New York - The world of mathematics and science has found a welcoming host in Broadway. Witness the success of Copenhagen, and Proof. Now, it's composing team Joshua Rosenblum and Joanne Sydney Lessner's turn to get on the arithmetical track. Interestingly, they say "We actually had titled our show, `Proof,' before we even heard of the Manhattan Theater Club's Proof! Their own mathematics intoxicated musical, Fermat's Last Tango, has just opened Off Broadway at the York Theater. Rosenblum, who wrote the music and orchestrations and collaborated on the lyrics with Lessner, who wrote most of the lyrics and the book says, "We came up with a better title." Having seen the musical based on the true story of Andrew John Wiles, the Princeton professor who proved Fermat's Last Theorem, be assured that it is more humorous and light-hearted than you would expect a musical about mathematics to be.
Fermat's theorem, long considered the "holy grail" of mathematics," made the case that the Pythagorean theorem - the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides -- was limited to squared numbers, and not to cubing or any other powers. After 350 years, and countless attempts by other mathematicians through the ages, it was Wiles who would eventually prove Fermat's theorem (which presumably was never written down) over an intense seven-year period. During this period Wiles attempted to link the proving of the Taniyama-Shimura conjecture, which stated that for every elliptic curve there is a corresponding modular form, to Fermat's Theorem. Proving one was said to prove the other. Can music and lyrics be far behind?
Before a performance, it was my pleasure to sit quietly with Rosenblum and Lessner at the theater and talk about their quest to bring a sung-through musical structure to a story largely inspired by two books, one being Simon Singh's "Fermat's Enigma." "I had known about the theorem and remembered the news coverage of Wiles' breakthrough in 1993. But, it was after I read a book review of `Fermat's Last Theorem' by Amir D. Aczel that made it seem like such a wonderful adventure story. I immediately wanted to set it to music," says Rosenblum, who had previously collaborated with Lessner on their first musical together "Arabian Nights."
If Rosenblum sensed there was a way to tell this story as a musical but wasn't sure how, he would get the answer from his wife. "Yes, I saw it immediately," she said. "It was one of those moments when the hair stands up on the back of your neck. I could see it all. It had all the major elements, the quest, a major conflict, a life-long struggle," admitting to me that she had never been that interested in math. What interested her, in particular, was the year Wiles spent between the time when he revealed his proof, found the flaw, and set out to fix it. Having been put in the limelight, Wiles, after working for seven years in complete solitude, had to continue his work somewhat humiliated under the watchful eyes of the press and mathematicians around the world. It is during this frustrating year that the musical takes place.
"Here is a man intensely private and reclusive," says Lessner, who had not spoken or consulted with Wiles before or during the creation of the show. "I understand he is considering coming to see it," she says. "I'm sure that Wiles, who was driven to prove Fermat's theorem from the day he read about it when he was 10 years old, will enjoy seeing this one segment of his life. I certainly don't think he ever thought that proving Fermat's theorem would make him famous and put him in the public spotlight. It was the juxtaposition of his public and private live that we felt was so fascinating. And the suspense over whether he is or isn't going to fix it is very compelling."
While Lessner finds time to write novels, plays, and feature stories for Opera News, as well as perform on Broadway and exercise her soprano voice in Operas, her interest in this project was easily peaked. "After reading the book, it opened my eyes to what math really is, more than just numbers," says Lessner. She realized that if it appealed to her, it would have even wider appeal. "The historical sweep of this story is amazing, considering that this gauntlet was dropped in 1637 and that all the greatest minds, not only mathematicians, have attempted to find the proof. We built our musical on Wiles using the work of the greatest minds that came before him, and on the mystery that surrounds Fermat's own statement: "I have discovered a simple and marvelous proof of this that I don't have room to write down in the margin."
"We also have a very high regard for Wiles," says Rosenblum. "We think of him as an intellectual hero," say these two, who graduated summa cum laude from Yale University, where they met. But, they assert that their version of the story, although whimsical, is only playfully irreverent in introducing such illustrious mathematicians as Pythagoras, Euclid, Carl Friedrich Gauss, Sir Isaac Newton, and, of course, Pierre de Fermat, into the musical equation. Fermat, who appears as a ghost, has discovered a marvelous method of time travel. That the other mathematicians are prone to a little doo wop at the drop of an isosceles triangle goes without saying, but not without singing.
For the purposes of dramatization and to protect the professor's privacy, Wiles and his wife's name have been changed to Daniel and Anna Keane. And, except for points heavenward - a math purgatory called the "AfterMath" - the setting for the musical is the conference hall and residence attic at Princeton University.
Keane, bombarded by an aggressively imposing press ("He must be a little crazy") is challenged on a flaw ("Your proof contains a big fat hole") that sends him back to his study and seclusion for another year. Now, don't you think that Keane coming up with the final, universally accepted proof, and on his wife's birthday no less, calls out for a song? As Anna, Edwardine Cowan comes close to stopping the show with her satirically bluesy "Math Widow," making it clear that "All I want for my birthday is a corrected proof."
Fermat, who pompously declares, "I will not share my glory" ultimately helps Keane in his struggle. When we first encounter the members of the secret society of dead mathematicians, they are squabbling like six-year olds, each proclaiming their distinct greatness in the world of math, as well as expressing their suspicions of this young upstart. Gilles Chiasson is wonderfully stuffy as Carl Friedrich Gauss; Mitchell Kantor, as a petty Pythagoras; Christianne Tisdale, as Grecian formula-d Euclid, and Carrie Wilshusen, as a presumptuous Sir Isaac Newton. Eventually, in a hilariously skewed game show called "Prove My Theorem" hosted by Fermat, the mathematicians offer a riddle-like clue to help Keane: "Within your failures lies the seeds of your success."
The authors agree that math is a subject most people aren't interested in and that most people actually hate it. But Rosenblum adds that because he and Joanna found both books so compelling, they had to tell it "our way."
With subject matter of this show is so undoubtedly esoteric, Rosenblum's decided to use popular musical styles of jazz, ragtime, tango, blues and the waltz to make the show more accessible. The astute listener will also detect shades of Gilbert and Sullivan, as well as Mozart, in the score that has wit and lilt to burn. Two musical highlights are "The Beauty Of Numbers," in which the meek mild-mannered and bespectacled Keane, as excellently played by Chris Thompson, waxes ecstatic on his numerical passions, and "Your Proof Contains A Hole," in which the mathematicians cavort in the costumes of their respective eras like a gloating ensemble of patter-singing Savoyards.
Ready to steal the show with his florid flourishes and upstaging plumage is Jonathan Rabb (son of Princeton history professor Theodore Rabb), as a foppish Pierre de Fermat, the 17th century mathematician, who appears out of the blue to torment and taunt professor Keane. Not surprisingly, he is loathe to share the honors of his simple and elegant proof with Keane, who has, in his estimation, unfairly used branches of 20th century mathematics to make his voluminous 200-page proof. If any one number could be called the highlight of the show, it is "I'll Always Be There," a humorously executed tango-a-trois, between Fermat, Keane, and Anna.
"Joanne and I have created a time travel fantasy," say the versatile 37-year-old pianist/composer who has been musical director for nine Broadway and Off-Broadway shows, including Miss Saigon, Anything Goes, and Falsettos. Lessner says "We've been together for 16 years, married for ten and have a four year-old son Julian ("a budding lyricist"). We started out collaborating at Yale and are continuing to do so." Whatever the reception of Fermat's Last Tango, no doubt they still have something to prove.
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