SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, April 1, 2024 (Gephardt Daily) — “The Lehman Trilogy” offers a drama with an unusual theme and format, in a new theater, and presented by three actors of rare talent.
And that’s a whole lot to take in at once. Maybe a little too much.
“The Lehman Trilogy,” in its Utah premiere by Pioneer Theatre Company, tells the story of three Bavarian brothers who immigrated to Alabama in the mid 1800s, and rented a store they used for a succession of enterprises that helped them build a vast, New York-based financial empire. It went bankrupt in 2008.
Think of “The Lehman Trilogy” as a love/horror story starring capitalism and 164 years of history for a family of businessmen that lost its way.
The three-act play, by Italian novelist and playwright Stefano Massi, is written in very precise language and lasts just over 3 hours, with two intermissions. The dozen or more characters are played by Seth Andrew Bridges (Mayer Lehman), William Connell (Emanuel Lehman) and Jeff Talbott (Henry Lehman). The actors, from New York City and with Pioneer Theatre Company credits, are absolutely amazing in their ability to keep the sometimes heavy dialogue feeling light, and to transition seamlessly and completely between diverse characters with a subtle change in stance, movement or accent.
(Although they did have less luck playing their girlfriends and wives in a believable and nuanced manner, preferring to go for light comedy.)
Also a good fit for this multi-Tony-winning play is the newly open Meldrum Theatre, in the Einar Nielsen Fieldhouse. The look of the space is clean, spare and modern, with 387 seats wrapping around the front and sides of the stage decorated, for this show, in vintage style. There is rumbling from the nearby TRAX set up.
Actors’ movement also were staged well, allowing audience members to feel engaged from the perspective their seats provided.
“The Lehman Trilogy” shows the brothers beginning their businesses with flashes of brilliance and deftly determining what market or service would be the next big thing.
But, over more than 150 years, a lot can change. The brothers lost their link to the old country and to their faith. Later generations brought different life priorities and work ethics, the foundation of inherited riches, and a curiosity about new technologies.
“The Lehman Brothers,” which does seem overly long at various times, keeps introducing more characters without the vision of their recent ancestors. The waters get muddy, but even audience members who never studied business can see the obvious decline.
It’s not a light, easy, or short play, but it’s a masterful production directed by PTC artistic director Karen Azenberg, and it captures the slow-motion death of capitalism, at least for one family business turned empire, and at least for a while.
“The Lehman Trilogy” runs through April 13 at the Meldrum Theatre at the Einar Nielsen Fieldhouse. Tickets are available at PioneerTheatre.org or by calling PTC’s Box Office at 801-581-6961.
