, whose staging (efficiently designed by Derek McLane) elegantly moves between time and space. Overall, the production is effectively acted by Tomei, Arliss Howard, and Gracie McGraw. As Abby, Tomei gives an instinctual performance that gives the character welcome texture and gravitas. Howard convincingly imbues Gus with masculine pomp and a brash demeanor. And as Katherine — as well as Abby’s volatile early client (and implied lover) Kat — McGraw delivers a incisely etched performance that clearly delineates the divergent characteristics she plays. Another notable contributor is the band BETTY, who supplied the play’s defiant closing song (sung by McGraw as Kat).

RECOMMENDED

BABE
Off-Broadway, Play
The New Group at the Pershing Square Signature Center
1 hour, 25 minutes (without an intermission)
Through December 22