In 'Last Call' the bartender steals the show

 

The show’s description sounded engaging: American composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein and Austrian conductor Herbert von Karajan, the world’s most celebrated figures in classical music for half a century and fierce rivals, unexpectedly cross paths for the last time at the Sacher Hotel in Vienna in 1988.  Peter Danish’s play brings them together, drawing on accounts of the meeting told to him by the bartender who served them.

Based on that I looked forward to lots of beautiful music and sharp dialogue that would inform and entertain.  Unfortunately Last Call, which opened last night at New World Stages, was short on music (recorded, of course, because an orchestra wasn’t feasible) and the dialogue just sounded like two egotistical old men talk, talk talking so that I was bored halfway through the 90-minute, intermission-less show.

Before the play began director Gil Mehmert took the stage to explain his vision for the production.  Rather than risk audiences getting sidetracked by the appearances of the actors in relationship to the real men he chose to cast women in the parts.  He was more interested in the Maestros’ inner lives, “the sensitive nature of their souls.”

That sounded intriguing to me and when I saw the two actresses, Lucca Buchner as von Karajan (left) and Helen Schneider as Bernstein, with their short hair and men’s clothes (costumes by Rene Neumann), I liked the concept.  Until, that is, Schneider’s wild gesturing and mannerisms turned Bernstein into a caricature. 

Chris Barreca’s set and Michael Grundner’s lighting create a relaxing but sophisticated Blue Bar with its small cocktail tables and a sparkling chandelier.  In a nice surprise the bar at the left side of the stage, when turned around, displays a urinal and sink to be the men’s room where one or the other conductor goes and we here his thoughts about his rival, in German from von Karajan, with English translation on the black wall of the main room.

I won’t reveal an even nicer surprise that involves the bartender, Michael, (Victor Petersen).  I would have loved more of what he brought to the show.

After back and forth with insults, jealousies, Bernstein’s scorn of von Karajan for not standing up to or at least leaving Nazi Germany and von Karajan’s ridicule of Bernstein for sinking to compose for Broadway musicals, the two part in agreement.  Lifting their glasses, they toast what matters to them the most:

Bernstein: “Here’s to the splendid madmen who for reasons unknown, will give their entire lives just to make sure that one note follows another in perfect harmony.”

Von Karajan: “And here’s to the harmony which, in the end, is the only thing that truly leaves us with the feeling that something is right in the world.”