The clock is ticking in 33 Variations, the gentle, thoughtful play starring Jane Fonda at Broadway’s Eugene O’Neill Theater. Playwright Moisés Kaufman explores the dual dilapidations of two characters who straddle past and present, fiction and history: musicologist Katherine Brandt (Fonda) and Ludwig Van Beethoven (Zach Grenier) both find themselves rushing to complete works (her research monograph, his Diabelli Variations) that will cement their reputations before disease and infirmity overtake them. Prescient stuff, giving theatergoers of a certain age an opportunity to reflect on those enduring bits of unfinished business that plague us all.
It isn’t Kaufman’s best (but not nearly as bad as critics would have you believe). For those, get a copy of The Laramie Project, or his masterwork, the heartbreaking Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde. Still, any play that brings Fonda back to Broadway should be lauded: that honey-vinegar voice and her conviction, combined with a still-nimble technique—watch her subtly delineate the stages of Lou Gehrig’s disease, and weep—make it a worthy evening. She’s abetted by Grenier as Beethoven, Derek McLane’s imaginative set (god, where’s his over-due Tony Award?) and Kaufman’s layered, epic direction. Time’s running out—33 Variations closes on May 24.
Fonda, above, leaning on Zach Grenier’s Beethoven. Photo, Sara Krulwich