Investing time in the Lehman Brothers at ACT
Aaron Krohn (left) is Mayer Lehman, John Heffernan (center) is Henry Lehman and Howard W. Overshown is Emanuel Lehman in the Tony Award-winning production of The Lehman Trilogy from The National Theatre and Neal Street Productions. The play runs through June 23 at ACT’s Toni Rembe Theater. Photo by Kevin Berne
One of the myriad extraordinary things about The Lehman Trilogy, the epic 3 1/2-hour play now at American Conservatory Theater’s Toni Rembe Theater, has to do with its musicality.
You wouldn’t necessarily think that a generation-spanning drama about the Lehman Brothers and their burgeoning financial empire would be musical. But director Sam Mendes (an Oscar winner for American Beauty, among others, and a Tony winner for this show, among others) takes a surprisingly musical approach. Perhaps it’s the cadences in the script by Ben Power, adapted from the Italian original by Stefano Massini. Phrases, gestures, descriptions are repeated and repeated as a way to continually draw in the audience and efficiently parse which of the many characters are being played by the three actors.
Overshown (lert), Krohn (center) and Heffernan. Photo by Kevin Berne
A rhythm is established, both in language and in movement, that feels decidedly rhythmic. And then there’s the marvelous live piano accompaniment by Rebekah Bruce, who sits at audience level in front of the stage, much like an organist might during a silent movie. She’s playing an original score by Nick Powell (who also provides the sound design), and the effect is cinematic and emotional and, frankly, a little disconcerting to have so much underscore in a play where no one suddenly bursts into song.
But this is theater that wants us off-kilter, that wants us to be constantly aware of theatrics, both in the performances – three actors playing all the roles and narrating their own stories – and in the production itself, which hails from London’s National Theatre and Mendes’ Neal Street Productions.
Set designer Es Devlin cages the action in a gleaming glass, chrome and fluorescent office suite filled with ordinary office furniture and lots of file storage boxes that get re-purposed as everything from mercantile displays to the Tower of Babel. The whole office box spins, and behind it is a cyclorama filled with video projections (by Luke Hall) that take us from Alabama cotton fields to New York high-rises to dizzying hellscapes.
There are literal bells and whistles here, but all of it – the music, the design, the lights (by Jon Clark) – only helps to focus and underscore the astonishing performances by the actors who begin by playing the three Lehman brothers and end up playing everyone in their ever-expanding universe.
These are performances that are as playful as they are deadly serious, and that makes them a joy to watch. Even without the dazzling production, Powers’ script and the storytelling by John Heffernan, Aaron Krohn and Howard W. Overshown would still be remarkably effective at conveying the saga of how three Jewish immigrants from Bavaria ended up with millions and on top of an American financial heap that they, in many ways, created.
The first brother to sail to America is Henry (his actual name, Hayum, is Americanized by a port worker because “in America, everything changes”). As played by Heffernan, Henry is wildly intelligent and driven to succeed in what he calls the “magical musical box called America” (there’s music again). He ends up in Montgomery, Alabama, selling fabric and suits. If Henry is the “head” of the family, Emanuel (originally called Mendel, played by Overshown) is known as the “arm.” He’s the one who eventually ends up in New York doing all the outreach that turns their textile business into cotton brokering for much of the expanding nation. That leaves Mayer (Krohn), the youngest, nicknamed Spud, to occupy the middle ground “so the arm doesn’t crush the head and the head doesn’t humiliate the arm.”
Overshown (left), Krohn (center) and Heffernan play multiple generations of the Lehman Brothers family. Photo by Kevin Berne
Their roles are clearly defined within the family. Henry is always right. Emanuel gets things done and Mayer keeps things running. From its humble beginnings in the mid-19th century American South, the Lehman Brothers’ business grows and evolves. The first part of the the three-act drama gets them to the Civil War, with the family split between the North and the South.
Reconstruction proves to be a boon, and then, a World War and a few shrewd investments in the railroad industry later, we hit Black Sunday and the collapse of Wall Street. The third act is the blurriest. With the brothers gone and the heirs running the show, things begin creeping into levels of greed and financial sleight of hand that presage the eventual 2008 collapse. The distinguished piano music, which has so often called back to the brothers’ Jewish-Bavarian roots, is overtaken by manic twisting to “And the Beat Goes On.” The beat does indeed go on, but in creepier and more widely damaging ways. Suddenly the long black coats worn by the actors (costume design by Karina Lindsay) feel less charming/anachronistic and more like the swinging black capes of dastardly comic book villains.
The Lehman Trilogy is a rich (in every sense) family saga, a slice of American history, an MBA case study and a practically Shakespearean tussle with power and greed. Nimble and fervid, the storytelling grabs hold of us, and the three acts fly by. It’s really only three men in a box, plus propulsive and lyrical piano music, telling a story spanning 164 years. But it all adds up to one of the most exciting theatrical experiences in memory.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Stefano Massini’s The Lehman Trilogy, adapted by Ben Power, continues through June 23 at American Conservatory Theater’s Toni Rembe Theater, 415 Geary St., San Francisco. Running time is 3 1/2 hours (including two intermissions). Tickets are $25-$147 (subject to change). Call 415-749-2228 or visit act-sf.org.
