Aaron Krohn and Howard W. Overshown on the return of ‘The Lehman Trilogy’ in London | London Theatre

As The Lehman Trilogy returns to the West End, stars Aaron Krohn and Howard W. Overshown discuss its award-winning combination of family, faith, and finance.

In 2008, the world was stunned by the downfall of Wall Street investment bank Lehman Brothers, a firm previously thought “too big to fail”. That precipitated the global financial crisis, and it’s also where Stefano Massini’s play The Lehman Trilogy, beautifully adapted by Ben Power, begins: at the end.

The action then spools back to 1844 as a young Jewish man, Henry Lehman, arrives in New York from Bavaria to make his fortune. He’s soon joined by his two brothers, Emanuel and Mayer, and together they establish their eponymous company. This epic tale spans 150 years and several generations of the Lehman clan, all played (along with numerous other characters) by just three very skilful actors, accompanied by a live pianist.

The show made its English debut at the National Theatre in 2018, directed by Sam Mendes. It has since played in the West End and on Broadway (where it won five Tony Awards), and now it’s back in London by popular demand, with John Heffernan, Aaron Krohn and Howard W. Overshown starring in this second Gillian Lynne Theatre run.

All three have a history with Lehman: they are reprising their performances from a recent international tour to Sydney and San Francisco, and American actors Krohn and Overshown had previously understudied those same roles, as they explained when they spoke to me; both, appropriately, were in the play’s setting of New York at the time. Heffernan came on board for the last part of their tour.

“I saw the original cast when the show transferred to the Park Avenue Armory Theatre here [in 2019] and it had a huge impact on me,” recalls Overshown. “I then became Adrian Lester’s understudy when the show went to LA.” Krohn knew Mendes from a previous project, and caught the show while visiting London. “You can’t be prepared for it,” he enthuses. “I was overwhelmed. When it came to New York, I wrote to Sam asking if I could understudy.”
What resonated so deeply with them? For Krohn, it’s the detailed portrait of a family and how that evolves over the years. “They begin to lose their human connection and their spiritual connection.” Plus there’s the exciting challenge of taking on dozens of characters each, from bankers and rabbis to wives, children, even babies.

“It’s a lot of fun to work on a piece where you get to use all your tools,” says Overshown. “You’re never bored! It’s also fun watching my co-stars come up with different details of their characters, like John has brought his own ideas so everything has changed slightly, and that gives you something new to play.

Both also speak warmly about how The Lehman Trilogy brings us back to that fundamental joy of being told a story. “We all hopefully grow up having someone read us a bedtime story,” says Overshown. “My mom would read me The Monster at the End of This Book and do all the voices. Likewise we’re giving a flavour of each character to tell our story – like Aaron transforms into [Emanuel’s wife] Pauline Sondheim with just a flip of the collar.”

“For me what’s incredible is it’s three actors and a piano player, who is an essential fourth member of the cast,” adds Krohn. “In a way we could just do it in a room. But then you add the highest level of elegance in all the technical aspects: in Sam’s artistic staging, Es Devlin’s astonishing set, the costumes, the lighting, the music, the video. So you have the best of both worlds: the simplicity of the storytelling with this magnificent framing.”

Handling those technical demands, which include Devlin’s rotating glass box of a set, does mean that teamwork is essential – not just between the performers, but with the production team as well. “It’s like choreographed movement or a carefully orchestrated piece of music,” explains Overshown. “We have to pace it so that we’re in time with the piano and the set’s rotations. It’s a collaborative effort.”

Krohn is particularly impressed by a scene in which Heffernan, as second-generation Lehman Philip, dramatises an analogy about finance by moving back and forth between two card players. “John really did have to learn that as a dance: when he hits the centre, when he hits the card. It’s so attuned to the piano. He does it brilliantly.”

That’s one of many clever moments in the show where an aspect of banking or the market is explained via a colourful metaphor. Fear not: you don’t actually have to know anything about financial matters ahead of seeing the play. Krohn shares that his brother works in this industry, but it’s definitely not his world – although he was in New York on that fateful day in September 2008 when the company fell. “I remember coming up out of the subway and seeing people pouring out of Lehman Brothers.”

There is some stinging criticism of capitalism in the show, as we see the firm go from selling tangible products that people need, and can afford, to encouraging people to overspend on things they don’t actually need. Overshown relates to that personally, remembering his mother racking up huge debt when she first got a credit card, and taking years to pay it all back.

But the show is just as much about the human condition as finance. As Krohn puts it: “The brothers initially serve the community and one another, and that changes to a fixation on money and numbers, to collecting and having instead of giving and doing. The play asks: is that the root of their downfall? It’s a warning about what might happen if you take that way of living to the extreme.”

Both actors have previously worked at London’s Old Vic, but are thrilled to be making their West End debut with The Lehman Trilogy. “I’m beginning to love London more and more,” says Overshown. “The way theatre is respected here is extraordinary. I’ve seen shows in the West End and been blown away, so being part of that culture is very special.” Krohn concurs. “I couldn’t be more excited to do a play in the West End, much less maybe the best play I’ve ever worked on, which Sam calls his masterpiece.”

Overshown adds that he can’t wait to see how London audiences respond to it. “Every time we perform this, I learn something new from people watching. I think it’s because you’re part of it – you’re being talked to directly, but we’re not telling you what to think, so it’s really engaging. You get to leave everything at the door, come in and enjoy three hours of beautiful storytelling that focuses on family and tradition, with all these bells and whistles like the brilliance of Sam’s vision and a wonderful original score. It really is not to be missed.”

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Photo credit: The Lehman Trilogy. (Photos courtesy of production)