Review of: 33 Variations

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If you don't know what it means when people talk about someone having 'it', the quality that sets them apart from everyone else, then I suggest you go see 33 Variations where Jane Fonda, at age71, clearly demonstrates what having 'it' means. The moment she sets foot on stage, unconsciously tosses her hair and utters her first words, it's readily apparent why she has always attracted attention. Unfortunately, the vehicle in which she returns to Broadway after a long absence doesn't have 'it'. It is a serviceable work by Moises Kaufman, best known for the docudramas Gross Indecency and The Laramie Project. Starting with an engaging premise, Mr. Kaufman loses his way indicating that when creating something basically from scratch instead of assembling what's already there proves to be more of an uphill challenge.

Diagnosed with Lou Gerhig's Disease, Dr. Katherine Brandt (Ms. Fonda) has one more quest to pursue before the disease incapacitates her - an answer for the Diabelli Variations. Anton Diabelli (Don Amendolia) was a music publisher in the early 1800's who dabbled in composing. He wrote a simple waltz and decided as a contest he would invite the composers of the day (a notable crowd) to write a variation on his work all of which would be published in a book. The one hold-out invitee, none other than Ludwig van Beethoven, finally succumbs to his own vanity, agrees to participate and then becomes obsessed with the inconsequential composition, writing one variation after another, which is how we get the title for the play. The why of Beethoven's obsession becomes Dr. Brandt's obsession, and the parallel doesn't stop there. Both Brandt and Beethoven have rapidly debilitating diseases, both are stubborn and willful, and both have issues about relating to others around them, Beethoven particularly with his assistant (Erik Steele).

Brandt's troublesome relationship with her daughter, Clara (Samantha Mathis), becomes the crux of the play. This decision on Kaufman's part is a mistake. The mother-daughter conflict is not an interesting one, at least not as investigated and written by the author, and the sub-plot concerning Clara's relationship with her newly acquired boyfriend (Colin Hanks) is even less interesting. The play only comes alive with the Brandt/Beethoven obsessions, which are greatly enhanced by the live piano performances of Diane Walsh located down right near the orchestra pit. Whenever Brandt is in the bunker-like Beethoven archives with its overseer, Dr. Gertrude Ladenberger (Susan Kellermann), the mystery heightens our hope that discoveries will be made and we root for Dr. Brandt to find them as the clock ticks by. In flashback we see what is happening to the famous composer as well realizing that the Diabelli Variations will be his last completed work. By the time Brandt is hypothesizing about her discoveries, the disease is well on its way to killing her just as Beethoven in the parallel time frame is not far from expiring either.

I can appreciate what Mr. Kaufman is trying to do in this work but he gets bogged down with the mundane. Some have compared 33 Variations with Amadeus, but the themes are quite the reverse. Here, the protagonists are not ordinary persons murderously envious of those with greater talent hogging the spotlight, but special persons discovering and encouraging the greatness hiding in the ordinary, which, the music aside, can also be seen with the exceptionally talented Clara and her discovery that her ordinary boyfriend has more going for him than one might think. Both honest, 33 Variations is inspirational whereas Amadeus is decimating.

The production could not look finer with Derek McLane's sleekly bureaucratic set backed up by projected sheet music, all of which is ingeniously lighted by David Lander. Though most of the characters are stock-in-trade, the actors do commendable work. Zach Grenier overdoes Beethoven but there's no reason why he shouldn't. He does an especially lovely job with a monologue about one of the final variations. But the reason to see the play, of course, is Ms. Fonda. The irony of watching an iconic athletic woman play someone crumbling into absolute stasis cannot be lost on anybody and that in itself is quite a statement. Eschewing all sentimentality from the role, Ms. Fonda presents a formidable adversary to anyone getting close and yet she channels her emotional pain for all to see no matter how deeply buried. For such an unshowy role, it is a magnificent performance.

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