"A mesmerising epic, perfectly played."
★★★★★
Reviewed on February 9, 2023
This mesmerising chronicle of an American dynasty sweeps past like one of those gigantic freight trains that roll across the Midwestern landscape. It’s long, very long, with incident piled upon incident over the course of more than three hours, and when the last scene fades, you are left slightly dazed.
What powers this extraordinary epic? Stefano Massini’s script, combining vivid documentary detail with intimate family drama, generates rare poetic momentum as it traces the rise and fall of Lehman Brothers from its humble pre-Civil War origins to the financial crash of 2008. But it’s the intricate alchemy of the three actors that makes Sam Mendes’s production—first seen at the National in 2018—so intense. The latest trio to take up the challenge in the UK season, Michael Balogun, Hadley Fraser and Nigel Lindsay, conjure up multitudes, from hardbitten traders to coquettish maidens. The comic scene where Fraser portrays a succession of would-be wives auditioning for Lindsay’s ultra-perfectionist Philip Lehman has Chaplinesque poise.
The performances are note-perfect. As we watch the founders Henry, Emanuel and Mayer build up their business in 1840s Alabama, making much of their money from cotton, we see Jewish immigrants adjusting to the manners of the New World before they set off to conquer the commanding heights of Wall Street.
The intrigues and deals are played out in Es Devlin’s handsome glass box, which, pitched on a revolve, becomes almost a character in its own right. Luke Halls’s video designs create a stunning backdrop of ever-changing vistas. The Gillian Lynne Theatre may not be the West End’s most alluring venue, but it’s the ideal setting for a drama set amid the concrete and glass canyons of New York. The pianist Yshani Perinpanayagam provides genteel accompaniment from an upright piano at the front of the stalls.
Scenes hurtle past as Balogun, Fraser and Lindsay, still wearing their sombre frock coats, mimic the quirks and tics of one generation after another. It’s a little like seeing Thomas Mann’s Buddenbrooks, the story of another sober family business that loses its way, transformed into a graphic novel.
The Wall Street Crash of 1929 becomes a near-death experience for the firm. In the 1960s, Fraser’s Bobbie Lehman, his eyes hidden behind hipster shades, is the last family survivor, surfing the Zeitgeist as he dances the twist. It’s only in the final segment, where the Lehman juggernaut hurtles towards its doom, that the script begins to feel rushed, the final disaster portrayed almost as an afterthought. The actors, though, never lose their balance.
Playing for a 5-week Australian season from 21 February to 24 March 2024, tickets are available to purchase directly from Theatre Royal Sydney here with group booking discounts available.
The Sydney run will star Howard Overshown as Emanuel Lehman, Aaron Krohn as Mayer Lehman, and Adrian Schiller as Henry Lehman.
