THEATER REVIEW : Cashing In on Humor : ‘Other People’s Money’ earns high audience interest with tight direction and universal lessons on finance.

When Jerry Sterner’s “Other People’s Money” opened at Manhattan’s Minetta Lane Theatre, for months the cobblestoned street outside was jammed with stretch limos. The audience was predominantly from Wall Street, where the playwright worked before this first play was produced.

But “Other People’s Money” isn’t just for the Wall Street crowd. It has lessons and warnings for anyone existing in corporate hell and for armchair economists. And it’s a very funny, and very human, play.

Most of that comes through in director Roosevelt Blankenship Jr.’s staging at the Ensemble Theatre. The tightness of his timing and the easy blending of drama and comedy are accomplished with craft.

And Blankenship has much affection for the misguided management of the venerable New England Wire and Cable Co., and for Larry (the Liquidator) Garfinkle, who is covertly buying up company stock in order to put it out of business at his own immense profit.

Affection is necessary for the comedy to work. Garfinkle and Kate Sullivan--the lawyer who fights him and is also the daughter of one of the company’s important employees--are not the nicest people. The director and actors have the immense job of making audiences like Larry and Kate. The humor is in their hands, as is the unlikely love interest, which is about as romantic as the mating of two economic killer sharks.

Victor Mena’s calm, measured and calculatedly casual approach to the role of Larry works without a flaw. Mena’s own sense of humor informs Larry’s every move.

Equally well cast is Letitia Fox as Kate, hard-edged and fighting desperately to succeed in a man’s world, her sense of laid-back humor softening the sharpness of a difficult role.

James Dolan has a refreshing reserve as the company’s self-effacing CEO, Andrew Jorgenson, and a gentleness that makes logical the longstanding affection between Jorgenson and Kate’s mother, Bea.

As Bea, Judy Kirby is inclined to sudden explosions of emotion, but she never allows them to go beyond an indication of where Kate got her volatility. Kirby’s matter-of-factness also anchors a good performance.

Blankenship’s only misstep is allowing Alan Slabodkin, as the company manager, to shamelessly overact in most of his early scenes, when his fear and anger should be at their subtlest.

Slabodkin shoots all his ammunition in the first half-hour, with little left to give any stature to his later scenes, particularly his final description of Larry and Kate’s future, which he rattles off without insight, humor or even much sense that he’s delivering the laugh-provoking curtain speech.

* “Other People’s Money,” Ensemble Theatre, 844 E. Lincoln Ave., Suite E, Orange. Thursday-Saturday, 8 p.m. Ends Sept. 23. $12 to $15. (714) 998-2670. Running time: 2 hours.

Victor Mena: Lawrence Garfinkle

Letitia Fox: Kate Sullivan

James Dolan: Andrew Jorgenson

Judy Kirby: Bea Sullivan

Alan Slabodkin: William Cole

* An Eastern Boys Production of Jerry Sterner’s comedy-drama. Produced by R. A. Blankenship Jr. Directed by Roosevelt Blankenship Jr. Lighting/sound design: Greg Sanders.