The day I saw the Maltz Jupiter Theatre’s extraordinary production of The Lehman Trilogy, the stock market plummeted nearly 750 points.
The rags-to-riches-to-bankruptcy history of three ambitious Jewish immigrant brothers looked like it was threatening to repeat itself. Still, as we fasten our seatbelts in preparation for what might be another sustained economic crisis, we might as well look back over this epic play’s 164 year-span to see what lessons the Lehmans can impart to us.
“Epic” is a much-overused term, though it seems well-earned by this towering three-and-a-half-hour, three-act drama, already acclaimed on Broadway and in London’s West End, as well as playing in two dozen other nations. While it clearly has universal appeal, it is a uniquely American story, and yet it was written by Italian actor-turned-playwright Stefano Massini and adapted by Ben Power, a staff director of Great Britain’s National Theatre.
The Maltz’s production of the work is enormously entertaining and brimming with theatricality, though its running time and its word count make it tailored for those willing to embrace a serious stage experience. And since the Maltz produces mainly musicals and lightweight plays, it is understandable that many audience members could be observed slinking away at the two intermissions. Oh, well, it is their loss.
Under Peter Flynn’s imaginative direction, three stellar performers — David Studwell, Noah Keyishian and Jeremy Rishe — put on a marathon display of versatility, becoming not only the titular siblings but dozens of supporting characters of varying ages, genders and dispositions. As the text requires, they often stand outside the action narrating events, then effortlessly jump back into the scene. At one point, Studwell plays a metaphorical tightrope walker — who never loses his balance until the stock market crash of 1929. But you could say that all three actors deftly walk a tightrope throughout the evening and remain surefooted at all times.
The play begins, as many immigrant sagas do, with the solitary, impoverished arrival from Bavaria to our shores in 1844 of young Heyum Lehmann (Studwell) — recently renamed Henry Lehman by a harbor official with no patience for Yiddish monikers. For some unexplained reason, Henry then makes his way to Alabama, where he opens a dry goods store. Soon he is joined by his younger brothers, Emanuel (Keyishian) and Mayer (Rishe), who assist in the business, while trying to coax Henry into resettling in New York, the center of commerce in their adopted country. And over time, they morph from merchants of cotton and textiles to brokers of money — Lehman Brothers, investment bankers.
The firm’s growth and setbacks are charted against the nation’s milestones — The Civil War, the stock market’s Black Thursday crash, the post-World War II boom and, inevitably, the housing bust of 2008 and the demise of Lehman Brothers. To the credit of the writing and of the cast, it is not these events that linger in our memory but the effects on the three generations of the family. Nor does Massini entangle us in the details of subprime mortgages or other fiduciary minutiae, preferring instead to keep his focus on the personal history of this clan, as this very human tale cycles through time.
Bearded Studwell sets the evening’s tone as eldest brother Henry, with as solid though short-lived a portrait of a patriarch who sets the family fortune in motion. Soon, without the aid of costumes or wigs, he returns as Ruth Lehman, the wife of Henry’s grandson Bobbie, arguably the only female character who gives sufficient pushback to her male counterpart. Diminutive Rishe is first seen as Mayer Lehman, the self-described “potato” of the family, but most memorably plays loose cannon Bobbie, the art-collecting, horse-loving heir to corporate control, who pulls the company — kicking and screaming — into the 21st century. And Keyishian excels as middle brother Emanuel Lehman, understated yet destined to have the longest reign on the firm’s reins. Collectively, the three actors inhabit some 70 roles, a textbook display of compact ensemble.
The physical production is up to the Maltz’s high standards, led by Shawn Duan’s video projections that transport us from the antebellum South to a Wall Street of imposing, if off-kilter market buildings. The projections form the backdrop to the scenic design by Milagros Ponce De Leon, dominated by a trio of stage-high columns, also at a precarious tilt, perhaps foreshadowing the Lehmans’ downfall. Expert, too, are Alex Brock’s ambient sound, an original cinematic music score by Ian Weinberger and often ominous lighting by Alberto Segarra.
Simply put, The Lehman Trilogy is the most compelling new play of the century so far, a work of major proportions and big ideas, though it does so with a cast of only three. And the Maltz production sets a new high-water mark for the company. It just might be enough to take our minds off the latest bad news from Wall Street.
THE LEHMAN TRILOGY, Maltz Jupiter Theatre, 1001 E. Indiantown Road, Jupiter. Through Sunday, March 2. $74-$99. Call 561-575-2223 or visit jupitertheatre.org.