Lehman Trilogy
Written by Stefano Massine
Adapted by Ben Power
Directed by Sam Mendes
Nederlander Theatre
January 1, 2022
Production website
💉💉💉💉💉 out of 5.

This was simply perfect!  It was a true story; an important story and told with the utmost economy of language, movement, and scenic support.  The story of the Lehman’s is a story of American industry and wealth.  The story starts with the great immigration from Europe, takes us through cotton and the anti-bellum South.  It leads us through Civil War and its aftermath.  Soon after, they create the middleman -the man who has nothing – but makes the connection between the creator and the buyer. It moves us from the fields to the city – New York City – – as the stock market is invented and creates new wealth and the sees the birth of the railroad, television, and even computers – finally addressing the ultimate wealth maker: the ability to convince people to spend money they don’t have on things that they do not need.  Perfect wealth!  The Lehman brothers also dealt poignantly with the stock market crash of the 29 and the market reset in the 1980’s.  All this while telling the story of three very Orthodox Jews who work to maintain their beliefs in a world that constantly challenges faith.

Flying Over Sunset
Book by James Lapine
Music by Tom Kitt
Lyrics by Michael Korie
Direction by James Lapine
Lincoln Center Theatre at the Vivian Beaumont
December 31, 2021
Production website
💉💉 out of 5.

It was a perfect New Year’s Eve.  I was lucky and scored tickets in the first row right to the side of the stage next to the step down into the audience.  The seat was comfortable, plenty of leg room and NO chatty neighbors!  Heaven!  The musical, Flying Over Sunset was quite an adventure.  The brief program note bears repeating, 

In the 1950’s the drug LSD was legal, but generally it was only experimented with by a small number of people either under the radar or in a clinical setting.  Flying Over Sunset is a work of fiction inspired by the extraordinary lives of Aldous Huxley, Claire Boothe Luce, Cary Grant, and Gerald Heard, all of whom experimented with the drug.  We know that the famed author and philosopher Aldous Huxley’s first experience with LSD began when he stopped at a new Rexall drug store in Los Angeles on what was to be a quick errand.  He was with his wife Maria and an old friend Gerald Heard.  WE know that playwright Congresswoman and Ambassador Clare Boothe Luce first experienced the drug in the garden of her Ridgefield, Connecticut, estate with Gerald Heard serving as her guide.  We know that at his wife’s urging, the movie star Cary Grant went to her psychiatrist’s office to find out more about this miraculous drug she dept urging him to try.  Flying Over Sunset connects the dots.