Thoughts on 'Sondheim on Sondheim'

[vodkastinger]

Posted: 4/2/10 at 10:57am

So, I caught the show last night, and definitely went in with lower expectations from online buzz and what I had heard from friends. I'm not sure how much has changed yet, and what will still change, but hopefully quite a bit. Keep in mind that I am a huge Sondheim fan, which is perhaps why I was most disappointed in the show.

Act I was just a mess, I can't think of another word really. It just seemed really impersonal and sloppily put together. The song selection was just curious, and nothing seemed to be matching up towards anything thematically. I walked out on intermission feeling like even though I had never met Sondheim, I could have put together a more personal revue than Mr. Lapine did, and while I normally don't like to discuss shows at intermission, I had to be talked through what I had just seen. It was so painful that I remember thinking during the final number of Act I that they must have cut the show down to 2 hours intermissionless because it felt that abysmally long.

Act II is leaps and bounds better. I guess they saved all the great moments for the second half of the show. Williams/Cook's "Losing My Mind/Not A Day Goes By", Lewis' "Being Alive", Cook's "Buddy's Eyes", and "The Best Thing That Has Ever Happened" were the definite highlights for me, and I can't help but feel that with the Sondheim songbook there is no reason why the whole show shouldn't be made up of these kind of revelatory moments.

Overall, the show doesn't do anything better than "Side by Side by Sondheim", or "Putting It Together" and just feels ill-conceived and sloppy. The show kept missing thematic moments that would have helped it succeed so much better. At several points during the show, I was feeling how what Sondheim was saying was going to tie into a particular song, and then they would sing something completely unrelated. The worst of these is at the end of the show when Sondheim is talking about his teachers and mentors, and as Barbara Cook walks out I just knew that she was going to sing "Children & Art" to tie up the themes that had just been tying up the second act, and instead she sings "Send in the Clowns", which just perplexed me. They had me in a moment, and then took a complete 180 to end the show. I would also agree about the sentiment of there being too many cut songs. Other than the "Company" sequence, and "Smile, Girls", I didn't understand the point of the rest of them being there.

The cast is perhaps the next big problem, after the direction. Vanessa Williams was the highlight for me. She was the only one who felt consistently good throughout, although certainly not great. Barbara Cook does wonders with her standards, "In Buddy's Eyes", "Send in the Clowns" and "Not A Day Goes By", but she seemed tired and exasperated and even, perhaps, annoyed during the rest of the numbers she was in. She also seemed to be saving her voice in the rest of the show, as I was not impressed with her vocally until those songs in Act II. Tom Wopat is a bit of a disaster. There is absolutely no reason the male lead in a Sondheim revue should not be an incredible singer. Tom Wopat has a pleasant enough voice, but "Finishing the Hat" and "Epiphany" just sounded awful. It's not his fault that he can't pull off George Seraut and Sweeney Todd vocally, few people can, but Roundabout could have certainly found someone who could. Norm Lewis has a great voice, but I found most of his interpretations to be boring and unmemorable. The other four are instantly forgettable. I've always felt that Sondheim works best for actors with unique and powerful voices (Bernadette, Patti, Patankin, Stritch) and the ensemble of this show was the absolute opposite of that, pleasant and completely ordinary. I said to a friend afterwards that it is the "Julie & Julia" of Sondheim reviews. You have a show that's half-genius (Sondheim's video portions) and half-mediocre cutesy talent (the cast minus Cook and Williams) and everytime you switch out of the Sondheim videos I found myself groaning, because I knew what they were about to do was probably not going to measure up.

It's not good that with this show I would rather watch Sondheim talk about his music than listen to it sung. It's really a shame that this is the best show that Roundabout could come up with for Sondheim's 80th birthday celebration, as it sells short his genius.

[newintown]

Posted: 4/2/10 at 11:27am

Thanks for such a detailed de-brief.

Re: cut songs/unknown songs - this is a very divisive topic. Some people I know have no interest in hearing songs they don't already know, particularly in songwriter/singer retrospectives. I recall seeing a Cole Porter revue that featured a lot of unknown Porter, all if which i thought was gold. But a friend at the same show said, "I didn't want to hear this stuff - why didn't they do Easy to Love?!?" (Or something like that.)

And in the theatre, there is often an unspoken myth that a cut song must, by definition, be inferior to songs that remained in the score. I, personally, love to hear trunk songs - this is why the show "marry Me A Little" was so entertaining to me. I think they give us a chance to experience more things from an artist than the works we already know well.

[Yero my Hero]

Posted: 4/2/10 at 11:32am

I feel that, while sometimes a song was cut because it was inferior, sometimes it was cut because it just didn't work in context, or the show was too long, but the song is great by itself. I loved hearing that stuff. If I wanted to hear the songs I knew already, I would have stayed home and played the CDs.

vodkastinger, thank you for your post. I understand your points, but I personally loved being surprised by the songs.

Also, slight correction: Roundabout did not come up with this show. It was in development with commercial producers for a while before Roundabout was involved.

[vodkastinger]

Posted: 4/2/10 at 11:45am

My problems weren't really that they were cut songs, I love some of Sondheim's cut songs. I just felt that other than the ones I mentioned they weren't some of Sondheim's best songs and they didn't fit in thematically with the show, granted it was an overall thematic mess.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 4/2/10 at 1:29pm

...it sells short his genius

We disagree.

[newintown]

Posted: 4/2/10 at 1:30pm

Has Queen Victoria entered the room?

[Phantom of London]

Posted: 4/2/10 at 1:39pm

Back in London from seeing this on Sunday, I am not a big Sondheim fan.

I thought the show was extremely well put together, surprised they did not use Maria/America from West Side Story and to close the show with a song from 'Everyone Can Whistle' one of his biggest flops.

But still a brilliant tribute.

My full review and New York diary can be found on the West End Board.

https://www.broadwayworld.com/board/readmessage.cfm?thread=1013504&dt=16&boardid=3
Updated On: 4/2/10 at 01:39 PM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 4/2/10 at 2:16pm

Has Queen Victoria entered the room?

We are amused!

[Dollypop]

Posted: 4/3/10 at 9:24am

When does this show officially open?

[PiraguaGuy2]

Posted: 4/3/10 at 10:18am

The easiest solution would just be to change the name back to iSondheim.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 4/3/10 at 10:39am

Or "I, Sondheim"...

[Dollypop]

Posted: 4/3/10 at 11:31am

Okay, let me try this again:

When does this show officially open?

[Q]

Posted: 4/3/10 at 11:55am

According to Playbill, it opens April 22nd.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 4/3/10 at 12:44pm

Oh, they have plenty of time to make changes!

[theaterkid1015]

Posted: 4/17/10 at 2:26am

This seemed like the most appropriate thread to bump and ask if anyone's been back recently and can comment on the changes. They open soon, so I'm curious as to if it feels closer to being frozen.

[Greatwhiteway3]

Posted: 4/17/10 at 3:20am

"I thought the show was extremely well put together, surprised they did not use Maria/America from West Side Story and to close the show with a song from 'Everyone Can Whistle' one of his biggest flops. "

I believe Anyone can Whistle is one of his favorite songs and somewhat autobigraphical. I thought it was a touching way to end

[sing_dance_love]

Posted: 4/17/10 at 5:26am

I'm also interested to see if anyone's been recently and seen if any of those major changes, that were supposed to happen, did.

[HeyMrMusic]

Posted: 4/18/10 at 12:52am

I saw the show for the first time at today's matinee. I will say that my two friends and I thought it was a thrilling, fascinating experience. All three of us are Sondheim fans and were enthralled with Sondheim's process and life along with the origins of his songs and how they were presented within the show. None of us wanted it to end, but when it did, we found ourselves very satisfied. I found the set great and smartly used, Michael Starobin's orchestrations were very tasteful and pleasing to the ear, and the performers were very engaging and enjoyable. The one weak link, sadly, is Tom Wopat. He was clearly having an off performance, going up on lyrics during "You Can Drive a Person Crazy" and screwing up his lines during "Being Alive." His "Epiphany" is all right, but it's a shame that his "Finishing the Hat" falls flat since it's one of Sondheim's masterpieces in my opinion. He was the one performer that noticeably looked like he was struggling through the show.

Clearly, I enjoyed the show to the extent that I did because I'm a Sondheim fan and a lover of hearing an analysis of or the stories behind his songs. To those less enthused with his work, I can see how the show may be sort of boring. I could have watched a whole other act and not tire of it.

I'm convinced that if Sondheim told his anecdotes live on stage, they would just hand him a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical. He would have been the frontrunner.

O but I wish they had something from Pacific Overtures, clearly one of his bolder works and one that actually played at Studio 54. O well.

~Steven

[lull89]

Posted: 4/18/10 at 1:01am

Wait, Tom Wopat sings Being Alive now? I thought it was Norm Lewis! Or are they doing the song with all the lines and that's what he was messing up on?

[HeyMrMusic]

Posted: 4/18/10 at 1:21am

No no, I meant the dialogue during the song, you know, the "add 'em up, Bobby"s, etc. He was stumbling all over his lines. It was uncomfortable to watch.

~Steven

[Wicked Fanatic]

Posted: 4/18/10 at 1:27am

The one weak link, sadly, is Tom Wopat. He was clearly having an off performance, going up on lyrics during "You Can Drive a Person Crazy" and screwing up his lines during "Being Alive." His "Epiphany" is all right, but it's a shame that his "Finishing the Hat" falls flat since it's one of Sondheim's masterpieces in my opinion. He was the one performer that noticeably looked like he was struggling through the show.

Well, looks like he hasn't got any better than when I saw it on March 20th as he was the wink link then too. The only way to fix that is to get rid of him, but obviously that isn't going to happen at least for now. And if they gave him Norm Lewis' song "Being Alive" that stinks because Norm knocked it out of the ballpark when I saw it.

[HeyMrMusic]

Posted: 4/18/10 at 1:34am

Norm still sings "Being Alive." He got the biggest ovation of the entire show while he was still holding out the last note.

~Steven

[mormonophobic]

Posted: 4/21/10 at 9:59pm

Although I agree that Tom Wopat is the weak link, I loved this show. Out of everything I saw on my recent trip, this was my favorite. The combination of seeing some actors I've liked when seen before (Kritzer, Lewis, Williams), getting to see so many numbers staged that I wouldn't ever otherwise get to see (some of the more obscure numbers, plus anything from Merrily and Follies), it being a Sondheim event (and thus with each progressive number I felt like some pathetic groupie, on the edge of my seat wondering what would be played next), and the legendary Barabara Cook returning to the stage - all melded together to create this feeling like it was a once in a lifetime experience.

It also helps that since I live in Las Vegas, I don't get to see that many shows in a given year. More to the point, events like Encores!, recent Sondheim birthday celebrations, and other avenues where one might be able to see these songs being performed, often pass me by. I was delighted that in this trip alone I got to see Sondheim on Sondheim, Anyone Can Whistle, and A Little Night Music. Heck, to further solidify my geek-status, I even specifically designed the first part of my trip to be Sondheim-heavy and declared it a Sondheim weekend (SOS on Friday, Anyone Can Whistle on Saturday, and Night Music on Sunday). Imagine my delight when I decided to stay for the talk-back, as opposed to rushing out of their to get to the stage door. As you all probably know, Stephen Sondheim came out and talked there. I was so excited that this man who I had been a fan of for so long, and who I had spent the previous night watching on video screens at Studio 54 was now right in front of me talking about his craft. So fun!

Although the show was far from perfect, I loved every single moment of it. Highlights beyond the perfectly-integrated videos were Franklin Shepard Inc., Happiness, Sunday, Waiting Around for the Girls Upstairs, The Best Thing That Ever Has Happened, Barbara Cook singing I Read, Loving You, and In Buddy's Eyes. Most of those I liked because of how they took something we already know and changed it up, although I enjoyed the latter in an entirely different way. Though Cook's "In Buddy's Eyes" is hardly something unique to this show (and can be seen anytime on the Follies: In Concert DVD), getting to see it live was such a great experience. Really, getting to see her sing anything was an event in and of itself. I just say that about this song specifically, because Cook has for so long been my Sally Durant. A similar feeling of actor-specific nostalgia came over me when Vanessa Williams got to sing some of the Into the Woods number (I believe it was during Children Will Listen). It was such a treat that here was this living legend, accompanied by such a talented cast, singing some of my favorite songs. Overall, Sondheim on Sondheim was quite the experience.
Updated On: 4/21/10 at 09:59 PM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 4/21/10 at 10:08pm

Although the show was far from perfect, I loved every single moment of it.

My sentiments exactly.

[Chrysanthemum62001]

Posted: 4/21/10 at 10:09pm

I enjoyed it. I was pleasently surprised with Vannessa Williams after seeing her butcher the Witch some odd years ago in Into the Woods. Tom Wopat was just awkward to me, and Barbra Cook's wabbling around the stage was a disaster. I thought Euan Morton and especially Norm Lewis were terribly underused. That being said, I absolutely loved it. A wonderful and emotional tribute to Sondheim. Though, I will say this...it's no where near the magnificence that was Wall to Wall Sondheim.