• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • About Towleroad
  • Towleroad on Social Media
  • Privacy Policy

Towleroad Gay News

Gay Blog Towleroad: More than gay news | gay men

  • Travel
  • Sports
  • Law/Justice
  • Celebrities
  • Republicans
  • Madonna
  • Books
  • Men
  • Trans Rights
  • Royals
  • Monkeypox
  • Mexico City: A heady cocktail of history, flair and fab food
  • Culture Wars: Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders To Sign A Bill BANNING Drag Shows To ‘Protect Kids’
  • Murray Bartlett and Nick Offerman’s gay relationship ‘The Last of Us’ (Ep 3) will be 2023’s memorable TV moment

Making New York – new play tells tale of ruthless powerbroker

Towleroad November 13, 2022 Leave a Comment

Published by
AFP
654364 origin 1
British actor Ralph Fiennes performs in 'Straight Line Crazy' at The Shed theater in New York City in October 2022

New York (AFP) – Was he a visionary or a corrupt racist with a god complex? The troubled legacy of Robert Moses, the master builder who shaped New York, comes under scrutiny this fall in a new play starring Ralph Fiennes.

Robert Moses was an urban planner who, despite never holding elected office, launched building projects in the early 20th century which transformed New York and inspired cities across the United States. 

While his vision lives on in New York’s vast network of parks, roads and bridges, Moses’ name became synonymous with the racist undertones of “urban renewal.” 

The city’s ambivalence about Moses gets a fresh airing in “Straight Line Crazy,” a two-act dramatization of Moses’ decades-long tenure atop the New York power jungle.

Fiennes depicts a Moses who cajoles politicians, outmaneuvers opponents, and shrugs off doubters in his insatiable quest to fulfill his ambitious vision for the city. 

“Our job is to lead, not to follow,” Moses tells an underling who worries about pleasing the public. “People don’t know what they want until they have it.”

Corruption of power?

Written by the British playwright David Hare, “Straight Line Crazy” was originally presented in London.

It marks the latest effort to reckon with Moses, who amassed unparalleled authority from holding posts on as many as a dozen municipal bodies simultaneously in a career that spanned four decades.

Moses was celebrated for much of his professional life for his building projects and the leading role he played in bringing the United Nations to New York and in developing the Lincoln Center.

But in 1974, the journalist Robert Caro lifted the veil on the underside of Moses’ imperial-like reign in a book that won the Pulitzer Prize.

He depicted him as a ruthless and corrupt dictator who held grudges, smeared opponents and hoodwinked allies while running a municipal machine of monumental proportions.  

Caro exposed how Moses marshaled massive public funds to favor suburban elites.

Poorer, non-white communities were displaced from condemned neighborhoods and suffered from Moses’ lack of support for public transit as he promoted mammoth highway projects that championed the car.

Hare has called Caro the authoritative expert on Moses, but views his subject differently.

“Caro believes that… what corrupted Moses was power and that he became sort of crazed with power,” Hare said at a panel discussion at The Shed theater, where the show runs through December 18. 

However, Hare believes his life “was about pursuit of an idea that was too rigid.”

Compared with Caro’s monster-like figure, the play humanizes Moses, while still zeroing in on significant character flaws.

Dan Doctoroff, a former deputy mayor for economic development and rebuilding and a board member of the Shed, said Moses’ story offers some clues for policy makers on how to tackle ambitious projects, such as the need to back up a vision with detailed plans.

“He did magnificent things. He did terrible things, and the reality is you’re never going to get everything right,” Doctoroff said during the panel conversation. “But at the end of the day, his disdain for the common person tarnishes the legacy forever.” 

What ‘democracy couldn’t deliver’

The play, based on real events but with invented dialogue and some fictionalized characters, spotlights two moments in Moses’ career, riffing on a rise-and-fall narrative arc.

In the first act, he casually flouts governance norms as he outwits Long Island gentry to push through the construction of the Jones Beach State Park in 1926.

However, Moses meets his match in the second act, when grassroots opponents mobilize in 1955 to ultimately derail his plan for an expressway in lower Manhattan.

A longtime aide warns of waning patience with Moses’ autocratic style and calls out his favoritism of “clean people… well-off people… white people.”

But Moses says he knows that “people may not like me, but they need me.”

“Now, of course, it’s suddenly fashionable to dislike me, because I’m the dirty bastard who pushed through the things democracy needed but which democracy couldn’t deliver.” 

Topics: Aaon, Actor, Theater More Posts About: God complex, New York City, Ralph Fiennes, Robert Moses, Straight Line Crazy

Related Posts
  • U.S. watchdog accuses Rep. George Santos of breaking campaign finance laws
  • What George Santos’s alleged lying might say about US politics
  • New York man arrested for beating city councilman’s neighbor during anti-LGBTQ protest at his home
  • Culture Wars: Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders To Sign A Bill BANNING Drag Shows To ‘Protect Kids’

    Culture Wars: Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders To Sign A Bill BANNING Drag Shows To ‘Protect Kids’

    Published by Radar Online MEGA Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders will be signing a bill that imposes restrictions on drag shows to protect kids, RadarOnline.com has learned. The bill, first introduced on January 9, would end …Read More »
  • Murray Bartlett and Nick Offerman’s gay relationship ‘The Last of Us’ (Ep 3) will be  2023’s memorable TV moment

    Murray Bartlett and Nick Offerman’s gay relationship ‘The Last of Us’ (Ep 3) will be 2023’s memorable TV moment

    Published by Euronews (English) WARNING: This article contains spoilers for Episode 3 of HBO’s The Last of Us series. So if you haven’t watched it already, you need to seriously reconsider your life priorities. ‘The Last …Read More »
  • Many self-identified heterosexuals report feeling attracted toward individuals of the same sex, study finds

    Many self-identified heterosexuals report feeling attracted toward individuals of the same sex, study finds

    Published by PsyPost Sexuality is commonly thought to be a spectrum. If that is true, is anyone fully straight? Does that blur the label of what heterosexual means? A study published in Archives of Sexual Behavior …Read More »
  • Taylor Lautner thought Kanye West’s interruption of Taylor Swift’s speech was planned

    Taylor Lautner thought Kanye West’s interruption of Taylor Swift’s speech was planned

    Published by BANG Showbiz English Taylor Lautner thought it was part of a planned “skit” when Kanye West interrupted Taylor Swift’s MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) acceptance speech. The ‘Twilight’ actor presented the Best Female Video …Read More »
Previous Post: « Biden pleased with election turnout, says reflects quality of party’s candidates
Next Post: Taylor Swift wins most prizes at MTV Europe Music Awards »

Primary Sidebar

Adjacent News

  • Shockingly racist actions by San Diego cops revealed in internal reports

    Shockingly racist actions by San Diego cops revealed in internal reports

  • Why cops kill: A Q&A with policing expert Dr. DeLacy Davis

    Why cops kill: A Q&A with policing expert Dr. DeLacy Davis

  • Rep. George Santos vows to stop lying : ‘I’ve learned my lesson’

    Rep. George Santos vows to stop lying : ‘I’ve learned my lesson’

Good Trash: Going to Read It Somewhere, Y'know

  • Dennis Rodman On If He’d Ever Get Back With Ex-Girlfriends: “I Tried Madonna, I Tried Carmen Electra…”

    Dennis Rodman On If He’d Ever Get Back With Ex-Girlfriends: “I Tried Madonna, I Tried Carmen Electra…”

  • James Gunn Seemingly Confirms The DCU Will Finally Have Gay Superheroes

    James Gunn Seemingly Confirms The DCU Will Finally Have Gay Superheroes

  • Vanilla Ice Admits He Rejected Madonna’s Proposal Before They Split: ‘I Thought The Guy Was Supposed To Do That’

    Vanilla Ice Admits He Rejected Madonna’s Proposal Before They Split: ‘I Thought The Guy Was Supposed To Do That’

RSS Partner Links

  • Holly Madison Explains Why She Was Never On Birth Control While With Hugh Hefner
  • Kenneth Anger, First Out Gay Filmmaker, Turns 96
  • Kylie Jenner’s Getting Dragged For Throwing Her Kids An Astroworld-Themed Party (Again) Despite The Festival’s 2021 Crowd Surge Tragedy
  • In Ron DeSantis's Florida, Young Girls Have To Report Their Periods
  • Jane Fonda Didn't Think She Would Live Past 30 While Battling Eating Disorder
  • OMG have you heard: Ben Aldridge on his coming out
  • Nick Carter Countersues Women Who Accused Him of Sexual Assault

Most Recent

  • Mexico City: A heady cocktail of history, flair and fab food

    Mexico City: A heady cocktail of history, flair and fab food

  • Culture Wars: Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders To Sign A Bill BANNING Drag Shows To ‘Protect Kids’

    Culture Wars: Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders To Sign A Bill BANNING Drag Shows To ‘Protect Kids’

  • Murray Bartlett and Nick Offerman’s gay relationship ‘The Last of Us’ (Ep 3) will be  2023’s memorable TV moment

    Murray Bartlett and Nick Offerman’s gay relationship ‘The Last of Us’ (Ep 3) will be 2023’s memorable TV moment

  • Many self-identified heterosexuals report feeling attracted toward individuals of the same sex, study finds

    Many self-identified heterosexuals report feeling attracted toward individuals of the same sex, study finds

  • Taylor Lautner thought Kanye West’s interruption of Taylor Swift’s speech was planned

    Taylor Lautner thought Kanye West’s interruption of Taylor Swift’s speech was planned

  • How to Get Tickets to Beyonce’s Renaissance World Tour

    How to Get Tickets to Beyonce’s Renaissance World Tour

  • U.S. African American studies does not include material targeted by Florida governor

    U.S. African American studies does not include material targeted by Florida governor

  • ‘Sister Wives’ Alum Gwendlyn Brown Claims She Was ‘Disappointed’ TLC Tried To ‘Exploit’ Her Bisexuality

    ‘Sister Wives’ Alum Gwendlyn Brown Claims She Was ‘Disappointed’ TLC Tried To ‘Exploit’ Her Bisexuality

Most Commented

Social

Twitter @tlrd | Facebook | Instagram @tlrd

Footer

Copyright © 2023 · Log in

×