The Balusters
Opening Night: April 21, 2026
Theater: Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
Website: www.manhattantheatreclub.com
The Vernon Point Neighborhood Association is a passionate bunch, whether squabbling over historically inaccurate porch railings or debating trash can protocol. Still, no one is prepared for the neighbor-versus-neighbor battle royale that ensues when a newcomer to the board suggests the unthinkable: installing a stop sign on the corner of the enclave’s prettiest block. Written by Pulitzer Prize and Tony winner, Manhattan Theatre Club veteran, and master of antics David Lindsay-Abaire (Kimberly Akimbo, Rabbit Hole, Good People, Ripcord) and directed by Tony winner Kenny Leon (Othello, Our Town, Topdog Underdog, King James), The Balusters is a raucous, wild ride through a small community with big feelings.
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April 21, 2026
This psychological delicacy comes as no surprise: Lindsay-Abaire wrote one of our most persuasive dramas on social collision, “Good People,” which explores the two ends of the class struggle in New England. I may have quibbles with the way his plot here unfolds, particularly the way it incorporates Luz, whose circumstances must be manipulated in unrealistic ways. But all boulevard comedies lean on coincidence, and I guess that applies even when the boulevard is a residential esplanade. (I laughed while I watched “The Balusters”; I only grumbled while thinking about it hours later.)
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April 21, 2026
Lindsay-Abaire’s new play The Balusters makes a highly entertaining if specious argument for the eventual triumph—bad-faith cultural backlash be damned—of social justice in left-leaning America. Solidly staged by director Kenny Leon, this world premiere from Manhattan Theatre Club is witty and always engaging, though its ham-fistedness might leave you longing for the nuance of Lindsay-Abaire’s past triumphs.
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April 21, 2026
It’s cleverly devised, although for a play about the corrupting influence of obsessing over peace and quiet it’s more than a tad pat. Though Lindsay-Abaire lingers on the idea that everyone has their own blind spots, he allows one character to become more villainous than most and another to emerge as near saintly. It’s a tidy conclusion, complete with a sturdy button of a kiss-off line. The play’s clean lines weaken it, letting it speed uninterrupted, like a car along that esplanade, toward judgment and satisfaction. There’s something to be said for disrupting the picturesque, and stopping traffic.
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April 21, 2026
The Balusters is hilarious, skewering not only neighborhood associations but also identity politics while maintaining compassion for all its characters. Too bad real HOA meetings can’t be this fun.
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April 21, 2026
While The Balusters is never less than entertaining, the play suffers in comparison to similar recent Broadway works, notably The Minutes and, especially, Eureka Day, both of which had sharper laughs and singular executions. Eureka Day, in particular, found its universality in the specificity of its liberal, well-to-do day-school officials and the panic that the hot topic of vaccines unleashed. The characters in The Balusters, despite an unassailable cast led by Richard Thomas, Anika Noni Rose, Margaret Colin and the delightful Marylouise Burke, never reach that level of pinpoint precision, its characters as often as not seeming little more than voices for their demographics, as uni-dimensional as the poster board demonstrating exactly where that stop sign should go regardless of which hypocrite stands to benefit.
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April 21, 2026
“The Balusters”[…] may be the most vital and timely show on Broadway this season. It’s definitely the funniest.
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April 21, 2026
Kenny Leon’s direction levels some of the imbalance in the play’s humor. He gives the supporting characters just enough edge to inflict pain without ever spilling so much blood that someone turns into a villain.
READ THE REVIEWApril 21, 2026
We’re in a moment in the American theater when, after years of caution, writers finally are beginning to find the courage to expose the hypocrisy of our newly sensitive language, tiptoeing toward reminding us that the mercenary, Edward Albee-like characters of the previous generation are still very much with us, only better schooled in progressive buzz words like “holding space” or “I see you.” People desperately holding onto power, or trying to acquire it while pretending otherwise, are a time-honored structure for tragedy and comedy. And even if credible veracity comes and goes, Lindsay-Abaire mines them for plenty of laughs. Including a couple of total howlers.
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The Balusters is an ensemble piece, and across the board the cast is superb. The actors work together symbiotically, forming a spectacular, unstoppable unit of privilege and prejudice.
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By the time The Balusters reaches its conclusion, the play has forced its characters and audience to explore the intricacies of racism, discrimination, privilege, and those annoying biases that we all contain, and asked the question of how we determine a bad person is a bad person. It’s uncomfortable, hokey (in a respectable way, most of the time), and keen, although it could do with a bit of sharpening in some elements.
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Yet there are also enough hooks in the work to make The Balusters entertaining, even in spite of itself. It’s particularly smart in its depiction (mostly, though not exclusively, through Elliot) of a softer conservatism, one that would never flirt with direct Trumpism yet has a clear sense of social order, as well as the order of operations that, say, a gay Black man like Brooks (Carl Clemons-Hopkins) must process when evaluating possible prejudices against him. Given that, the dialogue’s riffs on genuine biases and verbal sensitivities aren’t as clever or unpredictable as it should be; more often than not, supposedly cutting jokes are easy enough to anticipate. But the cast delivers those lines with such impeccable timing that they often get laughs anyway.
READ THE REVIEWApril 21, 2026
It’s a theatrical niche you wouldn’t think would work, but at this point if MTC announces a play about the contentious meetings of a small-town library committee, I’ll be the first in line to buy tickets.
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Speaking of aesthetic curation, we must discuss Derek McLane’s Architectural Digest–ready set. From the floor-to-ceiling drapes to the turquoise tiled fireplace to the burnt-orange and olive walls through the parlor doorways, every detail is stunning, right down to the artwork and the throw pillows (two of which I have already tracked down and purchased). Top-notch comedy and covetable home decor—all in a tidy 100-minute package.
READ THE REVIEWApril 21, 2026
Under the direction of Kenny Leon, the terrific cast creates believable and fully inhabited characters, each getting at least one solid moment in the spotlight and making the most of it, while all also working together in a well-orchestrated ensemble.
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