Dan Prior as Rachmaninoff talks about his writer's block with Aimee Doherty as his therapist in"Preludes" at Lyric Stage Company of Boston. Teeming thoughts of success, failure, lack of inspiration and visits from famous musical titans all combine in the composer and pianist’s head in a chaotic flurry.
The early 20th-century Russian composer is suffering from writer’s block in musician-composer-playwright Dave Malloy’s “” at the Lyric Stage Company of Boston through Feb. 5. Rachmaninoff did suffer from depression and the production, directed by Courtney O’Connor, is a peculiar imagining of Rachmaninoff’s relationship to his work and his process that explores the mounting dread some creatives, musical and otherwise, face.
Dan Prior’s Rachmaninoff shares with therapist Nikolai Dahl his debilitating troubles following a terrible premiere of his first symphony. His battle calls to mind authors David Bayles and Ted Orland’s book “Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils of Artmaking,” which outlines the kinds of doubt and worries some artists face and how it wounds them.
Here's Rachmaninoff playing his Piano Concerto No. 2, his post-depression breakthrough following the disastrous premiere of his first symphony. Prior, who starred as Seymour in the Lyric’s “Little Shop of Horrors,” is part of a talented ensemble that includes Anthony Pires Jr. from last year’s “