‘33 Variations’ @ Theatre Arlington
Photos by Jacob Oderberg
—Jan Farrington
“A small waltz that will change everything.” An overblown prediction, it might seem. But just look, during the two hours of Venezuelan American playwright Moisés Kaufman’s 33 Variations at Theatre Arlington, at everythingt this waltz and its history do for (and to) the lives of the entire cast of characters onstage: a music scholar, a daughter, a nurse, the “sidekick” to a legend, an archivist of old music, and a publisher who printed them when they were new.
And Beethoven. Yes, that Beethoven.
33 Variations is, among other things, a time-traveling play, swinging between our own day and the Vienna of about 1820. It’s a story of “doing the work” you love (whether scholarly digging, composing music, or nursing the sick). It’s a story of the limited time of human lives, of illness and loss, of finding love and ways to show it.
Co-directed by Bryan Stevenson and Hannah Bell, Kaufman’s characters keep moving purposefully around Stevenson’s excellent up-to-the-rafters stage set, which serves as library, archive, hospital, train station and much more. Two “variations” of humans (one in our century, one in the 19th) cross paths, pace, turn, embrace or push away—and at a few impossible moments, seem to exist in the same place together.
The two directors do a great job of filling this talky play with energy and motion. And at center stage, a grand piano sits still over it all, waiting for fine pianist Jeff Lankov to bring the play and the music to life as the characters listen, pick apart notes and themes, and wonder about its mysteries. It’s fascinating to watch the puzzle pieces come together for the music—and for the humans onstage as well.
Pianist Lankov deftly matches short passages of Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations with the dialogue that mentions them. Even tiny clusters of two or three notes, repeatedly used, come under the scholar’s eyes. This well-regarded piece, by the way, is Beethoven’s longest work for solo piano, and immortalizes the name of the Viennese music publisher who (as a marketing ploy, really) composed a simple waltz in the early 1800s, and then challenged the city’s composers to write variations on his theme—to be published and sold as a group.
Beethoven (Christian Sanders) took on the test set by Diabelli (Michael Phillip Thomas), and then some. Over the next years, what was to be one variation turned into five, seven, twelve—and finally 33 before he found a way to finish, to stop, that made emotional and musical sense to him. What was he doing? Yes, he was older, deaf, frail and angry, but still composing: a Mass here, a symphony with a huge choir there. He had bigger fish to fry…but the Variations became an obsession.
Why? And similarly, what is musicologist Dr. Katherine Brandt (Krista Scott) doing spending her last days in a Beethoven archive housed in the small German city of Bonn, instead of at home with her daughter Clara (Gabriela Ayala Yarbrough)? She’s dying slowly of ALS (see note below), a disease that makes it increasingly hard to walk, talk, write…just as Beethoven’s ailments are robbing him of the precious time he needs for his music.
The cast is compelling. Scotts’ Katherine is rigorous and full of passion for her research into classical music. She focuses the same analytical mind (with less success) on daughter Clara, who hasn’t settled to any one career. Both are strong and independent; Yarbrough’s Clara flares up when her mother tries to bend her toward any path she hasn’t chosen for herself. Nurse Mike (John Marshall) meets this mother-daughter duo when he cares for the hospitalized Katherine—and though he and Clara don’t seem to have much in common, the actors create an immediate warmth and trust between the two. Mike has a knack for nudging both these women in a better direction.
At the archives in Bonn, Dr. Gertrude Ladenburger (Deborah Brown) is delightfully stiff at first, a stickler for the rules and protocols of gaining access to Beethoven’s precious notes and manuscripts. But past history also make her open to caring about Katherine, whose brilliant mind is locked in a failing body. We watch as Scott and Brown slowly reveal the signs of a quiet friendship forming.
As we might expect, Beethoven is surrounded by men who can take the heat. Anton Schindler, who helped Beethoven manage his business and music affairs (and who wrote an early bio of the composer), is played by Eduardo Velez III as a worshipper of his genius, but also a practical man who can negotiate deals, remind the Master to eat something, and stretch the household income. Velez treats Beethoven alternately as a precious treasure and an exasperating child—and both feel emotionally true…and funny.
As Diabelli the music publisher, we don’t quite trust Michael Phillip Thomas’ twirled mustache and slick salesman’s manner—but the play brings out Diabelli’s better nature. He’s eager to make money, but truly loves the music he publishes (hugging a new Beethoven manuscript with a beaming smile). He actually calls himself an FOB (Friend of Beethoven), and proves it to the end.
Beethoven is extravagantly portrayed by Christian Sanders, a man of temper and moods, all of them tied to a single focus—to turn the music in his head into notes on paper. Poverty, pain, deafness are side issues. The music is everything. Sanders performance is vibrant and physical, with a kind of frantic undertone. He needs more time to do the work, he says (and Katherine echoes). He won’t get it, but never stops trying. (A thumb’s up, btw, to Hope Cox’s costumes — both present-day and period (Diabelli’s hats, vests etc. are the most fun) — and to Krista Scott’s excellent dialect coaching.
Kaufman’s play has plenty of humor and humanity, lovely live music, and characters whose fate keeps us watching with interest. I’d say that’s a good way to spend a hot summer afternoon or evening.
WHEN: August 14-30, 2026
WHERE: 305 W. Main Street, Arlington TX
WEB: https://theatrearlington.org/
[Theatre Arlington notes: “We would like to thank the The ALS Association for sharing knowledge and encouragement. Learn more about ALS — amyotrophic lateral sclerosis — by visiting als.org ]
