My New Favorite Restaurant in Baltimore: L'Eau de Vie Organic Vegan Brasserieby Randi / June 12, 2019It’s Theatre Thursday! Today’s show is The Lehman Trilogy, currently playing in London’s West End at the Piccadilly Theatre until August 31.
When you walk away from a 3+ hour play thinking, “why didn’t they accomplish anything with that amount of time?”, you know something’s wrong. With The Lehman Trilogy, ostensibly about the Lehman Brothers global financial services firm but mostly about the family dynamics of the previous generations, you learn zero about what this company did in the modern age. You learn tons, tons about the three founding brothers and their marriages and their interactions with their kids (fictionalized of course) and how the kids acted in school and who their kids married and why…but literally nothing about why this behemoth financial company failed in the 2008 market crash. And so this shockingly well-received play feels like an early draft that needs work. If you wanted to write a family drama, why frame it as being about the Lehman Brothers? Why not just write a family drama instead of suggesting it’ll have to do with the financial world at all? They could have easily swapped this family for any other family’s story and had the same effect.
Perhaps that was the goal of Italian writer Stefano Massini: to show the inner workings of the Lehman family’s personal lives and struggles instead of sharing any substance about their infamous company. But then I ask with even more urgency, why?! What do we care why billionaires had to divorce their wives, or why one billionaire spent a lot of time betting on horses? Were we supposed to relate to their troubles, because I don’t. Why choose the Lehmans if not to talk about the last incarnation of the company and its 2008 collapse? The huge financial crash we all lived through felt like the elephant in the room for Acts II and III, like ‘um, guys, why aren’t we talking about that, or seeing what’s going to cause it?’ It’s such a strange choice, to focus the play on what the various Lehman generations were personally like yet to skip over everything relevant to our lives.
I discuss play length frequently, because it’s so interesting to see what different people can do with different amounts of time. Despite what you’d assume from the writing on this site, in my regular life I cherish efficiency. With more than 3 hours, you assume a play can make its point, yet here it was so much wasted time. We had endless jokes about the youngest brother being a potato; we had too much time wasted on one of the descendant’s annoying wife; we had a long, slow list of names of bankers (unrelated to the characters) who committed suicide; we had literally 10 minutes of Adam Godley doing the twist through the 20th century, instead of telling us what the company was doing to bring about its downfall. This play feels like the second draft, a work in progress that needs a dramaturge to help find its purpose.
Clearly the play wanted to be about the family, especially the three founding brothers – and the part that was about them, the first act, was the most compelling part. In the beginning, they managed to successfully portray the brothers’ dynamics while also showing what the actual company was like at the start, what kinds of financial decisions they made and why. So it can be done. (And as we’ve seen in superior plays like Enron, you can have interesting characters (who actually interact and don’t just narrate to the audience, a wearying trend) while simultaneously teaching about the financial industry, the company’s role in it, and how it all went to shit. Enron even had dinosaurs help us learn.)
But then the following two acts feel like a battle between the playwright’s objective – wanting to stick with the family biography – and everyone else’s expectation that the action was ‘supposed to’ get to the later incarnations of the company as a financial giant and, of course, the 2008 crash. I kept thinking ‘surely now they will get to the relevant part? Surely…now?’ By the time it did, it was too late to do anything worthwhile, and so they simply didn’t. They didn’t really mention what the work was even like in modern times. In fact, the last 5 minutes of the show felt like a mad dash of the entire creative team to the finish line, like everyone was shouting “OH SHIT WE ONLY HAVE A FEW MINUTES LEFT AND WE’RE IN 1980 QUICK LET’S SAY DECADES ARE PASSING AND THEN OH NO IT’S 2008 WE CRASH THE END.” I’m pretty sure that’s the ending verbatim. It felt that sudden, that unplanned. The surprise of a dozen otherwise unused actors standing in a boardroom sadly at the end felt equally misguided.
I have to believe that other critics are raving about this play entirely because of the acting. With the stellar trio of Simon Russell Beale, Ben Miles, and Adam Godley, the acting is absolutely top-notch. Sam Mendes inventively directs them not just as the three founding Lehmans, but as their wives, their kids, their grandkids, as they seemingly effortlessly weave in and out of various personas with the bat of an eye, a slight change in voice. Their acting skills were as impressive as it gets, but they deserve a play that delivers too.
INFORMATION
The Lehman Trilogy runs just under 3 hours and 20 minutes, with two 20-minute intervals (which is the best way to do long shows). As is the despicable trend among London theatres these days, they held the curtain for latecomers to arrive. MY DUDES. Stop holding the g-d curtain for latecomers. If they’re late, let them wait till the late seating time. If there is no late seating, then actually respect your own policy and don’t forking let the latecomers dictate the schedule for everyone else. It’s so rampant now, this issue, that we all may as well take our sweet ass time getting to the theatre 5-10 minutes late because it doesn’t matter anymore, there are no rules, they will hold it for you. APPARENTLY. SMDH.
It was also one of the smokiest rooms I’ve ever been in, and I was seated in the stalls. This is because the main lobby’s entrance doors were open and there’s a bar next door and no staff gives a good g-d that people were smoking literally in the doorways, to such an extent that the smoke traveled through all the stairs and hallways and into the stalls at full strength. That is inexcusable. Aren’t there RULES?!
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National Theatre’s Romeo & Juliet a Big Success Despite it Still Being So GD Stupid
This past Easter Sunday, the National Theatre and Sky Arts teamed up to present a truly relevant theatrical film for the holiday: Romeo & Juliet. Not super relevant you say? Tell me to my face that Juliet and Jesus didn’t have the same journey. Seemed like they died for a few days but then they woke up??? CHECK. Too much faith in other people to not be stupid? FORKING CHECK.
The event was a made-for-TV film version of the Shakespeare play, so really covering all bases of entertainment. There was also a scene that was very reminiscent of the nightclubs in East London, my absolutely nightmare but, you know, something for everyone. This take felt new and energetic and modern, at once both a movie and a stage show. Some changes worked well, although no clever decisions in any version have yet to justify the absolute inanity of how f-ing stupid the whole plan was. Goddammit Friar, you’re as simple as these overly dramatic teenagers. (I wasn’t going to mention how Juliet is 13 as written but I simply must. What a gross play.) Can’t believe we’ve had 400 years of this moronic plan. People like to shit on Shakespeare in Love but that’s honestly the only thing that redeems this play even a little. (I’m talking classic representations here, not stuff like West Side Story which is undeniably a genius improvement. (And the musical & Juliet doesn’t count because it rightly says a big ‘hell no’ to the play after like 3 pages.))
As the two ill-fated idiots, Josh O’Connor and Jessie Buckley put their screen experience (him The Crown, her movies and stuff) to good use, though I was surprised that his Romeo was far stronger than her Juliet, since I usually really like her while I have never watched The Crown out of support for Meghan and Harry (just kidding it seems boring). R&J puts you in such a predicament, because you don’t want to cast very young people because THAT’S GROSS, but the plot only really makes sense if they are very young/stupid people. I mean, they meet at a party and get married like within 24 hours? Who do they think they are, Dharma and Greg? And then instead of telling anyone so she doesn’t have to marry Paris (didn’t husbands immediately have ownership over their wives back then? like what could her parents have done at this point?), instead she and the Friar concoct the ferkakte plan of faking her death and having Romeo rescue her from a mausoleum in secret. WOOF.
So yes while the actual play always makes me throw up my hands and shout incomprehensibles, this version made some welcome creative decisions that I appreciated. I liked that it was clearly a stage-version despite being a film, although I thought the rehearsal-room footage was too inconsistent and took me outside the story. I wanted a whole lot more of Fisayo Akinade’s Mercutio, who is equally captivating onscreen as he is onstage (we stan a short king!). I loved that they made his relationship with Benvolio a romantic one, but his screentime was definitely a victim of the hatchet job of cutting this play down to 1 1/2 hours. Ben Affleck would have been PISSED.
The pacing was interesting, as it moved so fast, which I mostly liked, but with that you miss out on the ability to foster depth, character development, and emotional connection. It could have benefited from another 20 minutes or so to make any of the characters, connections, or actions more truly felt. (This may be the first time I’ve said something could have been longer and not shorter.) I saw SO MANY REVIEWERS saying how ‘pacey’ this show was. Ugh. You mean like Joshua Jackson? You mean fast-paced. There’s a word for that and it’s fast-paced, or quick. When Romeo & Juliet clocks in at like 90 minutes, you can just say that. Petition to ban “pacey” and “stagey” please. (While we’re at it: add noms to the list if it’s about anything other than nominations. And if everyone could move on from the adverb du month of ‘deeply’, we will all be for the better.))
No matter the various weaknesses, which did exist despite…everyone else’s commentary, this version stood out for one strong reason: Tamsin Grieg. (Okay, two strong reasons: Tamsin plus her early scenes architectural sweater, doing more character work than NYC in “Sex and the City”.) My favorite move of this production was switching Lord and Lady Capulet’s roles, so that Lady was the one with all the juicy parts and Lord was the one who showed up for like a second and grunted and left. Tamsin’s Lady Capulet with all the power of the og Lord was FIRE. My god. There is a reason she is such a celebrated actress and it is all on display here. Whereas Lord Capulet is sometimes argued to be a good father, doing what he needs to for his family in this era, Tamsin’s version is harsher. She is a cruel old broad in an amazing sweater and I am HERE FOR IT. Nothing in this production was more convincing than her authoritative take on what she needed to do for her daughter and her family and even though she was mean I almost wanted everyone to listen to her. I can’t wait to see her Lear.
Romeo & Juliet aired on Sunday on Sky Arts. It will re-air Thursday, April 8 at 10pm, and then Friday, April 23 at 9pm on PBS (that’s for you AMERICANOS).
Ain’t Misbehavin’ at the Southwark Playhouse: This Joint is Really Jumpin’
It’s Theatre Thursday! Today’s show is the new production of Ain’t Misbehavin’ playing at London’s Southwark Playhouse until June 1.
The sheer exuberance resounding at the Southwark Playhouse these days is enough to bring anyone a little bit of joy (and almost enough to erase the memories of the last time we were there). With the new production of Ain’t Misbehavin’, the musical revue of Fats Waller songs, there’s so much sensory overload from the loudly impressive vocals, the energetic dancing, and the glittering (and very cool) set that there’s barely a moment suitable for reflection. When those rare moments arise, and you reflect “wait a minute…there’s absolutely zero story here…this is just a revue isn’t it” (if you didn’t know beforehand, as I did not), you’re just about to go “hmm” but then another lively song sung by a bubbly performer swings under way and you forget to go “hmm” because it’s all so fun.
Fats Waller was one of the biggest names in jazz music in the early 20th century, responsible for some of the most recognizable standards from that era. In less than 40 years, he wrote hundreds upon hundreds of songs, 400 of which he copyrighted (I hope he got a frequent user discount from the Copyright Office). His many memorable hits include the title song “Ain’t Misbehavin’”, as well as my title’s song “This Joint is Jumpin’” (god all these triple quotes ahhh), both of which provide high points in this show that’s operating almost nonstop at full throttle. An enthusiastic audience did its part to keep the whole experience as close to max enjoyment as possible, despite the shortcomings of the show itself.
And despite enjoying the heck out of this (literally) sparkling show and its high-spirited talented cast, there are some shortcomings. Mainly that it’s just a straightforward revue of Fats Waller’s songs. This guy was a key player in one of the most important musical scenes in history. His Harlem style piano is responsible for modern jazz piano, and he achieved international success when that was still really hard to do, and at such a young age too. (Fats died super young of pneumonia while on a cross-country train, which, like, not to make everything about me but that doesn’t exactly make me feel better about all the long train journeys I take. Poor Fats.) Yet you don’t learn anything about him from this show. Sure, you get general hints from the actual music, but no facts. I get that the creators were trying to let the music speak for itself, but while each song conveys a certain sentiment, it doesn’t share actual information, when it so easily could have. At one point late in the second act, one of the cast members introduced a song saying a quick word about what happened when Fats brought his music to Harlem. Why weren’t more songs framed with a historical anecdote or fact from Waller’s life? It was so simple and so effective. It’s a shame (and super random) it happened just once.
Now, this is an old(ish) established show, so it’s unfair to call out these issues with the bones when discussing Southwark’s production in particular. With what they had, however, the Southwark is doing a fantastic job just blowing the roof off the place. The cast never stops working, and they’re working hard as hell. The five cast members all belt their lungs out and dance their asses off, and they try their damnedest to play characters where there are none. (And there are none – they even call each other by their real names.) A standout for me was Carly Mercedes Dyer, who in the first act mainly shows off her incredible dancing while playing a lot of silly characters who goofily appear to not sing too well. And then in an early second act solo she pretty much goes “oh surprise, bitches, I’m the most talented person here” and belts her forking face off.
Aside from the book issues (the lack thereof), there were only a few slow moments, like a few clunkers to begin Act II and the just unwinnable song “Jitterbug Waltz”, with the constantly cascading melody that sounds super flat no matter who is singing it. But the slow moments are few and far between when you are barely given a second to breathe before the frenetic cast picks back up with an insane dance and a thrilling group number, or with a movingly belted solo (so much belting), or with another beloved classic like “’T Ain’t Nobody’s Bizness If I Do” (last okay use of that first word) and, my favorite, “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter” (from You’ve Got Mail, obvs). And the humor! Even without a book this cast filled the show with hilarious moments. It’s almost (/very) embarrassing how hard I was laughing during the RIDICULOUS song “Your Feet’s Too Big”. This song, this amazing, incredible song that I somehow never knew but now adore, has a man literally going “Your feet’s too big/don’t want ya cause your feet’s too big/mad at you cause your feet’s too big/I hate you cause your feet’s too big”. I mean book or no book, nothing gets better than that. And book or no book, there’s too much to enjoy about this wildly entertaining show.
INFORMATION
The show is in two acts of 45 minutes each, with a 20 minute interval. Since there’s no story, it would have made more sense to have it as a longer one-act, but the cast probably needs that break. Don’t sit in the front few rows if you have sensitivity to light, as the stronger lights bounce off the gold floor (yep there’s a shiny gold floor) and it can get a little uncomfortable.
