Thursday, May 13, 2010

Enron on Broadway – “Once You Bury a Dead Dog You Don’t Dig It Up to Smell It”




Last Friday I saw a play about Enron on Broadway. The play closed last Sunday – not even three weeks after it opened. The same play has been a hit in London since last January and is still running.

I’m no theater critic but I enjoyed the play. It was a thorough and entertaining presentation of Enron’s rise and fall. Everything was covered – the Enron culture in good times, the definition of hedging, the company’s downfall, the Senate hearings, the criminal cases brought against Skilling, Fastow and Lay. I didn’t learn anything new about the debacle, but the presentation of the events was fun and interesting. For example, one of the actors played an analyst explaining why she recommended Enron stock to investors without truly understanding how the company made money. The analyst asked the audience to think about air travel. She observed that we fly in airplanes without really understanding how the airplane works. And, the actor who played Ken Lay, attempting to keep Enron’s troubles quiet before the truth was unearthed, gave this advice – “Once you bury a dead dog you don’t dig it up to smell it.”

There is a great deal of speculation about why the play closed. Some think that American audiences were not thrilled about criticism of American corporate and political culture coming from a British playwright. Others thought that the play was short-lived because the Enron story is an old story that pales in comparison to the most recent events relating to the 2008/2009/2010 economic downturn. A New York Times critic called the play a “flashy but labored economics lesson”. This is probably the biggest cause of the play’s failure.

The premature closing of the play worries me. The playwright’s criticism of our political and corporate culture should engage us, not repel us. We should be more critical about these events ourselves. We should expect better behavior from corporate and political leaders. And when they fail to live up to our expectations, we should keep talking about it. The Enron story is still relevant. The excessive risk-taking, the greed, the arrogance that led to Enron’s demise ignited corporate governance failures that led to the recent economic collapse.

12 comments:

  1. Let’s hope that the story of Enron continues to engage the American people in discussion, either through plays, continued case studies in universities, or even discussions at the dinner table. Enron represented the worst in corporate corruption, throughout the entire chain of accountability. Enron basically folded as a result. Arthur Andersen LLP, at the time the most influential accounting firm in the world, basically folded as a result- banned from having public clients, and relegated to a small practice in Chicago. Many investors’ nest eggs, especially those working at Enron who were not allowed to invest in anything other than Enron equity, basically folded. What a shame. Let the play continue in one form or another…

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  9. I’m no theater critic but I enjoyed the play. It was a thorough and entertaining presentation of Enron’s rise and fall. Everything was covered – the Enron culture in good times, the definition of hedging, the company’s downfall, the Senate hearings, the criminal cases brought against Skilling, Fastow and Lay. I didn’t learn anything new about the debacle, but the presentation of the events was fun and interesting. For example, one of the actors played an analyst explaining why she recommended Enron stock to investors without truly understanding how the company made money. The analyst asked the audience to think about air travel. She observed that we fly in airplanes without really understanding how the airplane works. And, the actor who played Ken Lay, attempting to keep Enron’s troubles quiet before the truth was unearthed, gave this advice – “Once you bury a dead dog you don’t dig it up to smell it.”

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  11. Enron’s troubles quiet before the truth was unearthed, gave this adviceinvest in anything other than Enron equity, basically folded. What a shame. Let the play continue in one form or another.

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