Interview: Steven Skybell says THE LEHMAN TRILOGY has the scope of a great Shakespeare play

The 2022 Tony Award for Best Play went to “The Lehman Trilogy,” a drama by Italian playwright Stefano Massini which transferred to Broadway from London’s National Theatre, and has been translated into 24 languages and adapted to English by Ben Power.

The current production of the play by The Huntington in Boston, however, is the first to originate in the U.S. and be directed by an American director, Carey Perloff.

A sprawling story of ambition, spanning 163 years and multiple generations in the lives and careers of the Lehman family, and culminating in the spectacular rise and cataclysmic fall of a family and a company that changed the world.

With a cast of three playing all roles, joined onstage by one musician, the story tracks the original three Lehman brothers, then their sons and grandsons, as they journey from poverty to wealth to ruin.

Actor Steven Skybell plays Henry Lehman – a role originated in the London and Broadway productions by Simon Russell Beale – a Bavarian immigrant who moves his family to Alabama in the 1840s in search of a better life. By the early 2000s, his descendants trigger unprecedented financial disaster fueled by unfettered capitalism. Skybell also plays Philip Lehman, Pete Peterson, and other characters.

Skybell – winner of the Lucille Lortel Award for Best Lead Actor for his portrayal of Tevye in the Joel Grey-directed National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene production of “Fiddler on the Roof,” presented off-Broadway in 2018 and 2022 – has appeared on Broadway in the 2015 revival of “Fiddler on the Roof,” and also “Pal Joey,” “Wicked,” “The Full Monty,” and “Love! Valour! Compassion!” Between 1989 and 1991, Skybell appeared in “Hamlet,” “King Lear,” and “Twelfth Night” with the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge.

He was in Boston during rehearsals for “The Lehman Trilogy” when he spoke by telephone about the play, his character, and more.

How would you describe “The Lehman Trilogy”?

It’s immense in length – three acts and over three hours long, and the most ambitious thing I’ve ever undertaken. It is in the scope of a great Shakespeare play. The struggle between generations always makes me think of “Richard III” and how villainy can develop over a long family history. In this production, there is a lot of stagecraft and some real surprises, too. The audience will be taken in all kinds of direction. Hopefully, they’ll feel everything possible as they watch the story unfold.

What is it like tackling a project like this?

It requires an almost monastic life offstage. In my case, that means I start each day with a run along the Charles River. And I have a steamer with me at all times to help preserve my voice.  Then, it’s all about the play. I haven’t turned the TV on once since we started rehearsals. I’m glad about that, though, because it helps not to be distracted by the news of the day.

What should we know about Henry Lehman?

Henry was a first-generation immigrant. He saw the opportunity to make money in the United States and he took it. I believe Henry’s desires were pure. He wanted to succeed and make a living to support his family. Henry is the best of the American dream. I admire him greatly, as I do my own immigrant grandfather.

Tell me about your other characters?

There are several, including Philip Lehman, son of Emanuel, and Ruth Lamar, the first wife of Philip’s son Robert Lehman, the longtime head of Lehman Brothers. Ruth was a divorcée who married Robert in 1929 just at the start of the stock market crash. While that was happening, their marriage imploded and they were divorced only a couple of years later. I’m responsible for a total of 21 different voices so I’ve been with our great dialect coach, Lee Nishri-Howitt, to get them all right.

Speaking of other characters, in other shows, you played Tevye off-Broadway in the Yiddish “Fiddler on the Roof,” and Lazar Wolf in the most recent Broadway revival. What does “Fiddler on the Roof” mean to you?

I’ve always loved “Fiddler on the Roof.” I remember being a young Jewish child growing up in Lubbock, Texas, when the local movie theater celebrated the opening of the film version. I was just 11 years old when I did my first “Fiddler,” and then at 17, and again at 21, I played Tevye. And I got to play Lazar Wolf, opposite Danny Burstein as Tevye, on Broadway.

I’ve been singing Yiddish folk songs in concert for a long time, but playing Tevye in the Yiddish production was one of the hardest things I have ever done – a three-hour musical in Yiddish. I haven’t ever stopped thinking about Tevye for 40 years. He is that deep within me, so it was amazing to get to play him again. The book and the music are incredible in Yiddish and in English. I will always be open to “Fiddler.”

Photo caption: Steven Skybell, Firdous Bamji, and Joshua David Robinson star in “The Lehman Trilogy”at the Huntington Theatre, through July 16, 2023. Photo credit: Nile Scott Studio.

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