«What an emotion Broadway» – CorriereFiorentino.it

by time news

September 29, 2021 – 08:32

On the eve of the debut of his “Lehman Trilogy” directed by Oscar Sam Mendes Stefano Massini talks about the blockbuster show and the return to Florence for the first time at the Pergola



The emotion drawn in the eyes of Sam Mendes, the Oscar-winning director of American Beauty, in the video that portrays him last Saturday on the stage of the Nederlander Theater on Broadway. “I have never spoken to the public before a show so far – he says clenching his fist as a sign of strength – Now I do it, to tell you: welcome back.” It is not an ordinary evening and that “welcome back” has the flavor of a rebirth, that of the live show. But it is not an ordinary evening especially for the Florentine writer and playwright Stefano Massini, who has been in Milan for years where he replaced Luca Ronconi at the helm of the Piccolo. Because Mendes is presenting in the first of the 5 open rehearsals his staging of the show which will debut on Friday: Lehman Trilogy by Massini, the American family-economic saga about the family that linked its name to the great planetary crisis of 2007, which became a global phenomenon. For the first time on Broadway, where besides it is not allowed to ask even the wildest imagination of a man of the theater. «This is a moment of great energy – Massini reflects – I feel like when after pulling the elastic for a long time, you suddenly let it go. This is a bit like what is happening with the desire for theater in general after the long hiatus due to the pandemic ». He has been in Florence for a long time this summer, alongside the protesting GKN workers. Making it his own, giving it a theatrical and showy appearance. And in Florence it is about to return because from 26 October it will be on stage at the Pergola for a week – for the first time – together with Paolo Jannacci and the jazz trumpeter Daniele Moretto with his new text Stories.


He has become a global figure and only now will he be on the Florentine stage. Nemo propheta in his own country …

“I always remember the day when I presented the novel about Lehman for the first time in New York, and Giorgio van Straten was there to direct the Italian cultural institute there, who was also Florentine. In the evening in the pub he said to me: “Do you see how it works? We are both Florentines but to present this book we are in New York. How many times have you happened to do it in Florence? ”. I simply replied: it never happened. ‘

Will you be on Broadway on Friday for the big event?

“I won’t be able to be there due to television engagements. Maybe I can go there in November. But of course I’ll be there at the Los Angeles premiere at the beginning of the year: Lehman Trilogy it will remain on stage until January, then it will go to San Francisco and immediately afterwards for a month in Los Angeles ».

Massini to conquer the world

“Getting to Broadway is a difficult emotion to explain. When the show premiered in London in the summer of 2018 I was a bit worried because in my head there was only Ronconi’s staging, and I wondered: what will the British do with it? Instead, a completely different show came out: that of Ronconi was visionary, that of Mendes much more linked to the cinematic imaginary, a blockbuster, with a scene where it rains heavily on stage, but it really rains, liters and liters of water for eight minutes non-stop, a hurricane in the theater. It is a truly beautiful production, it is no coincidence that the director is an Oscar winner ».

How do you get to Broadway from the Italian province? Net of talent, of course.

«It all stems from the success that the show had at the National Theater in London and then in 2019 at the West End of Piccadilly. Hence the nomination in the final three of the Laurence Olivier awards. In New York they staged it for three weeks at the Park Avenue Armory in front of Central Park, to see if it worked. Because you don’t go to Broadway so suddenly, but gradually. It was wonderful: I have been carrying some of the most beautiful sensations of all time with me from those weeks, whether Barbra Streisand came to see him or that a large Wall Street broker after seeing him gave an interview to a New York newspaper saying “if you want to understand something about economics, go and see this show ”».

And now he enters the most important theater temple in the world as a protagonist.

“Thanks to that success they bought it on Broadway and set it up in a dazzling new form with a star like Adrian Lester in the cast. But it will not be my only text to debut there: also 7 minutes which is also at the Comedie Française in Paris, and Woman not re-educableAnd. My idyll with the USA is experiencing its best moment ».

Only one last dream remains: to bring “Lehman Trilogy” to the cinema. Sam Mendes did a little thought to us …

“We’ve come close in a few moments. But bringing 160 years of American history and American Judaism to the big screen isn’t something you do in two ballets. It is very complicated from the point of view of finding resources. In fact, everything has stopped for a year and a half ».

Speaking of things that were still, something has finally moved in Florence …

“If you think that I’m making my debut at La Pergola for the first time now, I, who are Florentine and have never even presented a book in Florence, let alone have a show in season … And that all this happens right in the twentieth anniversary of my collaboration with the Piccolo of Milan, with a show labeled “Piccolo”, well … ».

“Let’s say it’s a closing circle.”

“It is a tale not of a story but of several stories, which talks about why stories are told. We ask ourselves the question: what makes one story different from another? Why does one work and another doesn’t? It debuted at the Piccolo the first day after the lockdown and I took Covid on the evening of the last rerun. Almost a sign. And now the carousel starts spinning again. It fills me with happiness that the only square where I have been able to bring this text, besides Milan, is my Florence ».

Is it time to mend relations with your city? Maybe he had to become world famous to be re-welcomed …

«I’m a bit ‘claustrophobic’, I would never have been able to stay closed in my city for long, I had to go out, travel. It is no coincidence that I received my first important awards in France. For this I believe there is nothing to mend, even if it is true that they realized that I was a Florentine only when I went to Milan. Maybe I was experienced as too bulky? But that’s okay, I also put mine into it, I lost sight of it. But today the relationship with La Pergola is excellent, thanks to Stefano Accorsi, a friend from before he became artistic director of the Pergola. Like Tommaso Sacchi. And with the director Marco Giorgetti over the years a strong convergence has been born on many issues ».

© Time.News

29 September 2021 | 08:32

© Time.News

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