You may not believe it, but theater critics actually work. It’s not all plopping into an aisle seat, yawning, and scribbling in the dark. Perhaps we read a biography of Mary Todd Lincoln to understand that Cole Escola did not. Or we stream cast albums of Sunset Boulevard and Gypsy to prepare for their revivals this fall. Sometimes we even schlep 5,000 steps through an immersive fable about American innovation and greed that fills six floors and 100,000 square feet, chasing 24 characters in a dialogue-free trek with enough plot lines to drive an HBO season. Welcome to Life and Trust: If time is money, you deposit two and a half hours and hope interest accrues. For me, I stumbled out of this immersive spectacle footsore, confused, and underwhelmed by everything except the effort involved.

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Ever see Sleep No More? Life and Trust (also an Emursive production) is that, only about the rise and fall of an American family from the Gilded Age to the Wall Street Crash of 1929. After a wait in a spacious Art Deco café, small groups are ushered into the wood-paneled office of prosperous banker J.G. Conwell (get it? con…well?). Moneybags has just gotten off the phone after learning the stock........

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