Nikolai and the Others

Richard Nelson’s Nikolia and the Othersstarts in total confusion with a lot of Russian people speaking (in English) in Westport, Connecticut, in 1948, and noisily moving props and furniture, talking trivia, eating and clinking silverware on plates as they discuss the upcoming Balanchine dance preparation of “Orpheus,” with music by Igor Stravinsky. They’re all there: Stravinsky (John Glover), his wife (Blair Brown), set designer Sergey Sudeikin (my old mime teacher, Alvin Epstein) and Michael Cerveris as Balanchine – as part of a huge cast. There is lots of uninteresting exposition, the intrusion of a Russian musical chorus into the non-events, scads of ballet chit-chat, a stupid breast-feeding story by Stravinsky, and, with Stravinsky’s music played, a discussion of the “Orpheus” dance piece. Somehow, there is also a discussion of the House UnAmerican Committee, and more ballet talk. There is a rather nice dance duo by Natalia Alonso and Michael Rosen to Balanchine’s actual choreography -- a welcome diversion.

Here’s the problem: some of the most brilliant people of our time are portrayed on the stage, and the dialogue is uninteresting, without wit or humor, no flair of brilliance, nothing to tickle the minds of the ilk supposedly on the stage. Also absent is the gentility of the Russian intelligentsia, so, with the distracting overabundance of stage business, the totality of the play lost me.