The Lehman Trilogy

B+

Stefano Massimi’s epic tale of family, faith and finance has undergone major transformation since it first appeared as a radio play in Italy in 2012. First adapted for the stage for a French production, it then appeared in Milan in a version with a large cast. Ben Power, Deputy Artisitic Director of the National Theatre, has cleverly adapted it for an English version with just three actors. But what actors! Simon Russell Beale (Bluebird, Jumpers), Adam Godley (Anything Goes) and Ben Miles (Wolf Hall) give commanding performances in multiple roles of varying ages, genders and social status. One rarely has the opportunity to witness acting at such a consistently fine level. Director Sam Mendes (The Ferryman) deploys his actors well. The set by Es Devlin (Girls and Boys, Machinal) features a giant revolving glass cube furnished like a modern corporate office filled with creatively used bankers boxes. The curved back wall displays a panorama of evocative projections by Luke Halls (Miss Saigon) that, in the third and final act, literally become dizzying. Costume designer Katrina Lindsay (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child) dresses the three Lehman brothers in black mid-19th-century garb that they wear throughout the evening. The transformations between roles are accomplished by gesture and voice, without benefit of costume change. The proceedings have piano accompaniment by Candida Caldicot that I found less than compelling. The story cover 164 years from the arrival of Henry Lehman in America to the collapse of the family-founded financial giant in 2008. The story-telling technique makes heavy use of third-person narration, which I find a bit distancing. The play provides a varied series of vignettes that give insight either into the family dynamic or the development of American capitalism or, sometimes, both. The difference in the mourning period accorded each brother traces the “progress” of family and firm. I find the length of the play problematic; it is either too long to hold our close attention or too short to do justice to both the personal and financial stories. I would be curious to know what was cut from the 5-hour Milan version. While I would call this production at Park Avenue Armory a “must-see” for lovers of serious theater, I have to say that I admired it more than I enjoyed it. Running time: 3 hours 25 minutes, including 2 intermissions.

American Psycho ***

This musical version of Brett Easton Ellis’s controversial 1991 novel about Patrick Bateman (the mesmerizing Benjamin Walker), an investment banker by day and serial killer by night, is a triumph of style over substance. Although I have neither read the book nor seen the movie, I gather that the musical has smoothed out a lot of the rough edges and reduced the body count substantially. Satire trumps gore most of the time. The soullessness of consumerist capitalism in the Reagan era is well-captured by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa’s book, Duncan Sheik’s music, Lynn Page’s choreography and Rupert Goold’s direction. The gadgets, brands, clubs and restaurants may have changed but the spirit of entitlement in 1989 New York is not all that different from today’s. Bateman and his coworkers are as vacuous as their pecs are buff. The women are equally unlikable. The monochromatic scenic design by Es Devlin and sophisticated projections by Finn Ross are so striking that they sometimes threaten to upstage the actors. Among them are Helene York as Bateman’s obnoxious fiancee, Jennifer Damiano as his love-struck secretary, Drew Moerlein as his rival, Morgan Weed as his mistress and Alice Ripley, basically wasted, as his mother. The whirling sets, hyperactive videos, bright lights (by Justin Townsend) and gaudy costumes (by Katrina Lindsay) eventually produced a feeling of sensory overload and a diminishing conviction that the story was worth all the effort involved. The second act loses some of the early energy. Nevertheless, as its best moments, the show’s style overcomes its flaws and makes for edgy entertainment. The audience, considerably younger than usual for Broadway, was quite enthusiastic. Running time: 2 hours, 35 minutes including intermission.