Reverse Culture Shock

Only in Britain would you see so many dramatizations of the financial collapse.

Brits love to watch the mighty fall. The common reaction to news about someone who is doing well financially is anger and jealousy, rather than the more American pride and aspiration.

So when big companies go bust, the general public rejoices. Enron executives make perfect villains for West End theatre.

The show about the collapsed energy trader (titled, imaginatively, Enron) playing in London now, complete with song and dance numbers, sounds hilarious.

And it’s coming to Broadway. Cultural differences aside, I suppose the majority of the world’s theatregoers were outraged by Enron’s creative accounting. I’m glad it’s spawned creative theatre making.