David Lindsay-Abaire reacts to his Tony Award nomination for 'The Balusters'

The Balusters, a comedy about an HOA, is a self-described departure from the Tony and Pulitzer-winning playwright’s previous work, but it is no less sharp.

A Homeowners Association meeting has never been such a battlefield as in David Lindsay-Abaire’s new play, The Balusters. Feedback, opinions, and gossip bubble up over a stop sign placement. Scathing secrets ignite into discord. A gravel is banged. The Balusters tackles who has–and does not have–the privilege of being treated equally as “a neighbor.” The 10-person voluminous nature of this comedy-drama premise contributed to David Lindsay-Abaire’s Tony nomination for Best Play.

“It scared me a little bit to write it,” Lindsay-Abaire admitted to New York Theatre Guide on the stylistic departure from his previous plays. "It took me longer to write than any other play that I've written. So I'm most proud that I actually finished it because it took a long time, and then the fact that it's getting recognized is just sort of cream on the cake for me.” The Balusters also marks a Tony nomination for its director Kenny Leon for Best Direction of a Play.

Lindsay-Abaire previously won Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical and Tony Award for Best Original Score for the musical adaptation of his play Kimberly Akimbo. The list of his previous Tony-nominated works goes on: Rabbit Hole (which also won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Drama), Shrek the Musical, and Good People.

He exchanged texts with his long-time collaborator and muse Marylouise Burke, among the Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play Tony nominees for her role as Penny Buell, the senior member of the HOA. "She is absolutely stunned,” he reported. “My heart could not be bigger. I wanted everyone to get nominations, but I have known Marylouise for almost 30 years now.” Burke also originated the role of Kimberly Levaco in his play (before it became a musical) Kimberly Akimbo.

He fondly recollected their collaboration in A Devil Inside at Soho Rep in 1997, when she played a laundromat owner standing on a 20-feet-tall platform without a railing. "She's been doing my plays and to be on Broadway together and to both get nominated for Tonys, when she all those decades ago was on a 20-foot platform down at Soho Rep, means a tremendous amount to me," the playwright said.

Photo credit: The Balusters on Broadway. (Photo by Jeremy Daniel)