Beethoven Comes to Washington

Imagine – that we could watch as Beethoven composed the Diabelli Variations, one of the most intricate and expansive works ever written for piano. Now imagine a modern musicologist on the trail of the story behind that composition. Throw in a love affair, a fatal illness, and an on-stage pianist supplying the soundtrack to the story – and you have 33 Variations, a new play written and directed by Moisés Kaufman, best known for directing the Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning play I Am My Own Wife on Broadway and helping to bring The Laramie Project to the stage.

33 Variations opened last night at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. in its world premiere performance. The elements are assembled with love, but for a show that appears so original in its premise, parts of the play seem over-familiar. We’ve watched the prickly mother-daughter scenes before, and the slow decline that comes with disease - this time it’s Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, often called Lou Gehrig's Disease - that becomes a focus of sentimental drama.

There’s also something paint-by-numbers in the portrayal of Beethoven’s worsening deafness… and yet… the play picks up steam as it heads to its final curtain and an ultimate, unexpected moment of hope and clarity.

Where the play succeeds, it’s because of Kaufman’s steady and empathetic work with his ensemble. There are standout performances by Mary Beth Peil as Katherine Brandt, the ailing musicologist; Greg Keller, as a young suitor to Katherine’s daughter, Clara; and Susan Kellermann, who turns a small role as a German archivist into an exemplary portrayal of friendship and honesty.

And it seems an unaccustomed treat in the theater to enjoy the work of concert pianist Diane Walsh, who plays many of the actual Diabelli variations to illustrate either the emotional truths of the production, or to assist in moving along the timeline.

(Hear performances from Diane Walsh here).

The play starts almost immediately on parallel tracks. Katherine, visiting the doctor with her daughter for a checkup and an update on her medical condition, pleads for the time to finish her latest research and for medical permission to travel to Bonn to access the Beethoven archives. She seeks to understand why Beethoven became so obsessed by a simple waltz that he needed to create 33 variations – ranging from whimsical to majestic – of Diabelli's simple theme.

Meanwhile, time flows back to 1819, and we meet Ludwig himself, grappling with this commission which will take him four arduous years to finish.

This is, therefore, a tale of obsession, creativity, and running out of time. What gives the tale some hope is the love affair between Clara (the daughter) and Greg, who is also Katherine’s nurse. Their fumbling attempts to find intimacy leaven the more intense stories of decline – the composer’s and the musicologist’s – that inevitably lead to each character’s end.

This seems like a show that could be tightened and find its way to success in New York or London. Watch for it.