“History sucks,” says Tamara, played by Eden Espinosa in the new musical “Lempicka.” “But so am I.”
The authors of “Lempicka” (book, lyrics and concept by Carson Kreitzer, music by Matt Gould) cast the title character as a feminist, a sexual revolutionary, a pioneering entrepreneur, a tortured artist and a victim. I want it to be a variety of things, including survivors and martyrs. Trends in art and history. There's enough evidence in the real Lempicka's life to justify most of these claims to some extent, but this musical wants to absolutely prove them all over the course of two and a half hours. The result is a breathless, up-tempo march through the darkest decades in European history, a big, messy, fascinating life reduced to just a big, messy piece of theater.
The musical, which premiered at the 2018 Williamstown Theater Festival, is set in 1975 as an elderly, exasperated artist, alone on a park bench in Los Angeles, ruminates on his life and career, wondering, “How did I get here? '' is depicted in a flashback composition. ? ” Her works have been forgotten, she has become obsolete, and she is banished to a world far removed from the wit and sophistication that once surrounded her.
Suddenly the year is 1916 and she is young again and about to get married. Her mother begs her to stop painting her and live her decent and respectable life. The revolution intervened and we set off on the highway built by “Hamilton”, paying attention to the first major trauma. She was forced to offer her body to the threatening Bolsheviks after failing to offer her jewelry and win the freedom of her husband Tadeusz.
The young couple flees to the West, and their escape is depicted on a map on stage (set design by Riccardo Hernández), in which fragments of the real Lempicka's bright, sensual and slightly chilly Art Deco paintings are also displayed. Promoted by Madonna. The enchanting ensemble of dancers (choreographed by Rajah Feather Kelly) is alternately androgynous, crude, intimidating, and camp, setting the mood for a rapturous pastoral of ambition, success, and debauchery in interwar Paris. created.
Lempicka's art is primarily expressed on stage using empty easels and empty picture frames, and history is treated similarly, existing as a shadow rather than a substance. The revolution that disrupts the lives of the protagonists is cruel, but the actual grievances that caused it are glossed over. Decades of deprivation, misery and political violence are seen in black and white film clips. If you want to know more about it and how it intersected with art, check out Käthe's Kollwitz show at the Museum of Modern Art. This Käthe Kollwitz was a generation older than Lempicka, and was an artist with a far greater legacy.
In “Lempicka” history, as the saying goes, is just one dance number after another. It evokes shock and shock that strengthens the artist's identity and resilience, but rather than creating actual characters, it creates ready-made heroes for contemporary political tastes. Espinosa does the heroic job of tying the threads together, but she doesn't live there; Being a character with multiple sides, she must reconcile multiple characters that serve different theatrical purposes.
Lempicka has an affair with Raffaella (played and sung wonderfully by Amber Iman), an independent prostitute, and her work (portraits of confident women and statuesque nudes) It has been praised as liberating by LGBT addicts at Monocle nightclub. It's very similar to the Kit Kat Club from “Cabaret.”
She also wrenches vital independence from Tadeusz, played with starchy grace by Andrew Samonski, but when she tells him a terrible secret, their relationship is anything but consistent. , the scene collapses. She goes her own way and resists the harsh modernist ideology of future prophet Marinetti, portrayed by George Abdo as an obnoxious hard drinker and brutal social prophet. But it's unclear whether we should admire the artist's independence or his pragmatic, even ironic submission to elite tastes. The show seems to credit her with not only embodying her 1920s New Woman ideals, but inventing them. “Your women,” says Rafaela's ghost, “they are conquering the world.”
Director Rachel Chavkin's production is stylish, fast-paced, and provides plenty of space for authentic theatrical moments.Iman's “The Most Beautiful Bracelet” is Act 1 The night's highlight and showstopper was Beth Leavell's tender, determined yet resigned song about love and memory in the second act, as an aristocratic woman facing her own mortality.
Gould's music lacks a strong melodic character and tends to quickly transition into loud fortissimo notes that complement the singer's voice. But the text's setting is clear and effective, and the music seems to fade away when the drama, the recognition of Leavell's heartbreaking death, is the important thing.
The real Lempicka is having a good time right now. Her work has been shown in Sotheby's exhibitions and will be on display at the museum in her retrospective in San Francisco later this year. Although she's not as famous as she deserves to be, she wasn't as forgotten and alone as this musical claims. Her career dissipated after she immigrated to the United States and then to Mexico. But it had already been rediscovered in the 1960s, was the subject of a major retrospective in Paris in 1972, and has appeared in Madonna's videos and spectacles for decades.
In a review published in Women's Art Journal in the late 1980s, a rather indigestible critic argued that Lempicka's art was rejected rather than forgotten. At first, none of it was very good. ”
“Lempicka” questions both of these assumptions. Audiences may be inspired by the show to explore art itself, which offers a more measured and rational counterattack.
lempicka, at the Longacre Theater, 220 W. 48th St., New York. 150 minutes including a break. lempickamusical.com.
