When I first moved to New York, I taught Intro to Theater to non-majors at a local university. Every semester, I would take my students to see a show or two, and one semester I took them to see Some Americans Abroad by Richard Nelson. I adored it! And that's how I became a fan of Richard Nelson for life. I've seen most of his plays that have run in New York, and I really enjoy what Nelson has to say and how he says it. So when Nikolai and the Others was announced, I was eager to get a ticket. When Michael Cerveris was announced to play George Balanchine, I couldn't get a ticket fast enough! I mean, HELLO. But, for some reason, the Lincoln Center ticketing website did not like me. It wouldn't let me buy a ticket, although I tried repeatedly. I had stopped trying during the wallet disaster, but was thinking of buying a full price ticket for the last weekend. Luckily, TDF offered a few dates for last week and I picked up a ticket for last Saturday's matinee. And I am ever so glad I did.
I'll admit that a few of my friends didn't enjoy this piece, so I was a tiny bit worried going in. Plus, the Lincoln Center matinee crowd can be a challenge. As soon as I was seated, I heard a ruckus on the far side - a man was loudly exclaiming that the seat he was in was TERRIBLE and a MISTAKE had been made. He just kept loudly exclaiming this, over and over, but he didn't go up to the box office and no usher went over to him. For a brief moment, I considered trading my excellent center seat (thanks, TDF!) for his, just to end his distress (and yelling), but my sanity prevailed and I stayed put. There were a few empty seats scattered throughout the house, so I'm unsure why an usher didn't offer to move him, but oh well. Oh, and the gents behind me argued over stage right/house right almost until curtain. I guess I could've turned around and settled their argument, but...I didn't. :) 
Nikolai and the Others takes place over a weekend in 1948, at a summer house in Westport. The guests at the summer house are a who's who of Russian artistic genius - Balanchine, Igor Stravinsky, Sergey Sudeikin, Maria Tallchief (oh, ok, she wasn't Russian, but she was there), Serge Koussevitsky, and many other wonderfully artistic personages in their periphery. There are about eighteen characters in the play, and I'm glad I looked at the cast list before the play began to see how they all related to each other. Everyone has gathered for Sudeikin's name day celebration, and also to see a 'first draft' of Ballachine's ballet, Orpheus, with music by Stravinsky. There is so much going on, it is rather dizzying, but once I just gave in to the world, I was completely entranced.
I'm not quite sure how successful Nikolai and the Others is as a play, but, for me, it was completely successful as a character study and slice-of-life that totally fascinated me. The play seemed an odd combination of Chekhov and Horton Foote, with a little Jane Austen thrown in for good measure. I was content to watch how this weekend spooled forth, and to spend time in the company of fantastic, fascinating actors playing fantastic, fascinating people. David Cromer has directed this prodigiously talented group of performers seamlessly.
For me, the obvious highlight was seeing the sections of Orpheus danced by two beautiful dancers (and quite good actors, as well), Natalia Alonso and Michael Rosen. To watch a representation of the creative process was very moving to me - whether it happened in just this way or not, Michael Cerveris as Balanchine was riveting in his physical life and his depiction of an exacting artist. He also finds many layers to the man as well. There's one completely wonderful section, near the end of the play, that is pretty unimportant to the story as a whole, but this reveal was so brilliantly thrown away, it was an acting moment I'll always remember.
The entire cast is fantastic - Blair Brown is warm and sad as the wife of Stravinsky (and the former wife of the infirm Sudeikin); John Glover was his usual charismatic self as Stravinsky; Kathryn Erbe was lovely as a confidante of Balanchine. Alvin Epstein (at 88!) was heartbreaking as Sudeikin, whose brain is willing but his physical self is not; John Procaccino was fantastic and oh-so-charming as stage and film actor, Vladimir Sokoloff.
The play is so rich in detail and character, but a little more sketchy on action, which is why I wonder if it is entirely successful. The title character, Nikolai Nabokov, is a bit of a cipher in the center. And the state department official who arrives and rather shakes things up was too much of an enigma. Maybe I didn't understand how all these political things were supposed to add up, but I did completely connect to the artistic and emotional sides of the story. For example, when the characters all started to chime in on their ages when they left Russia, I was terribly moved. When Nikolai vacillated between leaving his job or not, which seemed the plot's 'point of no return,' I wasn't. So...there's that.
But I adored letting this weekend just wash over me. I felt like I was almost eavesdropping on a fascinating group of people with whom I would've loved to have spent more time. And when they all paused their fascinating conversations to listen to a piece of music, I was thrilled to be allowed to join in. I'll admit, though, that there were quite a few walkouts at the intermission, and one of the house right/stage right guys behind me dozed off during the second act. But, then again, during the second act, one gal exclaimed, quite loudly, "What about Diaghilev?" She got shushed, but it was amusing to remember there were other people in the audience doing some eavesdropping as well... ;)
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