The National Theatre and Neal Street productions’ multi-award winning drama The Lehman Trilogy is set to return to the West End this year, once again playing the Gillian Lynne Theatre in London.
Winner of five Tony awards on Broadway, The Lehman Trilogy will play the Gillian Lynne Theatre from 24 September 2024 to 4 January 2025 for a strictly limited 14 week season.
Written by Stefano Massini and adapted by Ben Power, the production is directed by multi Olivier, Tony, Oscar and Golden Globe winner Sam Mendes (Skyfall, The Ferryman, The Hills of California).
The play is told in three parts on a single evening, with three actors playing the Lehman brothers, their sons and grandsons, in an extraordinary feat of story-telling.
The new season will star John Heffernan (Nachtland, Edward II, A Gentleman in Moscow), Aaron Krohn (The Lehman Trilogy – Broadway, Spamalot, Fosse/Verdon), and Howard W. Overshown (Richard III, A Soldier’s Play, The Marvelous Mrs Maisel), who are currently starring in the show in San Francisco.
Also reprising their performances are Cat Beveridge as principal pianist and Anyssa Neumann as alternate pianist. Further casting is to be announced.
The play’s last run at the Gillian Lynne Theatre starred Michael Balogun, Hadley Fraser and Nigel Lindsay and scored some great reviews from the critics.
The creative team for the show also includes set designer, Es Devlin; costume designer, Katrina Lindsay; video designer, Luke Halls; lighting designer Jon Clark; composer and sound designer, Nick Powell; co-sound designer, Dominic Bilkey; music director, Candida Caldicot; movement director, Polly Bennett; West End Director, Rory McGregor. Company voice work is by Charmian Hoare, casting by Naomi Downham, associate lighting designer, Charlotte Burton and associate video designer Zakk Hein.
The Lehman Trilogy was the most awarded play in the 2022 season on Broadway, winning Best Play, Best Director, Best Set Design, Best Lighting Design and Best Actor. It was also awarded the Drama League Award for Best Play and six Outer Critics Circle Awards, including Best Play.
The world premiere of Stefano Massini’s play opened at the Piccolo Teatro in Milan in 2015. This English language version adapted by Ben Power was first commissioned by Neal Street Productions and developed and co-produced with the National Theatre at their Lyttelton Theatre in 2018, before an acclaimed, sold-out run at the Park Avenue Armory in the Spring of 2019.
The Lehman Trilogy returned to London for a 16-week run at the Piccadilly Theatre in the West End from May to August 2019. Following Broadway’s 18-month shutdown, The Lehman Trilogy was the first British play to return to Broadway — where it had previously played four performances in March 2020 — for a much-lauded limited engagement at the Nederlander Theatre from September 2021 to January 2022. A Los Angeles transfer to Center Theatre Group’s Ahmanson Theatre followed from March to April 2022. The show last played the Gillian Lynne Theatre in London from January to May 2023, and has recently been playing in San Francisco.
Rufus Norris, Director of the National Theatre, said in a statement: “The Lehman Trilogy is storytelling at its best. Its success lies in its simplicity – three actors, one pianist and one set combining to tell an epic family drama in the most intimate way. This extraordinary production has now been seen by over half a million people worldwide and it continues to resonate with audiences whether that be in London, New York, Sydney or San Francisco. We are delighted to be bringing it back to the West End after its previous sold-out runs.”
Sam Mendes, director of The Lehman Trilogy and co-founder of Neal Street Productions said: “I heard about Stefano Massini’s The Lehman Trilogy in 2015 . A year later, together with Ben Power and Es Devlin, a company of twelve actors at the National Theatre Studio read aloud a literal translation of what was in fact an epic poem. After a year of shaping it into a form we felt might chime for English speaking audiences who had lived through the aftermath of the 2008 financial meltdown, it had morphed into a three-hander which premiered at the National Theatre in 2018. Now, seven years later, the production has been enjoyed on three continents, and on Broadway and is returning to the West End for the third time. This feels like a tribute to everyone who believed in it and collaborated in its making.”
The Lehman Trilogy will run at the Gillian Lynne Theatre from 24 September 2024 to 4 January 2025.
Other National Theatre shows now playing in the West End include hit musical Standing at the Sky’s Edge, also at the Gillian Lynne Theatre, and playing to 3 August; and James Graham play Boys From the Blackstuff at the Garrick Theatre, also playing until 3 August 2024.
Book tickets to The Lehman Trilogy at the Gillian Lynne Theatre in London.
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