"Leopoldstadt" - by Tom Stoppard - Huntington Theatre Company (Boston, MA.) - REVIEW
(Cover Photo: Mishka Yarovoy, Nael Nacer and Brenda Meaney in a scene from Tom Stoppard's "LEOPOLDSTADT," presented by Huntington Theatre Company in association with Shakespeare Theatre Company, at the Huntington Theatre in Boston, MA. through October 13, 2024. Photo Credit: Liza Voll)
By Kevin T. Baldwin
METRMAG Reviewer
# 774-242-6724
"The rational is at the mercy of the irrational. Barbarism will not be eradicated by culture.”
- ("Ernst") / Tom Stoppard
Huntington Theatre Company
Presents Tom Stoppard's
Tony Award-Winning
"LEOPOLDSTADT"
Written by Tom Stoppard
Directed by Carey Perloff
Cast Includes: Samuel Adams* as “Fritz/Percy Chamberlain,” Firdous Bamji* as “Ludwig Jakobovicz/Kurt,” Sarah Corey* as “Wilma Jakobovicz Kloster,” Anna Theoni Digiovanni* as “Hanna Jakobovicz Zenner/Hermine,” Samuel Douglas* as “Otto Floge/Civilian,” Maboud Ebrahimzadeh* as “Ernst Kloster,” Rachel Felstein* as “Eva Merz Jakobovicz/Nellie,” Rebecca Gibel* as “Hilde/Rosa,” Phyllis Kay* as “Grandma Emilia Merz/Eva,” Adrianne Krstansky* as “Poldi/Hanna,” Brenda Meaney* as “Gretl Merz,” Nael Nacer* as “Hermann Merz,” Anna Slate as “Jana/Sally,” Mishka Yarovoy* as “Jacob Merz/Leo,” Joshua Chessin-Yudin* as “Zac Fischbein/Nathan.”
Child Actors: Elijah Ditkoff, Mae Grimley, Holden King-Farbstein, Golda Munzer, Quinn Murphy, Hannah Nocon, Simonne Stern, and Elias Wettengel.
Understudies: Samuel Douglas*, Tony Estrella*, Jennie Israel*, David Keohane*, Sarah Oakes Muirhead*, Lily Narbonne*, Jacob Schmitt, Jackie Scholl.
Additional Creative Team: Scenic Design - Ken MacDonald; Costume Design - Alex Jaeger; Lighting Design - Robert Wierzel; Original Music and Sound Design - Jane Shaw; Projection Design - Yuki Izumihara; Wig and Make-up Design - Tom Watson; Dramaturgs - Charles Haugland, Drew Lichtenberg; Associate Director - Dori A. Robinson; Movement - Daniel Pelzig; Fight Direction and Intimacy Coordinator - Jesse Hinson; Dialect Coach - Lee Nishri-Howitt; Production Stage Manager - Emily F. McMullen; Stage Managers - Deirdre Benson, Ashley Pitchford, Kendyl Trott.
* Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States
** Represented by United Scenic Artists, Local USA 829 of the IATSE
THE HUNTINGTON THEATRE, 264 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA.
Produced in Association with Shakespeare Theatre Company
Performances:
September 12, 2024 through October 13, 2024
(Contact Box Office for Exact Times)
TICKETS:
Available online at huntingtontheatre.org, by phone at 617-266-0800 or in person at THE HUNTINGTON THEATRE, 264 Huntington Avenue, Boston.
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The Huntington Theatre Company kicks off its latest season with a splendid staging of "LEOPOLDSTADT" by British playwright Sir Tom Stoppard.
Working in association with the Shakespeare Theatre Company, the Huntington Theatre sets are absolutely gorgeous and there is great attention paid to costuming for the early to mid-20th Century time period.
Yet, most of this would not be nearly as impressive without the fabulous performances given by the talented Huntington cast presenting one of Stoppard’s most powerful of stories.
As is the case with most of the works from his catalog, in"LEOPOLDSTADT" Stoppard writes with a focused sense of humor, a dose of compassion and always with a keen intellect.
We truly feel as if we are on a journey with these characters who become like our own family, at least for the show’s roughly two-and-a-half hours.
Sadly, though, some of them won’t be with us all that long.
A special note in advance for those planning on attending:
Not that there will be a test after the show but there is a family tree diagram in the Huntington program and it would behoove all coming to see the show to review this before the show begins (as it can get a little confusing).
Stoppard was born in 1937 in Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic) and "LEOPOLDSTADT" is an intensely personal play for Stoppard, as all four of his Jewish grandparents were murdered in Nazi concentration camps.
Drawing from his own life experience, "LEOPOLDSTADT" is a sweeping epic saga of this one wealthy Jewish family living in Vienna, Austria at the turn of the last century.
The family deals with major political and social seismic shifts happening within their surroundings which leads them all to critically decisive moments such as:
With the threat against Jews on the rise, do they choose try to assimilate themselves into an Austrian culture or instead attempt to create a Jewish state?
Ultimately, though, they come to the realization that they are not really given a choice and must flee the pogroms in the East.
When the West End production of "LEOPOLDSTADT" premiered in 2020, it was forced to close due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, the show would still later go on to win the Olivier Award for Best New Play.
After the COVID-19 restrictions were lifted in England and the play resumed, ultimately it would run until October of 2021.
"LEOPOLDSTADT" would subsequently have its North American premiere on Broadway in 2022 where it would enjoy an extended run spanning all the way into 2023.
The play would go on to win four Tony Awards including one for Best Play.
For that same year and in the same category, it would also receive the Drama Desk Award, Drama League Award, Outer Critics Circle Award and the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award.
(Photo: Brenda Meaney and Rachel Felstein and the CAST of Tom Stoppard's "LEOPOLDSTADT," presented by Huntington Theatre Company in association with Shakespeare Theatre Company, at the Huntington Theatre in Boston, MA. through October 13, 2024. Photo Credit: Liza Voll)
Under the outstanding and insightful direction of Carey Perloff, the story of "LEOPOLDSTADT" unfolds in four separate scenes, each one looking at events impacting generations of this family, specifically those taking place during the years of 1899-1900, 1924, 1938 and 1955.
There are conversations about how horrible things "used to be" for Jews and how things could never possibly "get that bad" for them ever again.
Right, because such catastrophic times could never be repeated, now...could they?
The massive Huntington single set is the apartment drawing room of this wealthy family, illuminated by expert lighting design.
There is great attention to detail but mostly this set provides a stunning, gorgeous backdrop for a lot of the equally stunning ugliness this family will endure.
At the start, the family, made up at the time of the “Merzes” and “Jakobovizes,” gather together for Christmas (yes, Christmas).
(Photo: Holden King-Farbstein, Joshua Chessin-Yudin, Quinn Murphy and Firdous Bamji in a scene from Tom Stoppard's "LEOPOLDSTADT," presented by Huntington Theatre Company in association with Shakespeare Theatre Company, at the Huntington Theatre in Boston, MA. through October 13, 2024. Photo Credit: Liza Voll)
Hermann (Nael Nacer) is the son of Jewish Grandma Emilia (Phyllis Kay) the matriarch of the family.
Kay is both humorous and engaging as Emilia, who has an acerbic wit as she tries to get the family to stick to some Jewish traditions while also contending with a few of the non-Jewish members of the family.
There are floating conversations about Zionism and Jewish culture versus Viennese arts and popular culture.
It soon becomes clear during these exchanges that Hermann and others have gotten to know “all the right people.”
Quite a bit of name-dropping occurs with mentions of encounters with the likes of Johannes Brahms, Sigmund Freud and Gustav Mahler.
So, it would appear that they have nothing to fear, right?
As Stoppard eloquently points out, the above is just the sort of blatant arrogance initially on display and just before the world soon comes crashing down all around these people.
Hermann is married to the lovely Gretl (Brenda Meaney).
Hanna (Anna Theoni Digiovanni) asks Gretl to “chaperone” her on a date with a non-Jewish cavalry officer, Fritz (Samuel Adams).
Although the family has assimilated well into Viennese society, with respective rights and civil liberties, there is a political and social cancer growing in Austria, and as the show progresses, our history will soon become the reality of their present.
(Photo: Brenda Meaney with Samuel Adams in a scene from Tom Stoppard's "LEOPOLDSTADT," presented by Huntington Theatre Company in association with Shakespeare Theatre Company, at the Huntington Theatre in Boston, MA. through October 13, 2024. Photo Credit: Liza Voll)
There is nearly an incendiary chemistry between Meaney and Adams during their torrid scene together.
There is a clever use of a huge dining room table center stage to act as a second level for isolated moments on stage.
Soon, and unknown to Hanna, Gretl and Fritz strike up a brief affair.
Hermann discovers Gretl’s infidelity but forgives the transgression for reasons which become clear later.
As Hermann, Nacer is steadfast in his portrayal of this deceptively complex man who is not as shallow as he initially presents himself to be.
As we move into the next scene set years later, Kurt (Firdous Bamji) has married Hanna and the family has gathered for a bris ceremony.
Some of show's all-too-infrequent humor takes place during this scene.
Jacob (Mishka Yarovoy), Hermann and Gretl’s son, is a survivor of the first World War, but has lost an eye and has lost use of one arm which is in a sling.
Yarovoy gives a nuanced performance, revealing the numerous disturbed layers of battle-weary veteran Jacob who watches as the world around him tilts ever more toward brimming with nothing but hatred and intolerance.
(Photo: The CAST of Tom Stoppard's "LEOPOLDSTADT," presented by Huntington Theatre Company in association with Shakespeare Theatre Company, at the Huntington Theatre in Boston, MA. through October 13, 2024. Photo Credit: Liza Voll)
Anticipating coming events, Hermann clandestinely meets with a banker Dr. Otto Floge (Samuel Douglas), to transfer ownership his textile business (on paper) to Jacob.
Hermann discovers, though, much to his horror, that Dr. Floge actually sees hope for the future of Austria with this emerging Nazi party.
As the second act begins it is fourteen years later and we witness the family during Anschluss, the annexation of Austria into the German Reich.
The situation could not be bleaker for the family that has assembled with Percy Chamberlain (Samuel Adams), a British journalist engaged to Nellie (Rachel Felstein), to discuss plans of fleeing Austria and getting to England.
Samuel Douglas returns in a different, far more malevolent character, portraying a Nazi interrogator simply known as “Civilian” who enters the property, torments the family and seizes their belongings.
It is a brutal performance but, much to the actor’s credit, the role really could not be performed otherwise without thus reducing the visceral impact of the horror that many families were put through during this time.
(Photo: Mishka Yarovoy, Nael Nacer and Brenda Meaney in a scene from Tom Stoppard's "LEOPOLDSTADT," presented by Huntington Theatre Company in association with Shakespeare Theatre Company, at the Huntington Theatre in Boston, MA. through October 13, 2024. Photo Credit: Liza Voll)
Family revelations are learned as world events unfold and suddenly we are 17 years later in 1955 and three survivors of the Holocaust have reunited in what was once the magnificent family home, now a mere shell of what it once was.
There is Nathan (Joshua Chessin-Yudin), an Auschwitz. survivor. Leo (Mishka Yarovoy), who successfully made it to England and was raised British; and Rosa (Rebecca Gibel), who escaped to New York prior to the Holocaust.
Leo has no memory of his life in Vienna nor his life as a Jew, however Rosa and Nathan feel no sympathy for Leo, whom they disparage as they feel he has turned his back on the painful events of their relatives.
The final scene by the solid trio of actors is filled with memories of those lost and yet, thanks to Stoppard's impeccably written saga, while there is sorrow, there is also a harkening back to a more joyous time and bond once shared by this family.
There are far too many standout performances to mention, but some include Firdous Bamji as “Ludwig Jakobovicz” and “Kurt,” Sarah Corey as “Wilma,” Anna Theoni Digiovanni as “Hanna” and “Hermine,” Maboud Ebrahimzadeh as “Ernst,” Rachel Felstein as “Eva” and “Nellie” and Rebecca Gibel as “Hilde” and Rosa.”
The younger "child actors" also give commendable performances throughout while contending with difficult subject matter.
A word of caution: There are loud sound effects of gun shots and explosions, and there is also the use of projected Nazi imagery which some might find unsettling however are key to the successful storytelling. Anyone attending who is easily "triggered" by such things, though, should be made aware in advance.
While we pray that catastrophic events such as the ones reminisced about in "LEOPOLDSTADT" do not repeat, as mentioned earlier, some of the family thought such things could never happen again, too, didn't they?
Given this, "LEOPOLDSTADT" continues at the Huntington Theatre in Boston until October 13th, 2024 and it might just remind some of the old Jewish prayer that begins with "May it be Your will, Lord, that You lead us toward peace."
Up next the Huntington Theatre Company will be "SOJOURNERS" by Mfoniso Udofia beginning October 31st, 2024.
For tickets or more information, contact huntingtontheatre.org or call # 617-266-0800.
Approximately two hours, 20 minutes with one intermission.
Kevin T. Baldwin is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA)
@MetrmagReviews
@Theatre_Critics
ABOUT THE SHOW
Winner! Four Tony Awards, including Best Play! Winner! Two Laurence Olivier Awards, including Best New Play!
The latest masterpiece and most personal play from Tom Stoppard, "LEOPOLDSTADT" is a stirring and epic story of love, family, and enduring bravery.
In Vienna, the heart of European culture at the rise of the 20th century, two brothers have conflicting visions of prosperity – both for their family and the Jewish people – a tension that will echo through the generations that follow.
ABOUT THE HUNTINGTON THEATRE COMPANY
THE HUNTINGTON THEATRE COMPANY is Boston’s leading professional theatre and one of the region’s premier cultural assets since its founding in 1982. Recipient of the 2013 Regional Theatre Tony Award, THE HUNTINGTON brings together superb local and national talent and produces a mix of groundbreaking new works and classics made current to create award-winning productions. THE HUNTINGTON runs nationally renowned programs in education and new play development and serves the local theatre community through its operation of the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA. THE HUNTINGTON has long been an anchor cultural institution of Huntington Avenue, the Avenue of the Arts, and will remain so on a permanent basis with plans to convert the Huntington Avenue Theatre into a first-rate, modern venue with expanded services to audiences, artists, and the community. THE HUNTINGTON cultivates, celebrates, and champions theatre as an art form.
