Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati Producing Artistic Director D. Lynn Meyers says, “In a season that bears the theme ‘Never Settle,’ 33 Variations is an appropriate beginning.”
ETC is presenting the second staging of this work, which just finished its Broadway run (with Jane Fonda in the leading role) and is going on a national tour. But we get it before any other cities because of Meyers’ persistence. The play examines the life of the composer Ludwig van Beethoven and why he spent much time near the end of his life obsessively composing 33 variations on a mundane waltz by unknown composer Anton Diabelli. A modern-day musicologist tries to decipher what motivated him to write his “Diabelli Variations” while she struggles to sort out mysteries in her own life.
ETC’s cast is a who’s who of local actors, all past nominees or winners of Cincinnati Entertainment Awards. Amy Warner plays Dr. Katherine Brandt and frequent ETC guest actor Dennis Parlato is Beethoven; other roles are played by CEA Hall of Fame actress Dale Hodges and actor/director Drew Fracher.
Meyers has been in close communication with playwright Moisés Kaufman (also responsible for The Laramie Project and Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde), who gave her permission to present this play before other regional theaters. Meyers is thrilled by the opportunity: “A play in variations, as Kaufman puts it, this play takes us to new structural and emotional destinations. It is a stunning script about the passion that drives us artistically and personally.”
It’s also the show that kicks off Cincinnati’s fall season, and we couldn’t ask for a better piece of theater. Through Sept. 20. $16-$40.
Read Rick Pender’s review here. Get showtimes, tickets and ETC details here.
This article appears in Aug 26 – Sep 1, 2009.
