Lawyers use comedy to educate, entertain, and stay sane
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| Myron D. Cohen and Trey Sandusky in The Last Lafayette |
October 2, 2010
by Eddie Vega, ComedyBeat
NEW YORK - As Harry is about to retire from a successful law practice, he envisions his final years bringing old cars back to useful life. His heart is set on one in particular, a Nash LaFayette, a popular sedan during the 1930s. But his plans are frustrated when a young and idealistic lawyer named Leonard pleads for his help in a criminal case involving a murder suspect who confessed to a Rabbi over a game of golf. Harry has as many doubts about the innocence of Leonard’s client as he has about finding a LaFayette in working condition.
But he is won over by Leonard’s persistence and sense of ethical duty to a client who may indeed be innocent. Harry foregoes retirement for one last case. So begins Myron D. Cohen’s musical comedy, “The Last LaFayette,” a play about lawyers played by lawyers.
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| Nancy Zehner sings in "The Last LaFayette" |
The playbill reads like a Who’s Who of the Manhattan legalcommunity. The lead role of Harry was performed by the playwright, Myron D. Cohen, a senior attorney with Hunton & Williams. Cohen is not new to comedy. He paid his way through Harvard Law School by working nights as a stand-up comic. “These programs are fun,” he said. “It doesn’t matter who is in the audience. Humor is humor. Everyone laughs at the same jokes.”
“It also humanizes lawyers,” added Brian D. Graifman, counsel in the law firm Gusrae, Kaplan, Bruno & Nusbaum, who accompanied the performers on piano and co-wrote the music and lyrics with Peter W. Dizozza and Nancy D. Zehner. Audiences can see them in a different light, not as advocates or adversaries but as regular people who love music and laughter.
Although the play delighted in wonky details of medical and legal practice, it made for arresting drama as it tackled the question: how could a man, who later became a woman (demurely played by Antoinette Gallo), drive several miles at night, stop at red lights, break into his father-in-law’s home and stab him 20 times, then drive back to his own home–all while in a state of sleep.
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| Stewart D. Aaron, who plays Leonard, examines an expert witness in musical comedy "The Last LaFayette" |
That question actually passed the laugh test in a case heard by the Canadian supreme court, which provided some of the play's material. Produced by the New York City Bar, a lawyer’s association located in mid-town Manhattan, the comedy aims—through laughter and song—to educate both legal and lay audiences about certain aspects of trial strategy and legal theory. Additionally, such programs allow attorneys to network, hone their public speaking skills, and promote the cause of legal education.
“There’s a clear professional value,” said Stewart D. Aaron, a partner at Arnold & Porter, who played Leonard. “Practicing lawyers can see an examination of an expert witness. But it also helps keep us sane.”
“It has cathartic benefits,” agreed Susan Guercio. “It helps lawyers release pent up energy in a healthy way.”
Guercio, a volunteer on the entertainment committee that produced the show, knows something of the matter. As a trial lawyer with the NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation, she helps enforce Kendra’s Law, a New York State law that requires people with a history of violence and serious mental illness get the treatment they need.
On stage and off, the lawyers of the New York City Bar are offering theatergoers a healthy reprieve.
The next performance of the "The Last LaFayette" will be on Oct. 6, 2010 at 7 p.m. at the Lambs Club in New York City and then on Sunday Oct. 10 at 1:30 p.m. at Cold Spring Harbor Library, in Suffolk County, Long Island. Admission is free.
(For more photos from the play Click Here.)