The Lehman Trilogy: A Masterclass
Broadway Transfer, National Theatre/Gillian Lynne Theatre | Seen February 22, 2023
The Lehman Trilogy, written by Stefano Massini and adapted by Ben Power, tells a three part story based on the true events of Lehman Brothers, once the United States’ fourth largest investment banking company, from their humble beginning in the 1840s to their devastating end in 2008. Only three actors span the 163 years; in Part 1, they primarily play the three original Lehman Brothers, Henry, Emanuel, and Mayer, Bavarian immigrants who build themselves a fortune by buying and selling cotton in Montgomery, Alabama. In Part 2, we follow along as the next generation begins to take over, with Emanuel’s son, Philip, at the helm, and witness the continued growth and success of the company as they move to New York City and begin investing in the railway system. Finally, in Part 3, the next generation sees Bobby Lehman, Philip’s son, turn Lehman Brothers into a full fledged investment bank, leading up to the 2008 crash. As the story progresses, you find yourself thinking: “Surely, they can’t climb any higher!” and yet, they do. It’s an epic, three and a half hour, grilling look at the American dream, capitalism, and what it means to get to “the top.”
This is very much not the type of story I usually connect with; of the nineteen main cast and creatives on the show, only eight are women, and this does read in the show’s very masculine nature. Maybe it was the cologne of the guy sitting next to me, but it felt like the most male dominated theatre space I’d been in in a long time, which isn’t necessarily a problem, but certainly not my usual aesthetic. I’m also really not all that interested in finance, so it's a bit more of a stretch for me to really care about an investment banking firm, especially one that demonstrated highly questionable morals throughout their climb to the top. But perhaps the purpose of a piece of theatre like this one is to locate the humanity in these kinds of stories, which The Lehman Trilogy certainly does. For one, I did feel truly connected to the primary characters in each Lehman generation; it’s not even that I found myself wishing they’d succeed again and again, but more so, I found myself terrified of what would happen if they didn’t. There are also moments of this play that made me experience an extended grimace as my own participation in capitalism was called out; in Part 3, a young businessman comes to the Lehman office to pitch to the board a new business concept called “Marketing,” and delivers a long monologue about the power of this new concept to convince people they need to buy like they need to breathe. I looked down at the drink I had spent five pounds on during the first interval and felt momentarily horrified with myself. This is all to say the content isn’t my usual cup of tea, but there were moments that hit very close to home for me, and I can see why many people have strong reactions to the story.
What did really excite me were the theatrical conventions of the piece; this production is a masterclass in acting, design, and especially in directing. It is a beast of a play that Sam Mendes has absolutely conquered. I was seated in a ten pound concession seat that restricted me to a side view that looked basically straight across the stage from house right to left, but I was still enraptured by the staging. Usually in (good) text based theatre, I am hanging onto every word; in this case, I was hanging on to every movement. Every shift in the image was masterfully calculated to keep the tension high, keep the pace up, and keep the illusion of three actors playing something like fifteen characters alive. And with the rotating glass box set and massive projector wall, it is a visual marvel. It is absolutely no wonder that this production took home Tony Awards in Direction, Lighting and Scenic Design; it is expertly crafted and perfectly suited to the story it is telling. Another highlight of the production is the live music played by pianist Yshani Perinpanayagam throughout the entire piece, which was originally composed by sound designer Nick Powell. The constant presence of the music, only ever interrupted by other sound effects, is instrumental in keeping the story and tension alive and pushing. And of course, I must credit three epic performances from Nigel Lindsay (Henry Lehman), Michael Balogun (Emanuel Lehman), and Hadley Fraser (Mayer Lehman); all three of these performers both shine on their own and do a remarkable job of supporting each other through this monolith of a play.
It’s an interesting play and a killer production. There’s something ironic about the fact that the high-budget production values are, to me, the best parts of it, but maybe that’s what makes it a true American epic.