Eliana Willis

There was a time when American readers kept pace with new plays, even if they didn’t live in New York or couldn’t afford tickets. Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman,” published by Viking Press, was a Book-of-the-Month Club selection; Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” made good money in hardcover and paperback for Atheneum.When theaters went dark in March, good plays were left dangling early in their runs. Some will never re-emerge, at least not as audiences knew them. One was the Italian writer Stefano Massini’s “The Lehman Trilogy,” a broad-backed epic about the rise and fall of Lehman Brothers.Massini began writing “The Lehman Trilogy” in 2008, shortly after the firm precipitously crumbled, like a cigar ash, amid the collapse of the subprime mortgage market. When I initially saw photographs of the New York production, showing dark-suited men gesturing in a gleaming office cube, I assumed the play was a boiler-room account of that collapse.That’s not it at all. Massini’s play pans across 160 years of the firm’s history, beginning when Hayum (soon to be known as Henry) Lehman moved from Bavaria to Alabama and entered the cotton business. The play’s Italian version ran five hours. Sam Mendes, who directed the London and New York productions, whittled it down to three and a half.Massini’s original text, a novel in verse, has now been issued in English for the first time, in a translation by Richard Dixon. It’s a monster, a 700-page landslide of language with no obvious speaking parts. But it’s apparent right from the start that Massini is the real thing. His writing is smart, electric, light on its feet.At the same time, his book ominously circles the big questions: Were the original three Lehman brothers and their descendants heroes or villains? Did they inject spirit and muscle into the American experiment, or were they simply cowbirds, laying eggs in other birds’ nests? The answers are complicated.Less complicated is the criticism, articulated most exactly by Sarah Churchwell in a New York Review of Books essay, that Massini’s play glosses over the Lehmans’ participation in the slave trade in Alabama. Future productions should have to pinch and zoom in on these realities.Henry emigrates to America. Having arrived, hecan smell the stench of New Yorkall over him:a nauseating mix of fodder, smoke and every kind of mold,such that, to the nostrils at least,this New York so much dreamed aboutseems worse than his father’s cattle shed,over there in Germany, in Rimpar, Bavaria.He moves south, to Alabama, for the sunshine. Bertolt Brecht, another Bavarian, had never been to Alabama when he wrote “Alabama Song” (also known as “Moon of Alabama”) in the 1920s. One wonders what Henry expected. He arrives, as do his two brothers shortly thereafter. They are in constant motion, making sure their materials are the finest and their prices the lowest.ImageStefano MassiniThey perfect, if not invent, the all-American idea of the middleman. They become brokers, buying cotton and selling it elsewhere. Their business expands to coffee, oil and coal, and eventually to electricity, railroads, planes, comic books, Hollywood and computing. They enter banking, and the idea of what they do becomes increasingly abstract.Early on we read:First: when we were in businesspeople gave us moneyand we gave something in exchange.Now that we’re a bankpeople give us money just the samebut we give nothing in exchange.At least not for the moment. Then we’ll see.By the end of the book, the debt swapping and complicated mathematics lead a character to ask, “Have you at least asked whether a rodeo like this is entirely legal?”“The Lehman Trilogy” lives on the page because of its human moments: the wooing of spouses; the scandals and feuds; the perilous attempts to climb the class ladder.The best running set piece is one in which the Lehmans seek a better row in their Manhattan temple, competing with families like the Goldmans and the Sachses, with whom they have much in common. Massini writes:The only difference—since the truth should always be told—lies in the fact that the Goldmansdeal in that particular metalcalled goldand are so proud of itthat they flaunt it in their surname.For this, and only for this,they’re in the second rowof the Temple.The family has a lot of worms to drop, via well-buffed fingernails, into the beaks of their young. They learn to launder reputations through philanthropy. A long-anaesthetized sense of morality emerges among some of the young members of the clan.Lehman Brothers grows more predatory. Massini pauses to examine the language of finance. Where once words like “succeed” and “competitor” were used, now the terms are “impose” and “enemy.” The Lehmans wield their power through discipline, control and punishment. Upon their conquered enemies, they impose Carthaginian terms. Business isn’t business, business is war.There is a savvy and strange digression into the movies of the golden age, many of which Lehman Brothers financed. The European author contends that these movies, and actors like John Wayne, permanently dented American ideas of masculinity.“The man who kisses? Better if he spits,” Massini writes. “The man who understands? Better if he snaps.” He adds: “Years and years of good manners / swept away by a dozen movies.”Massini writes language that’s excited about itself, and that nearly always casts a spell. If at a few moments I wished I were reading a short nonfiction history of the firm instead, well, those moments were few.The Lehman brothers were good at what they did. They were also blessed with luck. They were a bit like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, in the Tom Stoppard play, who toss “heads” on a gold coin 157 times in a row.The firm throws and throws until, in Massini’s words:they achieve a resultthey then regret. More

Broadway will remain closed for at least the rest of this year, and many shows are signaling that they do not expect a return to the stage until late winter or early spring.The Broadway League said Monday that theater owners and producers will refund or exchange tickets previously purchased for shows through Jan. 3. Given the unpredictability of the coronavirus pandemic that has prompted the shuttering of Broadway, the League said it was not yet ready to specify exactly when shows will reopen.“Returning productions are currently projected to resume performances over a series of rolling dates in early 2021,” the League said in a statement. Among the logistical issues industry leaders are discussing with government and medical officials: “screening and testing, cleaning and sanitizing, wayfinding inside theaters, backstage protocols and much more.”“I’m cautiously optimistic, with the latest information that we’re getting from scientists and medical professionals, that we’re getting close to some protocols that would work in New York and on the road,” Charlotte St. Martin, the League’s president, said in an interview. “As long as they hold up, I do think that after the first of the year, a rolling rollout of shows reopening is possible.”St. Martin said that the rising levels of coronavirus cases in some parts of the country reinforced the industry’s cautious approach. “Frustration goes by the wayside when you’re talking about risking people’s life or health,” she said.Broadway shows went dark on March 12, and already this has been the longest shutdown in history. At the time, there were 31 shows running, including eight still in previews; another eight were in rehearsals before beginning previews.Thus far three shows, the Disney musical “Frozen,” which had opened in 2018, a new Martin McDonagh play called “Hangmen,” and a revival of Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” both of which were in previews, have announced that they will not resume performances when Broadway reopens.Several producers have indicated that they are looking several months into the new year for a resumption of Broadway shows. The earliest date chosen thus far is for “The Minutes,” a new play by Tracy Letts, which hopes to open March 15. A revival of “American Buffalo,” a play by David Mamet, is aiming for April 14; “MJ the Musical,” a new show about Michael Jackson, says it will open April 15, and “The Music Man,” a revival starring Hugh Jackman, plans to open May 20.Several other shows have said they plan to open next spring, but have not announced exactly when, including a revival of Neil Simon’s “Plaza Suite” starring Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker, as well as Lincoln Center Theater’s new musical, “Flying Over Sunset,” and Roundabout Theater Company’s revivals of the musicals “1776” and “Caroline, or Change.”Roundabout last week also announced that it would stage “Birthday Candles,” a new play by Noah Haidle that had been scheduled to open this spring, in the fall of 2021, and that in the winter of 2021-22 it would stage the first Broadway production of “Trouble in Mind,” a 1955 play by Alice Childress. The Childress play, which is to be directed by Charles Randolph-Wright, is about racism in theater, and is the first by a black writer added to the Broadway calendar since an intensified national discussion about racial injustice was prompted by the killing of George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis. More

The Broadway League, a trade association that is the closest thing to a governing body presiding over America’s biggest stages, has decided to undertake a sweeping audit of diversity in the industry in response to the unrest over racial injustice that is sweeping the nation.The League, whose members include Broadway theater owners and producers, as well as presenters of touring shows around the country, will hire a company to survey all aspects of the industry — onstage, backstage and in the many offices that power the productions, according to Charlotte St. Martin, the League president and chief executive.She said the League could not mandate participation by other companies and organizations but that its leadership would strongly encourage all affected entities, including labor unions and nonprofits that operate on Broadway, to cooperate with the researchers.“I think we have done a good job onstage, and we’ve done a good job with the Tony Awards, but in a lot of our backstage areas we haven’t done as good a job, and if people are frustrated, they have the right to be,” St. Martin said. “We have to change, and we will change.”The audit is one of several measures the League’s board has decided to take in response to the uproar over racism that has roiled the country since George Floyd was killed in police custody last month in Minneapolis. Many theater artists have taken to social media to detail instances in which they felt mistreated because of race, and several have formed new organizations to press for change.St. Martin said the League had also decided to change its bylaws to make it easier for industry leaders of color to join its board. In addition, she said, the League will hire an executive to oversee its equity, diversity and inclusion efforts; undertake an assessment of its 19 existing diversity initiatives; make unconscious bias and anti-racism training mandatory for its staff and leadership; and offer the training to its members.The League currently has a board of about 50, two of whom are black. Both of them welcomed the changes.“I’m very proud that there are actions being taken, and it isn’t just talk,” said Colleen Jennings-Roggensack, the longtime executive director of Arizona State University Gammage, a large performing arts center whose programming includes touring Broadway shows.“It’s been a long time coming,” she added. “As wonderful as the field is, I often am the only one in the room.”Stephen Byrd, a Broadway producer who also serves on the League board, described similar experiences. “When I walk into a general manager’s office, I don’t see anyone like me; when I walk into an audition, I don’t see anyone at the table that looks like me,” he said. “We do need new voices.”The League is a relatively small trade association — it had 37 employees before the pandemic, and now has 20 — but it is influential because it is the body through which theater owners and producers negotiate labor contracts, interact with government officials and, together with the American Theater Wing, oversee the Tony Awards.Its existing diversity programs are focused in two areas — work force development, aimed at encouraging and assisting people of color interested in careers in the industry, and audience development, aimed at persuading people of color to become more frequent theater patrons.But St. Martin said the current discussion about injustice has persuaded the League’s leadership that it needs to do more.“There’s no question that what we all just experienced has educated us all,” she said. “We have accepted the responsibility to insure that we change the industry through our members.”Drew Shade, the founder and creative director of Broadway Black, a digital platform highlighting black theater artists working in the industry, welcomed the move, but with a note of caution.“It sounds like a really great beginning — a first step,” he said. “But the Broadway League has all the power, and it will be interesting to hear how they plan to distribute control and power within the industry. Maybe there’s a conversation to be had about what else they can do.” More

Times Insider explains who we are and what we do, and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together.The email arrived on my second day as the theater reporter here at The New York Times. It was March 10, 2015, and a publicist from the Public Theater, an Off Broadway nonprofit, was welcoming me to the beat. “I think one of the best ways to get to know the Public right now is to come see HAMILTON,” she wrote. (For reasons I have yet to understand, theater publicists generally put show titles in all caps.)I went to a matinee five days later, and in the five years since, I’ve written more than 100 articles that prominently mention the show. It goes without saying that “Hamilton,” which explores America’s revolutionary origins through the life of Alexander Hamilton, has dominated my tenure — I’ve never known the theater beat without it, and until the coronavirus pandemic prompted an unimaginably long shutdown of Broadway, I thought it would be the biggest theater story I’d ever cover.Now “Hamilton,” which transferred from the Public to Broadway in July 2015, won every conceivable award, and became a much-loved and much-quoted juggernaut, is back in the news, because a live-capture filming of the original cast is streaming on Disney Plus starting July 3. (Yes, I wrote about that too.)So what’s it been like to spend five years on the Hamilbeat?I sensed right from the start that this musical, with its cast made up mostly of actors of color and its score influenced by hip-hop and pop music, was going to be a huge story. I remember being determined, that summer, to land an article about the production on the front page, convinced that the paper needed to make a big early statement about the show as a game-changing reflection on our culture, our politics and our history. Ultimately, the Page 1 gods agreed. I was traveling in Spain when it happened; I felt so affirmed that I didn’t mind the time-zone-busting copy desk questions.A feature that followed about Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical upbringing was particularly fun to report — as we explored the Venn diagram in which show tunes and hip-hop overlap, he started playing random songs from his iTunes library and riffing about what each one meant to him. (He insisted I keep one track off the record: It was a Polynesian song, part of his secret research for “Moana.”)But for me, the moment that really illustrated Miranda’s passion for the musical songbook came on the afternoon I joined him to watch “Hamilton” from a hidden bandstand at the Public (his alternate played the lead role while Miranda looked for weaknesses he could address before the Broadway transfer). He asked why I was wearing a tie — he was in a hoodie — and when I explained that after “Hamilton” I was going to the opening of “Fun Home,” he burst, from memory, into a passage from “Ring of Keys,” the show’s yearning anthem, beautiful but at that point little-known.I’ve seen the show about eight times, and over the years I’ve taken deep dives into its finances and have written about its prices and its profits and its people. There’s been a persistent, although rarely discussed, tension over how much coverage is too much — the theater desk periodically experiences “Hamilton” fatigue, and producers of other shows occasionally criticize what they see as an overemphasis on the show. But readers seem to love “Hamilton” stories, and that means assigning editors — and not just those in the culture section — do too.The story I waited longest for was about Miranda’s relationship to Puerto Rico, where his parents grew up and where he spent his childhood summers. The island’s influence on his art had always struck me as significant and underexplored. I knew the best way to tell that story would be to see Puerto Rico through his eyes, at least as much as a journalist can, and when he announced that he was bringing “Hamilton” to San Juan, I had my peg. I asked to meet him there, and in fall 2018 he agreed; a devastating hurricane and campus unrest made the story more complex than either he or I could have anticipated, and I’m glad we did it.There were stories that got away. The one I most mourn was about the relationship between toddlers and “Hamilton” — I was intrigued by why the show’s lyrics and melodies are such a memorization magnet for small children — but I never could sell my editors on that one, and now I think the moment has passed.And maybe it’s just as well that I never got to this idea: I wanted to do a story about the German translators tasked with adapting the show’s word-drunk and oh-so-American libretto for its first foreign-language production. But the subject of lyric translation is arcane, the Hamburg production is delayed, and now I think we’ll have to wait to hear “young, scrappy and hungry” auf Deutsch. More