Minnesota playwright's musical called a 'woke throwback' in New York Times review

Actor Eden Espinosa as Tamara de Lempicka in 'Lempicka.' Photo by Daniel Rader.

On her way to a Sunday matinee performance of her new musical, "Lempicka," playwright Carson Kreitzer sounded like she was having an out-of-body experience.

"I'm a word person and all of this has left me word-less," she said Sunday from Williamstown, Mass., where the show that she's worked on for seven years is having its premiere. "It's indescribable."

"Lempicka," for which Kreitzer wrote the book and lyrics, is the big musical at the Williamstown (Mass.) Theater Festival. Its subject is free-spirited, celebrity Art Deco painter Tamara de Lempicka (1898-1980), a media magnet who, in some ways, prefigured pop star Madonna.

Lempicka's life has an epic sweep. Born in Poland, she married into Russian aristocracy and became a Paris-based portrait painter for the uppercrust. She was a total free spirit who took female lovers. Lempicka emigrated to America just as Nazis were marching across Europe. She died in Mexico.

Her artwork, and renown, have waxed and waned over the decades. Madonna, in fact, is a collector of Lempicka's portraits. Whether the pop star will get a chance to see the show is an open question. But the artist's great grand-daughter did come to "Lempicka," and that "was like having a rockstar there," said Kreitzer, who spoke by telephone.

As she was walking to the theater on Sunday, Kreitzer passed an actor from the show as she was doing vocal warm-ups. The playwright saluted her and paused to absord what she described as "the magic of the moment."

Kreitzer recounted how patrons had been coming up to her to congratulate her and her team, including composer Matt Gould. Audiences are loving the show, she said, and "Lempicka" already has superfans — a New York couple who saw the premiere three times in one weekend.

Artists often are loath to read reviews but Kreitzer has. And the one that counts the most is generally laudatory.

New York Times theater critic Ben Brantley called the show "exciting" and "a woke throwback."

He likened the character Lempicka to Evita, adding that actor Eden Espinosa, who plays the title character in Kreitzer's show, "is a legitimate successor to Ms. [Patti] LuPone's [Eva] Perón."

"Musical theater fans who've been wondering why they don't write dominating parts like that for women anymore have reason to cheer," Brantley gushed. "And there's more good news about this production, written by Carson Kreitzer (the straightforward book and lyrics) and Matt Gould (the often stirring, richly polyphonic music), and directed by the miracle worker Rachel Chavkin."

Twin Cities audiences may remember Chavkin from her direction of "The Royal Family" at the Guthrie. And the scenic designer for "Lempicka," Riccardo Hernandez, has worked frequently at the Guthrie.

The whole experience has been an education, even as it has fed her spirit, Kreitzer said. The collaboration started seven years ago, with development work being done at New Dramatists in New York, the Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis, the Yale Repertory Theatre and Virginia Rep.

Now, who knows, her show may get to Broadway.

"That's a conversation for later," she said. "I'm knocking wood right now."

For Kreitzer, who has written plays on historical figures, working on her first fully realized musical has been an intense education.

"When you're a playwright, you can bribe actors with some food and wine and you can get you hear your work," she said. "But a musical is something that's on a different order. The actors need to learn the songs. You have to book a venue. It's much more intensive and focused. "

And, possibly, more rewarding?

Yep. Kreitzer is all out of words.