Three pianos

Went last night to the brilliant Three Pianos at the Loeb Theatre in Harvard. This is a show based around Schubert's Winterreise done by three gifted writer/composers - who can also sing and act - - called Rick Burkhardt, Alec Duffy and Dave Malloy.

It was apparently inspired by a party they had in which they played though the Winterreise rather in the style of a Schubertiade and they play three friends meeting up but also Schubert (played by Rick) and his various friends (played by the others). There are, as the title suggests, three pianos on stage and these are wheeled around to create props as well as pianistic mayhem. They all play and sing, sometimes all at once.

The most impressive piece of pianistic clowning is when Dave is playing an annoying guest so Alec says "let's barricade him in with the pianos" and he proceeds to play the accompaniment of Auf Dem Fluse rotating each bar between a different piano.

In Addison to being good fun it raises some pretty profound points about music and life. It's on for another three weeks in Harvard and well worth a visit.