Hailed by The New York Times as "a genuinely epic production," The Lehman Trilogy comes to Broadway after acclaimed, sold-out runs at London's National Theatre, the Park Avenue Armory, and in London’s West End. The story of a family and a company that changed the world, The Lehman Trilogy unfolds in three parts over a single evening. Academy Award and Tony Award winner Sam Mendes directs Simon Russell Beale, Adam Godley and Adrian Lester as the Lehman brothers, their sons, and grandsons. On a cold September morning in 1844, a young man from Bavaria stands on a New York dockside dreaming of a new life in the new world. He is joined by his two brothers, and an American epic begins. 163 years later, the firm they establish – Lehman Brothers – spectacularly collapses into bankruptcy, triggering the largest financial crisis in history. Book now to witness this "remarkable exercise in storytelling" (The Washington Post) from the National Theatre and Neal Street Productions. The New York Post suggests "you dare not miss it. Do anything you can to get a ticket."
But for all its surface stylishness, 'The Lehman Brothers' is a stolid and rather monolithic slab of a show: a three hour and twenty minute talking Wikipedia page, so dense with description and narration, and devoid of drama - or even dialogue - that watching it is like watching very expensive paint dry, or maybe, to use a more apt metaphor, listening to cotton growing.
If I sound a bit lukewarm about the results, it is because I did not immediately warm to 'The Lehman Trilogy.' But Mr. Mendes's staging is gloriously imaginative, and Simon Russell Beale, Adam Godley and Adrian Lester, the three English character actors who comprise his cast, are prodigiously gifted changelings who all play men, women and children at various points in the show. Without exception, they do so with a light and witty touch that draws the sting from the words they speak, which are too often portentous and never truly poetic ('At 70 he will obtain perspective / at 80 fall into decrepitude / and at 90 years old a man is as good as dead/and can no longer participate in the affairs of the world'). By the end of the second act, whose curtain comes down on the morning of Oct. 24, 1929, I had put aside my preconceptions and was completely on board with what the creators of 'The Lehman Trilogy' were trying to do.
2018 | West End |
Original West End Production West End |
2019 | Off-Broadway |
Park Avenue Armory North American Premiere Off-Broadway |
2021 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
2023 | West End |
West End |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2022 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Awards | Simon Russell Beale |
2022 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Direction of a Play | Sam Mendes |
2022 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Production of a Play | The Lehman Trilogy |
2022 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Actor in a Play | Simon Russell Beale |
2022 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Actor in a Play | Adam Godley |
2022 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Actor in a Play | Adrian Lester |
2022 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Director of a Play | Sam Mendes |
2022 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Lighting Design (Play or Musical) | Jon Clark |
2022 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding New Broadway Play | The Lehman Trilogy |
2022 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Scenic Design (Play or Musical) | Es Devlin |
2022 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Sound Design (Play or Musical) | Nick Powell |
2022 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Video/Projection Design (Play or Musical) | Luke Halls |
2022 | Tony Awards | Best Direction of a Play | Sam Mendes |
2022 | Tony Awards | Best Lighting Design of a Play | Jon Clark |
2022 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play | Simon Russell Beale |
2022 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play | Adam Godley |
2022 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play | Adrian Lester |
2022 | Tony Awards | Best Play | The Lehman Trilogy |
2022 | Tony Awards | Best Scenic Design of a Play | Es Devlin |
2022 | Tony Awards | Best Sound Design of a Play | Nick Powell |
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