Expressing Willie

Expressing Willie by Rachel Crothers, which is revived in New York for the first time in 83 years, is a clever comedy about a man, who through the urging of his mother finds himself obscenely wealthy on Long Island. With newfound money and an increased ego, Willie Smith finds himself in an unfamiliar plane, involved with free thinkers and all that accompanies sordid wealth – until his former unsophisticated girlfriend arrives and pits Midwestern values against the idle rich. By the time Willie realizes he has been a self-centered fool, it may be too late. Before The Great Gatsby (some even say it inspired F. Scott Fitzgerald), Rachel Crothers wrote about this obscenely wealthy group of Long Islanders.