Hall and Hendrix in 7th Monarch.

What a mess. 7th Monarch is the title of a confusing new play by Jim Henry, a writer from Chicago who got lucky, at the Acorn on West 42nd Street’s Theatre Row, a show that manages to seduce the audience into thinking something of import is going to happen at any minute. When two hours pass and it becomes obvious that nothing has happened yet, and nothing ever will, you wonder who to turn to in order to complain about it, but by that time the box office is closed and even the ushers are scratching their heads.

This is what I know. In a creepy house that could pass for the Bates Motel in Psycho lives a grown woman named Miriam Hemmerick (Gretchen Hall), who rides around her small hick town in Indiana on a pink child’s bicycle wearing a space helmet. Miriam was born the day of the first space-satellite launch, and she hasn’t been the same since. Lately, she’s been living on microwaveable pot pies paid for by forging and cashing the government Social Security checks made out to her parents, who have mysteriously disappeared. When the play begins, a criminal investigator for the U.S. Social Security Administration named Raina Briar (where do they dream up these names?) is banging on the door. Raina (Leslie Hendrix) wants to know what happened to the parents. Were they murdered? Are they tied up in the basement? Miriam isn’t telling, but she offers Raina a pot pie. Raina refuses. She’s a vegetarian. And she’s too awestruck by the covered mirrors, the fading cabbage-rose wallpaper and the piles of more than 30 years’ of yellowing newspapers stacked all over the floor, chronologically arranged. Miriam says only that her parents flew away, but they are out there somewhere. She mentions the “chosen one” is coming, feels a fit coming on, then passes out cold.

To Raina, this is a case for the criminal court, followed, she envisions, by a long stay in a straitjacket. To the audience, it’s the groundwork for the kind of tantalizing murder mystery nobody writes anymore. Neither does playwright Henry, as it turns out, but more about that later. Meanwhile, enter Leo (Michael Cullen), a scruffy veteran prosecutor with two weeks left before retirement; Grey (Matthew Humphreys), a young court-appointed defense attorney; and Kenneth, the local district attorney who is running for judge and too busy soliciting votes to pay much attention to a nutcase like Miriam. He is played by Michael Rupert, a terrific musical comedy performer I’ve admired since he won a Tony award as a youngster, singing, dancing and stealing scenes from David Wayne and Robert Goulet in the1968 Kander and Ebb show The Happy Time, directed and choreographed by Gower Champion. It’s unusual to see him in a dramatic role, and especially sad that it’s so badly underwritten, but he does not stumble.

On her way to prison for forgery, Miriam has the innocence of an idiot savant. In fact, she has a genius I.Q. of 177. In the ensuing investigation to determine what happened to her parents, Raina finds bloody rags hidden in the rotting newspapers matched by the forensics lab to the blood of the missing father. In the crawlspace under Miriam’s house, the detectives find mathematical quizzes with the number 43 blacked out on each one, a Mason jar of dead butterflies, and astronaut patches from the Apollo space mission. Raina loses interest in the criminal aspects of the case, turns maternal and takes Miriam home to live. Miriam helps her locate her son, who has been missing for years. At the end of two hours, when you find out what happened to Miriam’s own missing parents, you might want to throw something at the stage.

None of this makes any sense, including the title. It might have something to do with the fact that Miriam is the seventh student to be honored by her school since its inception in 1901. There is also some mention of a monarch statue in the yard. And don’t forget those monarch butterflies in the Mason jar. The number 43 turns out to be something carved into Miriam’s back with a knife. Was her father a sadistic pedophile? Or was she obsessed all these years with the memory of a brutal rape in school by a fellow student? Nothing is explained, including why the forgery charges are dropped and Miriam is suddenly cured after a fast bout of scream therapy.

Like just about everything else I’ve seen lately, the parts fail to add up to a satisfying whole. What starts out as a neat psychological thriller ends up a dull combo of Lizzie Borden and The Exorcist. The healing of wounds initiated by a murder investigation that is never developed just gets wonkier by the minute. The focus is on the two women, who seem like a duo of schizophrenics who get weirder as the play drags on, while the three men’s roles are insignificant enough to seem like afterthoughts. Lame direction by Scott C. Embler doesn’t clarify anything. I had a terrible time staying awake. Mr. Henry is not without talent, but he’s written himself into a corner and can’t get out. I wish he could see the baffled looks on the faces of his audience. It would make a much better movie because the eerie events described but never seen could be unreeled in flashbacks, wrapped in special effects, instead of just talked about. What I find worth talking about is the colorful and memorable performance by Gretchen Hall, who somehow, against all odds, manages to make the demented Miriam palpable. The rest of 7^th Monarch is psychobabble thinly disguised as a thriller, without a thrill in sight.

rreed@observer.com

Last week, the Brooklyn Democrat introduced a resolution in the Council that calls on Congress to restore federal funding to ACORN, the beleaguered housing advocacy group that shuttered most of its organization after the House passed a resolution blocking federal funds last year.

Williams wants Congress to adhere to a federal district court decision that deemed the federal action against ACORN unconstitutional. The ruling, made in December in New York's Eastern District, is being appealed.

"This is kind of unprecedented," Williams, a former housing activist, said. "No time in history has Congress just repealed funding based on simple accusations. There was no trial, no official charges; nothing."

He's optimistic about the resolution's chances. "I feel good, I feel like it can pass," he said. "There are some people who automatically will sign on to it." He declined to give names but said that New York City should take a firm stand in support of ACORN, which he said has kept housing affordable in neighborhoods such as Flatbush Gardens, where he grew up. "I personally love the work ACORN did in my community."

Prejudice, Williams said, has motivated attacks against ACORN.

"They do work for a lot of communities of color. I think that's exactly the reason they were attacked for this. They were set up," he said, referring to the video released in September in which two activists posing as a pimp and prostitute solicited law-breaking advice from ACORN officials.

"I always think race and economics play a part in all of what we do," Williams said. "The more melanin you have in your skin and the poorer you are, the more worse off you're going to be. It's systemic and it's systematic."

In an email sent Wednesday night to reporters, Ms. Lewis unleashed a vitriolic diatribe against Mr. Goldstein, the public face of opposition group Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, painting him as an obstructionist who masked self-interest with local activism.

"Finally, he got what he really wanted," she wrote. "A Deal. Not for the community he claimed to love so much, but for the only beneficiary of his community of one, himself, Double Dealing Danny Goldstein."

The harsh words illustrate the tensions that still run strong more than three years after the project was approved. ACORN, led by Ms. Lewis, ended up partnering with developer Forest City Ratner and signing onto a Community Benefits Agreement that pledged more than 2,000 units of below-market-rate housing for the project. Her group's decision proved controversial, and the opponents such as Mr. Goldstein then portrayed her as a turncoat who sold out to developer Forest City Ratner. Forest City indeed became an ally of ACORN's after the deal, later giving the group financial assistance. And like other signatories to the CBA, there is good reason to think ACORN, or perhaps a successor organization, would receive financial gain from overseeing the below-market-rate housing.

Ms. Lewis has long countered that it was because of her negotiations that the amount of affordable housing pledged was so large and unprecedented. (Whether or not it ultimately all gets built, without additional subsidy, is another question to be answered in coming years.) 

Here is Ms. Lewis' email in full:

Finally, the itch that was Daniel Goldstein has been scratched and scratched out.   After almost seven years of flawed strategies, smear campaigns, stupid tactics, disingenuous rhetoric and total disregard for people who have lived in the downtown Brooklyn community for years before he even thought about coming here; finally he got what he really wanted.  A Deal.  Not for the community he claimed to love so much, but for the only beneficiary of his community of one, himself, Double Dealing Danny Goldstein.  How utterly despicable for him to be in the newspaper  today whining that he did not have enough time to move, and had nowhere to go because he was being stiffed by the State and Forest City Ratner, when low and behold, all the time, he was negotiating, not for the community , but for himself.  Well good riddance and don't let the door hit ya'.  Low and moderate income people have had to wait years for housing while he obstructed the Atlantic Yards Project that could have been well over half done by now.  He never had to worry about housing so he did'nt care how long other people had to wait.  Behold, the Gentrifier.  He has slandered and denigrated not only me but my organization and my members relentlessly.  What benefit has he delivered to the community?  None except for his own pocket.   Well, the housing at Atlantic Yards will be built, and the day after he moves out, which I hope will be sooner rather than later, the building that he squatted in these past years should be razed to ground immediately, and salt poured into the soil, so that never again can the likes of one of the biggest shakedown artists in Brooklyn return.  We will still be here, we will still be fighting for the all the people that Danny spurned and used for his own enrichment.  We hope that now everyone in Brooklyn and New York can see him for what he really is and can see what his actions cost Brooklyn.  I hope whatever he settled for was worth the pain and misery he caused to so many people who just wanted a decent place to live in Brooklyn and who just wanted a decent job and a place for their family.  Now that the flim flam man is gone, they can finally see it on the horizon.

Mr. Goldstein, for his part, dismissed the email.

"I can't waste my breath on this vile, hateful nonsense," he said in an email. "All I will say is that Atlantic Yards has served and will serve to harm most those Bertha claims to represent. And it is really a shame that supposed housing advocate does not care one bit about the abuse of eminent domain."

Separately, Mr. Goldstein wrote a long letter of his own, posted on the Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn Web site, in which he offered some reflections on his long opposition and gave some more summary of his deal with Forest City Ratner.

He, clearly, had a different take than Ms. Lewis:

A legacy of this fight will be that we have proven that all that we have found wrong with it has been shown to be legal in the view of the courts and most legislators. The abusive laws, which favor the most powerful and entrenched interests, must be changed.

Finally, please remember that DDDB, this community and the fight against Atlantic Yards was never about a single person or a single apartment-or even about a single borough. It has been, and still is, about one of the biggest failures of government and democracy in this City's history, and its impact on the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in the great borough of Brooklyn. Our fight has-and this is one of the victories-given hope, inspiration and encouragement to innumerable people that a community united can fight principled fights worth fighting, regardless of the outcome. These are fights that have to be fought if we are to find a way to become a working democracy, which treats individuals and communities fairly, rather than disenfranchising and disempowering them.

ebrown@observer.com

This issue erupted earlier this week when the Post reported that two people posing as a pimp and a prostitute received help from ACORN in Brooklyn when they asked for assistance opening a brothel. Republican state senators, including Tom Libous and Steve Saland, have called for the state to stop funding ACORN. Both the House and Senate voted to cut off federal funding to ACORN.

I was forwarded a letter on Friday night addressed to members of the City Council from a number of important unions and ACORN that urges the members to withhold support of the plan—a multibillion-dollar redevelopment of the historic entertainment hub—without changes to labor and housing issues.

“The window of opportunity for the City Council to make these important changes is closing fast,” the groups wrote. “Before this project is approved by the Land Use Committee and the entire body of the City Council, we ask you to modify the plan.”

The groups have been key to support of the plan—multiple Council Members have strongly pushed for a deal to satisfy concerns of the politically powerful unions—which a Council subcommittee is tentatively scheduled to vote on Monday.

The groups on the letter include ACORN, the Hotel & Motel Trades Association, 32BJ and the United Food and Commercial Workers. The letter highlights the large number of loose ends as the Coney Island saga enters its endgame. Among them is a deal with the area’s main landlord, Joe Sitt, as the city wants to buy his land, and the unions.

The Coney Island initiative is a top priority of city economic development officials right now, who are attempting to pass a rezoning they say would clear the way for thousands of new apartments and a revived, year-round amusement district.

Full letter below.

Coney Letter 7-17

At the center, still, is Joe Sitt, the chairman of landlord Thor Equities who owns about 5 acres of land in the central amusement district that the city wants to control. He and his team have been meeting with top officials at City Hall for three straight days now in an attempt to strike a deal where the city takes a portion of or the entire piece of land. At least as of earlier Thursday afternoon, there was no deal. The local councilman, Domenic Recchia, has long been pressing for a resolution on this issue before a City Council vote.

There are the labor issues, as a large set of unions (32BJ; the Hotel & Motel Trades Council) each wants wage and other guarantees over future development, and, while everyone involved seems to think deals are likely, they aren’t there yet.

“Everything is fluid,” a union official involved in the discussion said. The Council is responsive to these concerns, particularly as election season nears, when union endorsements can be very helpful in contested elections.

There’s ACORN, the housing group, which is in the midst of negotiating a deal with the city over below-market-rate housing in the area.

AND THEN THERE'S WHAT is by far the loudest group of critics, but probably the least powerful politically: the Coney Island enthusiasts who are, above all else, trying to battle back elements of the Bloomberg plan that they think would ruin the spirit of Coney Island. This voice is not one single group but rather a patchwork of nonprofits involved with the issue (Coney Island USA, Save Coney Island, and the Municipal Art Society) that have similar complaints. They feel the city’s plan has far too little space set aside for new outdoor amusements (just 9 acres), and that a set of hotels in the central amusement zone would destroy the distinct character.

The unions, ACORN and the landlords all seem to be getting a seat at the table with the administration, but these groups seem to be scrambling to gain more attention and make enough noise to be heard (and listened to) as the clock ticks.

The groups have made a clever YouTube video; sent out constant emails urging residents to call their council members and the office of Council Speaker Christine Quinn; posted architectural renderings of an amusement district with hotels; and cobbled together a long list of historians, including filmaker Ric Burns, to criticize the city’s plans.

“The conversation has been understood as this struggle between Thor and the city, and what has been lost in all of that is that the underlying plan would be, as it currently stands, disastrous,” said Juan Rivero of Save Coney Island.

The strategy, Mr. Rivero said, has been to both urge the amusement enthusiast position on Mr. Recchia, and also to pressure other council members, who could, in turn, affect the debate on the issue. In recent days, he and others involved have met with 11 different council members or their aides, he said, urging big changes to the city’s plan.

“The reception has ranged,” Mr. Rivero said. “Some people have been extremely supportive and grasped the issues right away, but it has been qualified by different levels of deference to Domenic.” 

ebrown@observer.com

Today, Mr. Jenkins resurfaced on media blogs across the internet. The occasion? Last night, Mr. Jenkins was attempting to interview participants at a gathering of ACORN members in Washington D.C. when a liberal blogger named Adam Green conducted an ambush interview of sorts with the tuxedo-wearing Mr. Jenkins.

For anyone who has watched Fox News in recent months, it should be of little surprise that Mr. Jenkins was on the prowl for footage of ACORN members. After all, ever since last fall, when reports first surfaced that the FBI was investigating the community activist group for possible voter registration fraud, Fox News has relentlessly cranked out stories, updates, and analysis of all things ACORN.

While other news outlets have for the most part moved on, Fox News has dug in.

How much more air time does Fox News devote to ACORN than its competitors? Hard to say precisely. But here are the results of our highly unscientific survey of Nexis transcripts over the past month.

Total number of ACORN references by cable news outlet since May 18.

MSNBC: 0

CNN: 35

Fox News: 362

Bloomberg actually said he was hopeful a law like that could get passed in New York, despite the paralysis in the state senate.

“We need a state law to force people to the table but we’re actually optimistic about getting it, assuming our State Legislature functions someday,” Bloomberg said. “But when they do, we think this is a situation where everybody will.”

Bloomberg said the less funding was tied to the legislation, the better.

“We think we can fund it with private money we’ve raised and city money, so we don’t have to go to our legislature looking for money, or to the federal government," he said. "In fact, I think the less money that’s involved, the more straight-forward it is—just lender and borrower sitting down. Maybe you lock 'em in a room with a big pot of coffee and no bathroom and that’ll get them to pretty quickly come to an agreement.”

"Bill has been at the forefront of our fights to increase affordable housing, combat rental discrimination, and ensure the provision of quality child care," said the chairman of ACORN's political action committee, Val Holder-Luke.

"While there are many good candidates in this race, including John Liu, Norman Siegel and Eric Gioia, APAC knows that Bill de Blasio can always be counted on to take on the tough fights and stand up for all New Yorkers in need. We are proud to support him for Public Advocate."

ACORN's endorsement is perhaps most significant for the organization's ability to deploy bodies on primary day.

Rolling it out this week may also help him get a bit of positive attention as fund-raising numbers for city candidates start coming out. (He is not expected to file as much as some of his rivals.)

Liu, Siegel and Gioia are all declared candidates for the office, and two others are considering entering also: former public advocate Mark Green, and City Councilwoman Jessica Lappin, who would be the only woman in the race.