**** Highly Recommended TimeLine Theatre is well known for selecting thoughtful, intelligent and well-researched plays about real people, real history. The Lehman Trilogy fits that criteria to a T. There are just three actors in this gripping story – but they are incredible as they play the three Lehman brothers – and every other character in the story. I was kind of dreading sitting through a three-hour show, but once they started, I never noticed! Really exceptional show! 4 BIG Spotlights
The Lehman Trilogy begins with the three Lehman brothers, Henry (Mitchell Fain), Emanuel (Anish Jethmalani) and Mayer (Joey Slotnick). Henry was first to leave Germany for America in 1844, settling in Montgomery, Alabama where he opened a store selling fabric and suits. Emanuel followed a couple years later, joining his brother in the shop. Finally, the youngest brother, Mayer, arrived to join his brothers. After his arrival, the yellow painted sign above the door read Lehman Brothers Fabric & Suits.
L to R: Joey Slotnick, Mitchell Fain and Anish Jethmalani
After a massive fire destroyed most of the cotton farmers’ crops and equipment, Henry recognized that they were going to need supplies, so the sign was repainted to read Lehman Brothers Fabric, Suits & Farm Supplies. On a buying trip, Henry heard that a factory owner was looking for cotton. When he got home, he convinced his brothers that they should buy the cotton from the planters and sell it to the factories at a healthy profit and soon the sigh was changed again.
After Henry died, Emanuel took over selling trips to New York while Mayer stayed in Alabama buying more and more cotton. When Emanuel fell in love with a young woman in New York, he moved to the city. Falling in love himself, Mayer stayed in Alabama. With a branch of Lehman Brothers in the North and another in the South, the brothers were able to ride out the Civil War. After war, Mayer convinced the governor of Alabama to invest the state’s funds in Lehman Brothers. Soon after, Mayer moved to New York and the brothers moved from brokerage to banking.
Eventually, the company was passed on to Emanuel’s son Philip and eventually to Philip’s son Robert who got the company through the 1929 Stock Market crash and the Depression. Robert was the last Lehman to run the company, retiring in 1969.
By the way, I thought Collette Pollard’s cluttered set, with the half-down Lehman sign covered by stacks of furniture, legal boxes and moving crates was ingenious, as was using a table as an entrance ramp! I never would have guessed how many ways those boxes could be used.
Other than a quick mention, it doesn’t deal with the corporate bankruptcy which dominated the news in 2008. As we were driving home, my friend Crista and I discussed this at length. Although she liked the play, she thought they should have had more focus on the company’s collapse. I think it’s all about perspective! She was a business writer so she wanted to know why it happened. I was a features writer so I thought the focus on family was exactly where it needed to be.
The Lehman Trilogy was written by Stefano Massini and adapted for the stage by Ben Power. The Chicago production was co-directed by TimeLine’s Associate Director Nick Bowling and Vanessa Stalling. Be sure and check out the Lehman family timeline and photographs posted in the Broadway Playhouse lobby as well as the printed timeline included with your program.
The Lehman Trilogy runs through November 26th at the Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place, 175 E. Chestnut St., Chicago. Discounted parking is available in the Water Tower Place garage with validation (available at box office or from ushers). Running time is 3 hours, 20 minutes, including two 15-minute intermissions. Performances are:
- Tuesdays at 7:30 pm (no performance on November 7th)
- Wednesdays at 7:30 pm (with 2:00 pm matinees October 11th, 25th, November 8th, 15th & 22nd)
- Thursdays at 7:30 pm (no performance November 23rd)
- Fridays at 7:30 pm (with 2:00 pm matinee November 24th)
- Saturdays at 2:00 & 8:00 pm
- Sundays at 2:00 & 7:30 pm (no 7:30 pm performance on October 15th, 29th, November 19th & 26th
Tickets range from $35.00 - $110.00. FYI www.BroadwayInChicago.com or www.timelinetheatre.com