In 1931, when labor was cheap, there was nothing untoward about a play with 28 characters. In 2004, amazingly, an admirable revival of such a play has cropped up in a tiny Off-Off-Broadway theatre. The play is "Counsellor-at-Law" by Elmer Rice, and it works like gangbusters.
George Simon, Rice's protagonist, is a hard-nosed kid from the slums who has fought his way to the top. Now a high-powered Fifth Avenue lawyer, he has never forgotten where he came from -- and neither have the snooty, old-money legal-establishment types who resent being beaten by this upstart. One of them gets hold of some evidence that could ruin George's career, and things look bad for our hero, but.... I won't spoil the playwright's neat surprise. In 1931, plays had plots.
"Counsellor-at-Law" is an adroit, effective contrivance, but that's not all it is. Rice gives us a lively picture of daily life in a law office (he worked in one for many years) -- all the livelier for being so colorfully outdated. And there are still-cogent (though never subtle) connections with real-life questions of ethics, politics, and class relations.
Chris Jones' setting makes unobtrusively excellent use of the limited space available, and Dan Wackerman's staging keeps the action swift and clear -- no mean feat under the circumstances. Moreover, Wackerman has cast this populous play very shrewdly; there are firmly individualized but never forced performances by Beth Glover as George's ice-princess wife, Lanie MacEwan as the secretary who pines for him, Mary Carver as his adoring mother, Robert O'Gorman as his loyal henchman, Sal Mistretta as his stalwart partner, Tara Sands as the girl at the switchboard, and others. The big, juicy central role of George Simon is played by John Rubinstein, who is not naturally a big, juicy actor, but he has the authority and conviction needed to carry the play. The Peccadillo Theater Company knows what it's doing.