In the fall of 2019, an unusual partnership was forged between Broadway in Chicago, the city’s top presenter of touring theater, and TimeLine Theatre, a mid-sized nonprofit that specializes in plays inspired by history. “Olso,” J.T. Rogers’ drama about the Clinton-era peace talks between the state of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, had won the Tony Award for best play in 2017. Instead of the national tour that might have followed such an accolade, Chicago audiences experienced an entirely new production staged by TimeLine and presented by Broadway in Chicago at its Magnificent Mile venue, the Broadway Playhouse.

Four years later, the two companies are teaming up again for the Chicago premiere of the 2022 Tony Award winner for best play, “The Lehman Trilogy.” Written by Italian playwright Stefano Massini and adapted by Ben Power, this epic drama spans more than 160 years, beginning with the immigration of three Jewish brothers from Bavaria in the 1840s and following the meteoric rise and catastrophic collapse of the firm they founded, Lehman Brothers, in 2008. Along the way, it has a lot to say about capitalism, the immigrant experience and the American Dream.

After the play premiered in France and Italy, Power’s English adaptation opened in 2018 at London’s National Theatre under the direction of Sam Mendes. That production made its North American debut at New York’s Park Avenue Armory in 2019 and played several previews on Broadway in March 2020, just before pandemic shutdowns. It later returned to both London and Broadway after theaters reopened.

TimeLine associate artistic director Nick Bowling, who also directed “Oslo,” co-directs the Chicago premiere of “The Lehman Trilogy” with Vanessa Stalling. The cast includes three veteran Chicago actors: Mitchell Fain, known for his eight-year run in David Sedaris’ “The Santaland Diaries” at Theater Wit; TimeLine company member Anish Jethmalani, who received a Jeff Award nomination for “Oslo,” and longtime Lookingglass Theatre ensemble member Joey Slotnick. Each actor plays one of the original brothers who founded the company and up to 20 other roles, including subsequent generations of Lehmans and supporting characters.

Despite its global implications, “The Lehman Trilogy” is very much the story of one family and its experience of coming to America in search of a better life. The production employs two dramaturgs — Carol Ann Tan and DeRon Williams — and consultant Pamela Nadell, who directs the Jewish Studies program at American University. In an interview, the cast members noted how much they have learned about Jewish immigration during the mid-19th century, a much different period than the better-known era when newcomers passed through Ellis Island in the early 20th century.

“We learned so much about the conditions and how, already, the oppression of the Jewish people in Germany was present — and why a Jewish person like Henry Lehman would leave everything he knows and his family to come to a place where he knows no one, all by himself, to try to do better,” said Fain, who plays the first brother to make the journey. “And then it’s interesting to watch, as it happens with so many immigrant families, the way in which the religious part of things, as opposed to the cultural part of things, perhaps gets more Americanized as generations go on.”

“I also think at the heart of the show is this fundamental question about the cost of capitalism,” added Jethmalani, “and what is it that you’re letting go in terms of your own personal identity to achieve that goal. I think that every person who either came to this country or was brought up in this country will recognize a piece of that in some way, shape or form — how we look at materialism, how we look at the things that we buy, how we look at where we work — and there’s a cost to all of that.”

According to the cast and directors, TimeLine will offer a distinctly American perspective on this story. “This is very much a homegrown Chicago effort,” said Jethmalani. “For folks who have seen the production in London or New York, they’re going to be coming to something new.”

Some critics have accused the play’s script and Mendes’ staging of glossing over the Lehman Brothers’ past ties to the slave trade, which the company publicly disclosed in 2003. TimeLine’s team feels a particular responsibility to grapple with this legacy — not only the history of slavery in antebellum Alabama, where the Lehmans first set up shop, but also its lasting impact on capitalism in the United States.

“As Americans, we have to take that on,” said Bowling. “A great part of the success of American capitalism is due to slavery, frankly, to the work that’s on the back of enslaved folks, and that happened over hundreds of years. While the outside productions are aware of that and it’s in the play, we felt like that has to be centered in the conversation about the play.”

Although the script hasn’t changed, the directors noted that TimeLine is well-equipped to add context to this story. In each of its productions, the theater draws connections between history and current social and political issues through lobby displays, program notes and dramaturgy. “Part of coming to an experience at a TimeLine show is that you’re able to access a lot more information that the theater is able to curate and provide,” said Stalling.

Fain addressed another criticism that was leveled at the British production — the idea that the play reinforces antisemitic tropes. This is a flawed interpretation, he said: “There’s something I find problematic about not acknowledging that this play is only about this one family.”

“Unfortunately, in discourse, Jews and banking and money get wrapped all into each other, but it is incredibly important to remember that while the Lehman brothers were making all these choices, so were the Rockefellers and the Carnegies,” Fain said. “So, while this is a play about this family, this idea of capitalism and how it can corrupt — how it at one point was seen as something positive and then became the American religion — isn’t just about Jewish people. It’s about America.”

Stalling hopes that telling this sweeping saga about capitalism through the intimate lens of one family will help viewers to reflect on their own lives. “There’s something about a chance to be able to look back 100-and-some years to choices that were made that are impacting us right now,” she said, “that makes us potentially wonder about how the choices we’re making right now are going to impact a generation hundreds of years from now.”

“You come to the theater to be moved,” said Slotnick. “Hopefully this will bring people back to the theater to see an incredible story told with just some furniture and some actors and some lights and some music on stage, where everyone is sharing that experience together. The more we can do that and share that and come to this place to learn and be moved and grow, then the better.”

“The Lehman Trilogy” plays Sep. 19 to Oct. 29 at the Broadway Playhouse, 175 E. Chestnut St.; tickets $30-$90 at broadwayinchicago.com

Emily McClanathan is a freelance critic.