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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Jukebox Musical “& Juliet” Tailor Made for London’s Tipsy Millennials
I wanted to say something about how & Juliet may be the ‘jukebox musical to end all jukebox musicals’, but that’s incredibly mistaken considering how instantly beloved it is and how it is guaranteed to usher in a whole new wave of cringey shows using songs that make the audience repeatedly shout “I LOVE THIS SONG!” and sing along. & Juliet takes the clichéd formulation of “what if Romeo & Juliet ended differentlyyyuhhh” (that’s my best Lola Skumpy voice) and tells what would have happened if Juliet took her two besties (that she doesn’t seem to know anything about) and the HOTTEST turn-of-the-century (that’s this current century, dear) chart toppers on a little spree and just belted her face off in the closest thing to a huge arena pop concert that a musical has ever been.
& Juliet is hundo p a musical for millennials – and unlike when baby boomers say millennials and actually mean Gen Z (they hate YOOTS), I actually mean millennials because the audience has to be READY to relive the HEYDAY of boy bands and Britney Spears. This musical feeds on the slightly tipsy 30-year-old remembering what it was like when you’d be at a middle school dance and Britney’s “Overprotected” would come on and you’d be like YASSSSS and don’t even get me STARTED on “I Want it That Way” and “It’s Gonna Be Me”, two pillars of the boy band takeover courtesy of Backstreet Boys and NSYNC that of course are PIVOTAL to this show’s story.
The surprising part is, it’s a lot more fun that it ought to be. & Juliet, with a book by David West Read and music by every pop sensation you’d expect in a show like this (but mostly Britney Spears; it could really be called the Britney Spears musical because it’s like half her catalogue), forces the biggest pop hits of the late ‘90s/early 2000s (for the most part) to tell the story of Juliet if she was like I’m not killing myself just because this boy I’ve known for 4 days did it first; I’ma flee to France and dance and party and start fresh/get immediately engaged to another boy I barely know. Everything about this show is simultaneously fun and beyond cringe-worthy, a mixture that meant my eyes didn’t know what to do between all the rolling and the widening and the smiling. The framing device has Anne Hathaway, Shakespeare’s wife (and yes, of COURSE there are cringey jokes about how that’s her real name and she’s not the only one HAR HAR, guys this is England everyone knows that’s his wife’s name), confront her husband about the depressing and not exactly empowering ending to his new play. She offers to help rewrite the ending and the couple bicker…by singing “I Want it That Way” to each other. Literally, Will is like “but I want it that way” and Anne is like “tell me why?” and then all the blondes go AIN’T NOTHING BUT A HEARTACHE and I felt my stomach eat itself because a groan wasn’t enough and yet I was smiling???
So Will and Anne are like okay well let’s see what it looks like with the new material and we see Juliet (Miriam-Teak Lee) pull a Sofia from The Color Purple when she sees the dead Romeo and go ‘hellllll noooooo’ and get up and keep living her life instead of ending it at 14 (the age issue provides some hilarious material). She flees to Paris to PARTY, bringing along her gender-queer friend May (which is great for representation but having them sing “I’m Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman” may have been the most forced part uhh (although Arun Blair-Mangat was like, jfc it sounded like they were playing a recording that’s how flawless)) and of course…her friend…Anne…Anne Hathaway, who wants to be in the play?? It’s awkward storytelling but they wanted the supremely talented Cassidy Janson to sang throughout the show so what are you gonna do (although the suuuuper delaaaaayed final lines of Celine Dion’s “That’s the Way It Is” (yes that is in here too), done so she can show off even more, are way toooo over the top). Between her and Lee it is the belt-your-face-off competition of the year in there. Impressive performances abound, for sure (though I worry for Lee’s vocal health doing this show long-term), but when it’s this much belting, it’s like belted song after belted song and it’s supposed to impress you with all their belting but after all this belting you’re just like ‘yes this is still this show.’ The Act II power ballads in any of the many 11 o’clock moments don’t have as much dramatic heft because it’s just more at the same level of volume and intensity.
But what am I talking about, they don’t really care about dramatic effect and storytelling, this is ABOUT FUN. And everyone else is having a g-d ball at this show. It doesn’t matter that the side plot about Juliet’s nurse and her lover (I was like that actor kind of looks like David Bedella but there’s no way; guess what, it’s him) falls flat because they are supposed to be the comedic effect but the entire SHOW is comedic effect so that kind of thing doesn’t work. It doesn’t matter that the unnecessary marriage drama between Anne and Will is so ill-fitting for a show like this – you can’t all of a sudden have a woman cry over her crumbling marriage when the show is a ROMP of BOY BAND HITS. It doesn’t matter that everyone is miked to within an inch of their lives and it’s virtually a pop concert with a forced story that makes you groan louder than you thought humanly possible, because it’s fun. Everyone is enjoying themselves; this is one of those shows that’s beyond critique.
My favorite part was when they represented Paris by parading little landmarks across the stage, like the Eiffel Tower and then…and then the Moulin Rouge windmill, reminding me with a shudder that we haven’t seen the last of these forced pop-score storytelling shows this YEAR. I can’t wait to see if that behemoth of a show can top this one, either in terms of enjoyability or how many times I groan.
INFORMATION
& Juliet is playing at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London, probably forever. Despite being an ENORMOUS theatre, there aren’t any bad seats. I was in the back of the circle (supes cheap) and it was a great view. There’s a good ladies bathroom in the circle (like literally…inside the theatre) but the rest of the bathrooms are old and gross and small.
If you buy directly from the theatre, they charge an extra £1.50 to pick up ticket at the box office, which should be THE DEFAULT option. Such bullshirt. You can print at home for free. BULLSHIRT.
An Electric, Exuberant Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Bridge Theatre
It’s Theatre Tuesday! Today’s show is A Midsummer Night’s Dream at London’s Bridge Theatre, playing until August 31.
If there are any doubters that Shakespeare’s comedies can be just as hilarious as anything modern (and yeah I mean Mike Schur television shows too! I KNOW!), send them to the Bridge Theatre. Their (what’s appearing to be) annual immersive Billy Shakes production (after last year’s crowd-storming Julius Caesar) this summer is A Midsummer Night’s Dream, one of my two favorites (prize for whoever guesses the other one!) but one that often gets dismissed for not being as substantial as the others. Well fork off to anyone who says that, because it’s the greatest. Sure it has a few flaws, as does Nicholas Hytner’s forking hilarious production, but I defy anyone not to have a jolly good time.
A big part of the cheer and party atmosphere is the immersive nature of it. Giving its version of the groundlings standing area at Shakespeare’s Globe, the Bridge has taken out the stalls seats and replaced it with a pit (OF DESPAIR no) where audience members who are able can stand the whole time among the action and the actors. Well-directed staff usher the pit-standers around the space as needed, to avoid being in the way of actors or set pieces (lots of moving platforms coming up from the ground and bedframes hanging from the ceiling!). Standing tickets are cheaper (as they should be), yet it’s the best spot in the house for experiencing this incredibly entertaining show. (I assume it’s weird for people in the seats above to be forced to stare at tons of civilians milling about too, so you definitely want to be in the pit (I FELL IN THE PITTTTT, YOU FELL IN THE PITTTTT, WE ALL FELL IN THAT PITTTTT)). At first glance, with the cast beginning preshow by singing hymns in the drabbest costumes and all looking like farm witches (“um, they were MENNONITES?”), you can’t begin to predict how uproarious shit’s gonna get.
The main draw of this production, besides the immersive nature and the crowd of civilians in the pit, is Gwendoline Christie, from TV’s (yay TV!) Game of Thrones, which you people can STILL NOT SPOIL, OKAY? She plays Titania, Queen of the Fairies, and Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons. The doubling up (Oliver Chris (excellent) plays Oberon, King of the Fairies, and Theseus, the Duke of Athens) of these smaller roles added a great deal of mystery and mysticism to these characters, who have not-huge roles otherwise. They clearly wanted the big name draw to have more to do (does Hippolyta have more than two lines? Discuss) while also clearly wanting her to play the queen of the Amazons because helloooo she tall as hell. Anyway, I loved the move, but that wasn’t even the most important or my favorite move concerning these characters. If you know your Billy Shakes, you know that Titania has a changeling boy (so weird guys) that Oberon wants, so they’re in a fight, and Oberon sends Puck, the best little fairy elf and mischief-maker in all of fairyville, to cast a spell on Titania so she falls in love with the first thing she sees – which happens to be the ridiculous goofball Athenian ‘actor’ named Bottom, whom Puck has transformed into a donkey. IT’S ALL VERY GOOD. Well, instead of having men trick a woman into a love affair with an animal and having us think that’s all fun and games and fine, they switched it up so Oberon has the changeling and Titania orders the spell on him, and HE falls in love with Bottom and IT’S THE FUNNIEST THING EVER. It’s a good change, it’s a gooood chaaaange. It’s so much better to have two men tricked and avoid the power imbalance and ickiness that would come with a male-female relationship. Oliver Chris as Oberon and Hammed Animashaun as Bottom are given the best scenes and most hysterical direction, and they are worth the admission price alone. I’m still laughing thinking about them, how the other fairies react to them, and the modern music choices used to augment their scenes. Usually I’m like “ugh can we just cut the acting troupe and all the Bottom crap and get back to the four lovers” but Hammed convinced me that Bottom is probably the best, and definitely the funniest, role in the play. Perfection.
I might have been biased before anyway, because AMND was the first Shakes I ever read and then performed, and I was Helena, so I’ve always been partial to the scenes (and the incredible verse!) with Helena, Hermia, Lysander, and Demetrius, and all their magicked and regular troubles. This production made me realize I still remember ALL her forking lines and most of everyone else’s too, which is like a fun party trick but I need room in there for other stuff. The foursome was wonderful, but for the first time they didn’t feel like the main characters to me. It definitely felt more of an ensemble piece, with everyone getting a chance to shine (but really Oberon and Bottom stealing the forking show (and that one ensemble member who did a forking human flag)). And Puck (David Moorst), the glue that often holds the show together, was goddamn fabulous. God I remembered all his lines too WTF I can’t remember what I was supposed to do at work but ENDLESS IAMBIC PENTAMETER sticks.
Apparently there’s a production of AMND happening concurrently at the actual Globe just down the road from the Bridge, but I’ve heard honestly terrible things! I’d be sad, but when there’s a production this fun and funny and wonderful happening, you can’t be too sad. The final scene, with the acting troupe’s performance, goes on for way too long (and if you read this blog, you know I’m the expert at things that go on too long, like this!), but each and everyone one of those actors does such a great job that I imagine Hytner just didn’t want to stop anyone from shining. It’s too bad to end such a fabulous experience thinking that it should have ended 15 minutes ago, but overall it’s a gem.
INFORMATION
The production is running at the Bridge Theatre (just on the south bank side of Tower Bridge (which is the one you probably think is London Bridge but isn’t)) until August 31. If you can’t make it, NT Live will broadcast it in theatres on October 17, throwing a bit of a wrench into their whole ‘live’ conceit. If you go and you’re in the pit (WE ALL WERE IN THE PITTTT), you must check all coats and bags (for free) so they don’t get in the way. Fun fact, they let pitgoers have drinks (of course they do this is London), so they let me keep my reusable water bottle with me, which is bigger than most people’s pocketbooks. Flouting that system y’all! The crowd in the pit wasn’t great – lottttts of talking with their friends, at full volume, I guess because they thought since they were standing that no one could hear them??!! I don’t know how idiots think – but the best part is that you can just WALK AWAY FROM THEM!
STAGE DOOR
The stage door for the Bridge is around the corner (turn right and right again when you exit the theatre), past The Ivy restaurant and down the block on the right till you see the red STAGE DOOR lighted sign. Fun fact, it’s next to the restaurant we learned last week not to patronage so you can do what I did and stare at everyone inside while you wait and shout “SHAAAAAME! SHAAAAAME! SHAAAAAME!” like from the show you probably watch if you’re a fan of Gwendoline.
For a weekend night, the stage door was quite tame (especially considering the one we tried the following night (more on that bullshirt on the next THEATRE THURSDAY)), less than a dozen people. Because most people are there for Gwendoline to talk about GoT, the rest of the cast bounced like FAST, without looking at the crowd. That was a shame because I was there for everyone and they didn’t even know it! But Gwendoline came out after only a short while, maybe 15 minutes tops, and signed programmes and took pictures with whoever wanted. Most people mentioned GoT and she seemed to expect that, so when I told her how well I thought the swaps worked for Oberon and Titania she seemed genuinely pleased. ONE POINT FOR ME.
