Gabriel Ebert, left, stars as Rach, the creatively blocked protagonist of “Preludes,” while Or Matias plays his passionate doppelgänger, Rachmaninoff.CREDITPHOTOGRAPH BY TINA FINEBERG / THE NEW YORK TIMES / REDUX
I want to say a special word about Dave Malloy’s “Preludes,” because it is the work of an artist who is not afraid to try things, or to create worlds that haven’t necessarily been seen before, and, trust me, this is more unusual than you think. Malloy’s previous piece, the electro-pop opera “Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812,” was, after it opened in 2012, a relatively big hit for a musical based on Tolstoy’s “War and Peace,” but that success was also something of a comedy—how did Malloy do it? The intimate “Preludes,” while being, to some degree, more directly about showbiz, is a less show-offy entertainment.
Of the two, I prefer “Preludes.” Billed as a “musical fantasia set in the hypnotized mind of Sergei Rachmaninoff,” the piece takes place in Moscow, in 1900. Rach (Gabriel Ebert—tall, delicate, and focussed) is blocked. It’s been three years since the 1897 première of his First Symphony. Conducted by the noted music teacher Alexander Glazunov (Chris Sarandon, playing many parts, all well), Rachmaninoff’s symphony bombed—some say that Glazunov was drunk the night he conducted it. Savaged by the critic César Cui, the hitherto prolific Rachmaninoff was thrown into a terrible funk. He has not been able to write or perform. (As Rach’s doppelgänger, Rachmaninoff, the actor Or Matias plays the piano with a passion Rach can no longer manage. Matias is the sound of Rach’s freer self.)
And, while Rach was engaged to the sweet and smart Natalya (the true and charming Nikki M. James), who was also his first cousin, the composer couldn’t move forward in his personal life, either: his parents, and Natalya’s, opposed the union. This is the point in any artist’s life when they either give up, or they get stronger. At the suggestion of a friend, Rachmaninoff has begun seeing an autosuggestive therapist named Nikolai Dahl. (Played by Eisa Davis, who is open faced and open hearted. I don’t know why she’s dressed in Indian-inspired garb, and barefoot, unless it’s a bid to stress Dahl’s calm insights?) That’s where the play begins.
Entering Mimi Lien’s nice set, complete with piano and stairs leading offstage, into other rooms that are sometimes visible upstage (there’s a jumble of furniture and costumes up there), we’re taken with Ebert straight off. He occupies the role, but he doesn’t “suffer” in a way that feels theatrical—he knows that being blocked doesn’t look big; rather, it eats away at the soul, and makes you feel small. Whenever he’s in Natalya’s comforting presence, however, Ebert grows a bit, just as he does when his good buddy, the legendary basso Feodor Chaliapin (the sexy and certain Joseph Keckler), takes him on a trip to meet Tolstoy, one of Rach’s gods. Turns out Tolstoy is no guru or savior—he doesn’t even much like Beethoven’s music, let alone Rachmaninoff’s. For Sergei, then, the world is a nightmare of injury and indecision.
Directed by Rachel Chavkin—she knows what she’s doing and she’s protective of the actors and the materials—the show is too long, given that it’s about an artist stopping without knowing he’s—internally—moving ahead. After the intermission, when the lights go up on Rach’s problems again, we’re less engaged because we feel we’ve already invested in his internal turmoil in the first half of the piece—can’t he and we move on? The play eventually ends after Rach and Natalya marry, and Dahl gets Rach to see that his inner Rachmaninoff was always there, ready to play and compose his heart out—but it is very, very difficult to dramatize being blocked for over two hours. Malloy’s music and lyrics, all so imaginative, stylized, and authentic to the characters and the situations, struggle with this—he’s pushing hard against the plot’s delicacies, and the protagonist’s, in order to make a show. Yet he has made a show, and it’s crammed with more ideas that it can handle, and when is the last time you were able to say of a contemporary musical th
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