‘Frighteningly of the moment’: Steven Sater on his emperor Nero musical and turning JFK’s assassination into a Greek tragedy — SkimNews
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- Nero received its second full professional production after two decades of workshops and showcases for potential backers, following a 2006 San Francisco staging; the London production at Southwark Playhouse Elephant runs through 5 December.
- Andrew Barth Feldman, star of Broadway’s Dear Evan Hansen, was cast as Nero in London; Sater says his charismatic and endearing presence addresses producers’ concern that the emperor could be sympathetic or relatable.
- Duncan Sheik, Sater’s composer on Nero and Spring Awakening, died aged 56; Sater broke down during the current New York revival’s first read-through and watched a Dramatists Guild tribute perform Sheik’s favourite song, Touch Me.
- Spring Awakening won eight Tony Awards in 2007 and ran on Broadway for two years after Sater had struggled financially and professionally; its success led Sater and Duncan Sheik to think Nero would be their next success.
- Triumph, Caryl Churchill’s other London autumn show based on Suetonius, features a press secretary briefing reporters about a Trumpian emperor; Sater links Nero to contemporary America, having proposed it in 2003 after George W. Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” speech, and calls its timing “frighteningly of the moment.”
- JFK’s assassination is the subject of Sater’s next play, adapted verse by verse from Aeschylus’s Agamemnon, with Jackie Kennedy given the Cassandra speech; he revived the student idea after finding Life magazine covers while clearing out his mother’s house.
- Steven Sater learned Ancient Greek by operating page turners with his teeth after escaping a third-floor balcony fire with fractures and burns, then studied literature at graduate school; he says it can take at least eight years to get a musical on.
Why it matters: After 20 years of workshops and showcases, Nero’s second full professional production gives Sater a full London staging through 5 December. Casting Andrew Barth Feldman directly answers the earlier producer objection that a murderous Roman emperor could be made sympathetic or relatable, exposing the tension Sater sees between commercial caution and audience response.
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