MONEY TROUBLE

The lead character of Lynn Nottage’s play Ruined did not invest with Bernie Madoff, nor did she own considerable shares in American auto companies, nor did she have to watch her 401K vaporize. But businesswoman Mama Nadi has economic troubles of her own. How will her whorehouse in the Democratic Republic of the Congo turn a profit while civil war rages just outside? “Survival,” says Nadi, “is the only art I recognize.” A hit at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre, this Brechtian drama and political allegory, directed by Kate Whoriskey, arrives at the Manhattan Theatre Club with its excellent cast (including Saidah Arrika Ekulona, Quincy Tyler Bernstine, and Cherise Boothe) intact.

Jan. 21-May 3, 2009