03/07 - 04/06 @ theREP, Albany

Capital Repertory Theatre has an urgent, unmissable masterpiece of storytelling to offer you with The Lehman Trilogy playing on North Pearl Street through April 6th.

This epic play of the promise and peril of the American Dream was written in Italian, premiered in France and its National Theatre production directed by Sam Mendes, starring Simon Russell Beale with an out of this world set design by Es Devlin won the 2022 Tony Awards for Best Actor, Director and Play. The story of an American business family has had a huge impact worldwide.

The Italian novelist Stefano Massini has done a masterful job using direct address, story theatre, powerful metaphors (tightrope walking, sign painting, three card monte) and recurring imagery to make this three hour play riveting…you won’t believe you’ve been sitting there watching 160 years of financial restructuring. The play was adapted by Ben Power.

Henry Lehman (Kevin McGuire) is an immigrant from Bavaria who opens a store selling farm supplies in Alabama in 1844 who is soon joined by his two brothers: Emanuel (William Oliver Watkins) and Mayer (Oliver Wadsworth). His brothers soon have him diversifying the business and they quickly become brokers of the locally sourced cotton, buying it from the plantations and selling it to the factories up North.

Before the family packs up and transitions to financial services and becomes Lehman Brothers Bank in New York City and after the Civil War, the Alabama town doctor speaking of their business built on the products supplied by slavery slaps them with, “Surely you knew it could not last, Mr. Mayer? Everything that was built here was built on a crime. The roots run so deep you cannot see them but the ground beneath our feet is poisoned. It has to end this way.”

The timing of this production is mighty fortuitous indeed. Scheduled over a year ago, who could predict that Wall Street would be suffering a pretty significant swoon this week? Or that our President would be talking off-handedly about not ruling out a recession when this tale ends with the death of the Lehman which precipitated the 2008 financial crisis called The Great Recession?

Kevin McGuire (Red, Other Desert Cities), alone on stage, opens the evening as the powerful patriarch and is strongest in this opening third entitled, “Three Brothers.” His barking, “The store is mine!” has a steely ferocity.

He is quickly joined by his two brothers, first Emanuel played by William Oliver Watkins (Sweat) who does an excellent job late in the play, swinging my favorite piece of writing (of many contenders) in the play:

“If we can convince the whole world

that to buy is to survive

to buy is to exist

then buying will mean living

and we will break the final barrier.

Need.

Our objective should be

nothing more or less

than a planet

upon which no one buys out of need.

They buy out of instinct.

They will give us money they don’t have

for things they don’t need.

They will simply buy.”

A three hour play with three actors is an awful lot of lines and cues to learn and opening night was not without its line bobbles (which will surely get straightened out)… but not from Oliver Wadsworth who played the third brother who emigrated to America, Mayer. Mr. Wadsorth showed up ready to play! Late in the play, he plays the last Lehman, Bobby with tinted glasses and rock star swagger, literally twisting the night away. He also makes a strong Pauline Sondheim, wife of Emanuel, with foot extended in a coquette pose. Mr. Wadsworth can always be counted on for a laugh, much needed and appreciated in this evening, as his outrageous Bottom in Midsummer made clear a few years ago but his work in Lehman is the soul of the play – lightning quick, physically versatile and always spot on with choices, emotional depth and vocal expressions. My favorite work from this immensely talented actor.

On a personal note, it is Artistic Director Maggie Mancinelli-Cahill’s last play she is directing at theREP as AD. The night we saw Lehman marked the eve of lockdown five years ago when we closed the old space downtown with The Irish and How They Got That Way.

The Lehman Trilogy has terrific underscoring and accompaniment composed by Steve Stevens and played by Emily Mikesell and Fred Rose. Camilla Tassi and Julian Kelley have come up with a superb projection design which held just enough visual interest, added to scenes and never detracted, and was never wasteful which is difficult with such a long play. Brian Prather’s simple set design tipped its hat to Es Devlin’s magnificent creation with its board room and dozens of bankers boxes which were lovingly used throughout the show. Of course, theREP’s compensatory advantage to the Broadway set is sitting close enough to the stage to see the actor’s thoughts and isn’t that more compelling?

The Lehman Trilogy is an essential Capital Region cultural work which should not be missed by all citizens struggling to make sense of what is happening to our country.