Showing posts with label Sondheim. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sondheim. Show all posts

Monday, March 25, 2024

Sondheim Surprised us in Delray

 


When the Delray Beach Playhouse, tucked away on Lake Ida, announced it was producing Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along we were somewhat shocked that they could secure the rights.  After all, a new version starring Daniel Radcliffe, among other luminaries was opening on Broadway.  This is a Sondheim play we had never seen, and as it was impractical getting to New York, we immediately booked our front row seats.  The Broadway show which received rave reviews was extended, and consequently the Delray rights were shortened to only 12 performances.  Luckily, yesterday we saw their production.

 


It is truly remarkable that this complicated musical could be so skillfully handled at the community theater level, but Delray Beach Playhouse is entering its 77th year and there is a reason for that as this production clearly showed.  

 

The leads, Bob Ruggles as Frank Shepard (the composer), Chris Ombres as Charley Kingras (the lyricist) and Devra Seidel (as Mary Flynn, the writer  – a character Sondheim modeled after his lifelong friend and love, Mary Rodgers, the daughter of Richard Rodgers), rose to the occasion, professional in every way.  (Ms. Seidel unfortunately did have a mishap falling down a few steps in a very restricted ball gown, but bounded up at once and though we were convinced she was injured, bravely carried on in the “show must go on” style.)  There were also a few players in the ensemble cast who helped to carry the show, with the remaining more inexperienced performers showing their amateur status but overall the production, under the direction of Andre Lancaster was, for us, a hit in every way, perfectly filling out our Sondheim lacuna.

 

The show was based on Kaufman and Hart's 1934 Broadway play of the same title and this is where the complexity begins, as that play travels backwards in time.  Sondheim was a well known constructor of puzzles and mysteries for his friends.  He was approaching his peak artistic years when he wrote Merrily.  It must have been an incredible rush for him to look at his career then, and to give us clues from his own personal journey from a wide eyed young composer / lyricist of his first show, Saturday Night (rarely performed unfortunately, and not even opening in the 1950s when its producer died) to the point of becoming one of Broadway’s most acknowledged and brilliant composer/lyricists (and on his way to even greater fame after this midpoint show was initially a flop).

 

I thought it interesting that Sondheim dealt with his two incredible gifts as a composer and lyricist in two different characters, Frank and Charley, the former being urged to fame and the latter dedicated to his art.  It is the same conflict that confronted Sondheim, under constant criticism for not writing “memorable” songs (although I defy many to write these three that I love in this show, “Not a Day Goes By,” “Old Friends” and “Good Thing Going”)  - and heck, I could add the bittersweet songs "Opening Doors” and "Our Time" which conclude the show.  Amusingly he deals with that very issue in Merrily.  It is a soul satisfying show, sad in many ways though -- as when it comes down to it, life is a game of Pick-Up-Sticks, the accident of where you are born, when, and to whom, and what you do with the talent and opportunities you have.  Sondheim of course was a genius, and he used his gifts so well.

 

It had a very brief run in its original production on Broadway in the early 1980’s.  Sondheim explains its initial commercial failure best in his Finishing the Hat: What we [Hal Prince and he] envisioned was a cautionary tale in which actors in their late teens and early 20s would begin disguised as middle-aged sophisticates, and gradually become their innocent young souls as the evening progressed. Unfortunately, we got caught in a paradox we should have foreseen: actors that young, no matter how talented rarely have the experience or skills to play anything but themselves, and in this case, even that caused them difficulties….The last twenty minutes of the show when the cast reverted to their true ages was undeniably touching, but the rest of the evening had an amateur feeling – which, ironically, had been what we wanted. If the show had played in an off-Broadway house at off-Broadway prices, it would have stood a better chance of fulfilling our intent; as it was, at Broadway’s Alvin theater, and at Broadway prices, it turned the audiences off.”

 

So it was with some irony that we saw a version which might have satisfied the great master in many ways, an amateurish feeling, off-off-off Broadway production.  But all the elements of a deeply satisfying theater experience were there for us, more so than so many of the “professional” musical revivals Florida theaters are famous for; it’s a Sondheim piece, rarely performed, by a dedicated theater group, and even with a multi-piece live orchestra under the direction of Aidan Quintana, that sounded like a full Broadway orchestra (too little attribution was given to the musicians in the program and even after the show, although Ann saw one exiting as we drove out and rolled down the window to thank him and his group).  The scenic design, costumes, and the staging were professional as well.

 

Bravura to all the performers, and to the Delray Beach Playhouse.

 


For Sondheim core devotees, such as us, the Director Richard Linklater is shooting a very ambitious film version of Merrily We Roll Along.  It stars Paul Mescal (as Frank), Beanie Feldstein (as Mary) and Ben Platt (as Charley).  It’s ambitious as it’s being filmed over a twenty year period so the actors can naturally age, and through the magic of movie cutting, we will have one for the screen in the early   2040s as Ann and I approach 100.  We can’t wait although by then we might be on one of the early flights to Mars.   

Saturday, December 3, 2022

‘Forum’ Is a Pleasant Diversion at the Maltz Jupiter Theater

The Maltz Ensemble  -- A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
 

Why see this production for the umpteenth time?  Sondheim. 

 

It’s now been a little more than a year since the passing of Stephen Sondheim, the leading composer/lyricist of 20th century musical theater.  His genius at wordplay is on full display with A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.  After gaining fame as a lyricist for West Side Story and Gypsy, he finally had the opportunity realize his dream of being a composer as well with Forum.  It is the first Broadway production where he is credited as a composer/lyricist, some sixty years ago.   It was mainstream Broadway at the time but alas it is now a little dated.  The risqué sexual undercurrent was cutting edge then, but tame by today’s standards. 

 

Writing a farce was a challenge for Sondheim. The characters in Forum exist to keep us laughing, and Sondheim took up the challenge, bending rules of the “book musical” he had been taught by his mentor, Oscar Hammerstein.   It helped that the book is by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart (of M*A*S*H fame) who were influenced by the plays of Plautus, a Roman playwright who is considered the father of contemporary farce,  

 

In a talk which was transcribed for the August 1978 Dramatists Guild Quarterly, Sondheim said: “… we worked on Forum for three years because Farce is, I think, the most difficult form of playwriting….. I think that Forum is the best Farce ever written…elegant and…tightly plotted. There’s not a wasted moment in Forum and the truth and the test of it is that the play is just as funny when performed by a group of high school students as it is when performed on Broadway it is based on situation, so solid, that you cannot not laugh.”

 

Which is the other reason for seeing this production in the newly renovated Maltz Jupiter Theater:  it fits their vision of becoming “Broadway South,” using their expanded and updated facilities to mount a full-blown production with original scenery, costumes, lighting and orchestration, and auditioning for very talented actors. 

Paul Louis (Marcus Lycus), Scott Cote (Pseudolus), Andrew Sellon (Senex), Jeremy Morse (Hysterium)

 

The plot is pretty straight forward, filled with sexual innuendo (albeit dated and schtick); it is about a conniving Roman slave (Pseudolus) who wants his freedom while his master (Hero) wants the virginal girl next door (Philia), and so the slave concocts a plan to achieve his master’s desire IF he will give him his freedom.  Every complication known to vaudevillian theater is thrown in the way.

 

When collaborating with Shevelove and Gelbart, Sondheim had Phil Silvers in mind when creating Pseudolus. Silvers played the role in a revival, but the original Broadway role went to Zero Mostel.  Nathan Lane is another luminary who played the role, so it’s a tough act to follow, yet this production’s Scott Cote measures up to the demands of the role.  He also has a better singing voice than those well-known predecessors.  The young master, Hero, is played by Steven Huynh with wide eyed innocence. He is in love with virginal Philia. Mackenzie Meadows delightfully displays Philia’s naïveté of just about everything but attracting a man.

 

Steven Huynh (Hero), Scott Cote (Pseudolus), Mackenzie Meadows (Philia)
 

One of those men is the Roman Captain, Miles Gloriosus, to whom the brothel owner, Marcus Lycus (Paul Louis), sold Phila (one of the many farcical complications).  Miles is indeed gloriously played by Sean William Davis.  (Think of the bravado of Lancelot singing “C'est Moi" in Camelot.).  Davis just oozes majesty and sex appeal on stage, his voice clarion.  He appears at the end of the first act and dominates the production from then on.

Sean William Davis (Miles Gloriosus)

 

There are many memorable and or amusing songs, particularly “Everybody Ought to Have a Maid,” “Pretty Little Picture, “and “I’m Calm” (the latter laughably delivered by Jeremy Morse as Hysterium).  But the best known song, sung with gusto by the cast, and one that Sondheim added to the show more or less at the last minute, is “Comedy Tonight” -- heeding the advice of Hammerstein that an opening number can make or break a show.   

 

Joining the ensemble of this production is Roberta Burke (Domina), Wayne LeGette (Erronius), and Andrew Sellon (Senex). The courtesans –  “Tintinabula, Panacea, Geminae Twins, Vibrata, and Gymnasia” – are so amusingly and seductively played by Cat Pagano, Ashley McManus, Melanie Farber, Minami Yushi, Laura Sky Herman, Kellyanna Polk Wackym, respectively, while ”The Proteans” who are called upon by the characters to play different roles to move the comedic plot along are entertainingly and energetically played by Cameron Benda, Alex Jorth, and Deon Ridley.

 

Director Jennifer Werner and Choreographer Ariel J. Reid have such a large cast rotating around the stage that there is never a dull moment.  The two hour running time with one intermission passes fast.

 

Musical Director Cary Fantel’s ensemble of eight musicians comes across like a larger orchestra and Scott Stauffer’s Sound Design is clear.

 

Maltz bolsters the professional nature of their production with the visual delights of Leslye Menshouse’s costume designs and Adam Koch’s colorful scenic designs of the homes of Lycus, Senex, and Erronius on a Roman street.

 

If you are a Sondheim fan or appreciate a night of diversion from the times we live in, you will want to see the Maltz’s production of Forum. Indeed. “Goodness and badness / Man in his madness / This time it turns out all right -- /Tragedy tomorrow / Comedy tonight!” 

Photographs by Jason Nuttle Photography