'The Lehman Trilogy' review — this epic, impeccably delivered family drama is a boundary-smashing tour-de-force

Read our review of The Lehman Trilogy, starring John Heffernan, Aaron Krohn and Howard W. Overshown, now in performances at the Gillian Lynne Theatre to 5 January 2025.

It is a story of a family’s journey from rags to riches, and then to ruin. But today, The Lehman Trilogy has earned a great history of its own. After initially gracing the National Theatre in 2018, it comes back to the West End for the third time, boasting five Tony awards, a successful run on Broadway, and fans from all around the globe. Cynics might doubt the hype, but, six years since its London premiere, this theatrical epic is as much of a boundary-smashing tour-de-force as ever.

The three Lehman brothers arrive in America as immigrants and become cotton sellers in Alabama. As the generations pass, their business grows to become one of the biggest banks in the US, before collapsing as part of the financial crash in 2008. The fall of the bank would have enough drama to sustain a play of its own but The Lehman Trilogy’s original writer Stefano Massini was more concerned by the brothers’ ascent to power than their demise.

Massini’s writing has been cut by adaptor Ben Power from a whopping nine hours down to over three, and Sam Mendes’s dizzyingly tight production, for the most part, keeps us enthralled. The years fly by and the scars of yesterday are washed away with each new era and replaced with new hurt. Religious traditions that the brothers once held dear are lost as their family becomes more cemented in America.

The cast of three, John Heffernan, Aaron Krohn and Howard W. Overshown, are the play’s nucleus. They embody the three brothers – Henry, Emanuel and Mayer – expertly, and then morph dramatically into every other character in the tale. They shape-shift into children, wives, rabbis and office workers, together building the world of the Lehmans before our eyes.

Despite the drama, the production has a simplicity to it and flows like a lullaby. Accompanied throughout by Cat Beveridge on piano, it sometimes has the feel of a silent film. Staged on Es Devlin’s marvellous glass box set that houses a boardroom cluttered with packing boxes and office chairs and turns slowly on its axis, it is a wonder to behold.

Coupled with cinematic video projections by Luke Hall that change from 18th-century fields to rolling numbers on a trade board, it transports us through 164 years of American history.

The scope of the play is a feat in itself. But it is not perfect. The female characters disappear into the background and are acted as fleeting caricatures. In fact, this is basically a story entirely about men – which, even in the world of banking back then, seems farcical.

But the unique skill of The Lehman Trilogy is that it shows the repetitive rhythms and cyclical nature of life. Impeccably delivered, this astonishing family saga is perfectly pitched for the stage.

The Lehman Trilogy is at the Gillian Lynne Theatre to 5 January 2025. Book The Lehman Trilogy tickets on London Theatre.

Photo credit: The Lehman Trilogy (Photos by Mark Douet)