Susan Granger’s review of “33 Variations” (Eugene O’Neill Theater ’08-’09 season)
When willowy Jane Fonda strides onto the Broadway stage – after a 46-year absence – she leaves no doubt that a confident, elegant actress is back in command and more than ready for the challenge of carrying a star vehicle.
“I’m attracted to people with passionate obsessions which override things like age or illness,” 71 year-old Fonda explains. “I found this play really visionary – the interplay between the past and present, between life and death.”
In Moises Kaufman’s “33 Variations,” Fonda plays Katherine Brandt, a university musicologist who is suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a degenerative neurological condition better known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Before she dies, she’s determined to travel to Bonn, Germany, to solve one last mystery: why Ludwig van Beethoven spent his final years composing the Diabelli Variations, which consists of 33 different perspectives on a trivial pedestrian theme from “a little beer hall waltz,” written by his Viennese music publisher, Anton Diabelli.
While Beethoven (Zach Grenier) is a character in the talky, often slow-moving play, along with his beleaguered assistant Anton Schindler (Erik Steele), Anton Diabelli (Don Amendolia) and a compassionate German librarian (Susan Kellermann), the poignant, even sentimental narrative revolves around the assertive, patrician, emotionally elusive Katherine, her good-humored male nurse (Colin Hanks) and her fractured relationship with her independent, if somewhat insecure daughter (Samantha Mathis).
With its four movable screens containing musical sheets of handwritten compositions, Derek McLane’s archival set is imaginative and impressive, unobtrusively placing ‘live’ pianist Diane Walsh on stage left to accompany what amounts to an annotated music lesson, orchestrated in tune with Jeff Sugg’s visual projections.
Led by fascinating Jane Fonda, “33 Variations” is an intelligent, compelling evening of theater.