Scale 'The Tallest Building in the World' at Luna Stage Theater Company

It is a compelling story of warring visions, rivalries, personality clashes, lies, deceptions, hidden agendas, and ambitions plus lives and a community destroyed. It's a story where a structural engineer rivets your attention — how often does that happen?

It is the story of the beginning of the World Trade Center Towers as re-imagined by playwright Matt Schatz in "The Tallest Building in the World," which opened last month at the Luna Stage Theater Company and runs through Sunday, May 15.

Usually these accounts are purely factual and told in hefty books such as David McCullough's magisterial histories of the building of the Brooklyn Bridge and the Panama Canal, or Robert Caro's brilliant "The Power Broker" on Robert Moses, the urban planner universally described as  the major builder (rebuilder actually) of mid 2oth Century New York City. Moses is evoked often in the play, as is modernist architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.

(While you don't have to, a quick, pre-play read up on each will add to your enjoyment. At the least, take a look at Mies' Lake Shore Drive Apartments in Chicago and his Seagram Building in New York.)

"The Tallest Building in the World" is the concluding production of Luna's main stage, inaugural West Orange/Valley Arts District season. I saw the play in previews, and let me quickly say: I think you should see it, too.

Young playwright Matt Schatz had studied the complex history of the building of the World Trade Center Towers and turned it into an absorbing drama with a fine ensemble cast. The focus is on three central characters — Gino, the insistent Port Authority of New York/New Jersey engineer and newly minted Vice President played by David Bonanno; Yama, based on  architect Minoru Yamasaki, played by Pun Bandhu; and  the think-outside-the-box structural engineer Lee, played by Kane Prestenback.

Nehassaiu DeGannes plays all the female roles: the Chrysler Building; Joy,Yama's secretary; and Mrs.Safran, the Port Authority's power wielding head of public relations.

Rounding out the cast is Maplewood-based Drew Dix as The Manhattan Company Building; The Empire State Building; Kravitz, a small business owner in the doomed Radio Row lower Manhattan neighborhood where the WTC was constructed and Weiss, the head of a self interested, protest group based on the actual "Citizens for a Reasonable World Trade Center."

Schatz set himself a challenging task: How to take complex architectural, engineering, political, business and city planning issues and make them a real play, not a civics lesson. He largely succeeds with strong monologues and dramatic, often humorous two and three character exchanges directed by Troy Miller in a series of fast moving, short scenes, many ending in cliff hangers.

I am of the "divulge little" school of writing about a show that I think people should and will want to see. Let me just say that the anthropomorphizing of landmark New York City skyscrapers works wonderfully, and towards the end, when the Chrysler Building and Gino sit down and converse from two seats in the audience, it's a wonderful exchange.

This time out, Luna's 99 seat, state of the art, black box main stage theatre has been configured into a theater in the round — well, square — with a spare set design by Robert Monaco that works. You never see a model or image of the World Trade Center because none of us need to — we live where the New York City skyline is the permanent backdrop to our landscape. Lisa Loen's costumes are true to the periods visited, and the carefully chosen music, as presented by sound designer Steve Brown, gives an evocative sheen to the production.

One song used is Miles Davis' 1961 recording of "Someday My Prince Will Come," and — as long as we are talking about dreams — let me say that the ultimate theme of this play is dreaming the impossible dream and making it happen.

There are some real life dreams that come true here, too. Schatz's for one; the playwright originally submitted an earlier version of this work to Luna for their "New Moon" Reading series. After a  2009 reading, Luna's Artistic Director Jane Mandel and Director of New Play Development Cheryl Katz told Schatz that they wanted "The Tallest Building in the World" for a future regular production.

Not only did Schatz's  but it can be noted that both Prestenback and Dix, who each give terrific performances, were cast from open auditions. Dix has led his own theater development series at Maplewood's Avenue Theater and has been participating in "New Moon" since September.

"I deeply appreciate the hard work, risk and courage needed to find and promote new playwrights," Dix said.

We all know all the dreams that were shattered on September 11, 2001. Schatz and Miller tread lightly, letting the play's foreshadowings speak for themselves.

I spoke with Jane Mandel last Sunday: "We've received so many plays about 9/11 and the World Trade Center — they all seemed to be written too soon, too close to the actual events," Mandel said.

"In a sense, a building is like a person. When a person dies, we want to celebrate their lives, remember their early lives," Mandel said. "It's the same thing with the WTC; we honor its history by remembering its beginning as well as its end."

Luna Stage Theater Company will have an open microphone after the Sunday, May 1 matinee performance where all are invited to read their own written work or story about 9/11 or response Schatz's play. The open mic is part of Luna's commitment to community expression.

"The Tallest Building in the World"opened Friday, April 22 and closes on Sunday, May 15.  Performances are Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays are at 8 p.m. and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. Tickets are $20-$30 and can be bought at the Luna Stage website, www.lunastage.org, or call (973) 395-5551.