BY TAMARA BECK
WHITE Anglo Saxon Protestants, once at the forefront of American life, have lost some of their ascendancy. In A.R. Gurney’s new comedy, “Black Tie,” the dying WASP is already dead.

“Black Tie,” a Primary Stages production on stage in an extended run through 27 March at 59E59, is a mild and pleasant familial anecdote.
Curtis hangs onto his father’s advice and some of the societal conventions it embodies, but the world of the latter has long ago begun to breakdown. Mimi (Carolyn McCormick), Curtis’ wife, though of the same class and background, is a liberal and progressive woman. She is having a much easier time of it.
Although wistful for the traditions so easily followed by his father’s generation and now passé, Curtis is not strictly a starchly-conservative and tradition-bound WASP. But some traditions die hard.
Curtis wants to commemorate his son, Teddy’s (Ari Brand), wedding by wearing black tie and tux to the rehearsal dinner as he feels his father would have done. Elsie (Elvy Yost), Mimi and Curtis’ daughter, is the family’s designated peacekeeper as the plans for the rehearsal dinner get more and more complicated.
While much of what he advises is pleasantly sensible and inclusive, Curtis’ father doesn’t understand the intricate relationships in his grandchildrens’ lives. Not understanding, though, does not mean he is not prepared to accept that times change. Curtis, on the otherhand, is hurt that the rehearsal dinner is not his party anymore – it belongs to the new generation.
“Black Tie” boasts a fine cast with the exception of DD. Despite the sympathetic character he plays, he is grating. GE is ingratiating as Curtis, and CMcC gives a lively yet low-key performance.
Visit http://primarystages.org/blacktie to learn more about “Black Tie.”
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