“2 Pianos 4 Hands” is delightful and moving in the terrific production at the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis.

The play’s authors, Ted Dykstra and Richard Greenblatt, are also its characters. They enter in formal attire for what looks to be a concert, but the tension in the room turns the piano duo into a piano dual. Before long, the play turns back the clock and shows how the pianists reached this point.

A series of flashback follow Ted and Richard’s evolution from reluctant children taking lessons to youths showing talent to obsessed whiz kids and beyond. Scenes of hilarity, confrontation, and pathos show the joys, hurdles, triumphs, disappointments, and satisfactions of a life devoted to music. Viewers with musical training will undoubtedly see echoes of their own experiences, but you don’t have to be a musician to respond to the rich drama and humor in this play.

Todd Adams and Matthew McGloin are brilliant actors and players as the pianists. Adams is primarily Ted, and McGloin is primarily Richard, but between them, they play around two dozen scene partners in the flashbacks.

Under Tom Frey’s ideally paced direction, the actors nail the pianists’ every age and every emotion. In their supporting roles, the actors provide vivid, convincing, easily identifiable portrayals of parents, teachers, rivals, judges, and many others.

In Steve Lucas’s scenic design, two large frames for projections are in the wall behind the two Steinway pianos. The frames are screens for Lucas-designed projections that add gratifying specificity to the scenes. Katherine Stepanek’s lighting continually boosts the visual interest.

“2 Pianos 4 Hands” continues through October 25 at the Loretto-Hilton Center, 130 Edgar Road.

—Gerry Kowarsky, 2026

Photo by BW Productions
Matthew McGloin as Richard and Richard Todd Adams as Ted in “2 Pianos 4 Hands.”