West Side Story:
-- Lincoln Center Summer Theatre - 1968(?) -- A
-- 1973 Production at the Minskoff -- B (from seeing the movie too many times, I was restless during several of the dance numbers
-- Tampa, Florida -- National touring company 5 - 6 years ago -- B. Realized, admittedly sacrilegiously, that I don't enjoy the opening number and the Dance at the Gym. I have never liked Jazz and I guess they are too jazzy for me.
-- Sarasota, Florida -- Asolo Theatre production in 2016 -- B
A Funny Thing Happened:
-- Phil Silvers revival (2 times) -- A (one of the most fun evenings I have ever had in the theatre. I still remember 'Everybody Ought to Have a Maid' as if I saw it last night
-- Nathan Lane revival (2 times) -- A-. I love Nathan Lane, but he was not quite as good as Silvers.
Gypsy:
-- Angela Lansbury production (once in Boston, three times in NYC including closing night) -- A+ (Lansburys remains the single greatest performance I have seen in a musical)
-- Angela Lansbury -- Westchester Premiers Theatre -- C. Wreaked of bad Summer Stock, although she was still great. (The tacky vaudeville numbers actually seemed current in that production)
-- Tyne Daly production -- B. I was unexpectedly disappointed in Tyne Daly's performance. I thought it was just too shrill.
-- Bernadette Peters -- B+. I think Bernadette got a lot of unfair press on this. She was excellent. Her Rose's Turn was great.
Do I Hear A Waltz:
-- Original Production -- B-. I as probably a little too young for this...probably 14 or 15, and I was not expecting the small production that it was, which was disappointing at the time. But Elizabeth Allen was charming and the score was very good. I still listen to the original cast recording once in a while. I do not think it is revivable beyond Encores and maybe some adventurous summer stock company.
Follies:
-- Original production -- A+. Once in Boston, 4 times at the Winter Garden. Remains the single greatest musical performance in my lifetime. Among the songs replaced after Boston were Uptown / Downtown (Lucy and Jessie) and Boy, Can That Boy Foxtrot (I'm Still Here). Both excellent in the first place, both improved upon, particularly I'm Still Here.
-- Carnegie Hall -- A. Exciting, but some of the performers were lacking, probably chosen for their stardom rather than their merit.
-- Original London Production -- B. Three times. I was traveling to London on business a lot, so I kept trying to fall in love with this version. Just not as good. Three or four key songs replaced, in every case a letdown vs. the original, though still entertaining.
-- Belasco Theatre version -- C. Made me question whether Follies was a great musical or simply the beneficiary of a legendary production.
-- Encores -- A. Thrilling. Maybe the way all future productions of Follies should be. Donna Murphy gave the best performance in any production of Follies that I have seen. Talk about a star performance...this is addressed to all the idiots not buying tickets to Hello Dolly.
-- Kennedy Center version -- B. Saw it twice. Made me realize that Follies may not be a great musical, but can be enhanced by a great production, which this was not (and the original was the greatest production of any musical I have ever seen -- which sets the bar pretty high). The book is just not up to Sondheim's score, and I am sick of Too Many Mornings and The Road You Didn't Take. There were several cast deficiencies (IMO, Jan Maxwell was terrible...ruined Lucy and Jessie although her How Could i Leave You was solid. Her acting paled next to Alexis Smith, Donna Murphy, Diana Rigg.
Company:
-- Original production -- B+. Saw it three times, but always thought it was only a B+. I attribute it to George Furth's book, which I thought was dated the day the show opened. Maybe hackneyed is a better term. I think that it would have been better if Prince had directed it AFTER Evita and Phantom, which had such a cinematic feel. He could have applied some of the techniques he used to make it seem not so episodic. (And Larry Kert was much better than Dean Jones).
-- Kennedy Center -- B. Was as good as the original production. The book just seemed worse.
-- Roundabout -- B. Same comments. There was a lot of bad press about Boyd Gaines' voice not holding up, but he was in great voice when I saw it.
-- John Doyle Production -- A-. Definitely saw a sizable improvement vis-a-vis the book. Maybe it was simply his approach, but I felt that a lot of Furth's issues were not there.
-- I know I saw it at least one more time, but can't remember where; must not have been memorable.
A Little Night Music:
-- Original Broadway Production -- A. Saw this 4 times. Intensely disliked it the first time, and have come to realize that I enjoy his shows much more when I am familiar with the score and lyrics going in. Once familiar, I loved it the next three times.
-- London Production -- A. To me, Judi Dench and Glynis Johns gave totally different performances, and both were incredible.
-- Kennedy Center -- B+. I did not think the case was as good as it could have been. Right now, I can't remember who was in the leads, other than Blair Brown, who was missing something.
-- Ritz Theatre -- B. Saw it with both casts. Interestingly, I enjoyed Peters and Stritch more that Jones and Lansbury. I say this because I was always a huge fan of Lansbury's and not do much of Stritch. Its is not like she actually had a large portfolio of lead roles, after all. She benefitted from living as long as she did. And I thought she was terrific in this, played the role differently from anyone else I had seen. Peters did Send in the Clowns better than anyone else, including Dench IMO. -- Boston 2015 -- A. Hayden Gwynn was the best Desiree I have seen to date. The production itself was not as good as the original, but it was damned good.
Pacific Overtures:
-- Original Broadway production at the Winter Garden. C. I just couldn't get into this show. Even after listening to the album, I still didn't have any interest in seeing it again, although that may have been due to its closing date.
Sweeney Todd:
-- Angela Lansbury / Len Cariou -- A+. Perfection. Have to admit that I didn't know what to make of it the first time I saw it in a late previews, because I was alone and had no-one to discuss it with. But it was thrilling and it was very clear that the production was going to be hailed as a landmark.
-- Circle in the Square -- B+. A good production that showed that Sweeney could be done more economically and cold still make a good production. No one in the cast came close to the originals, however.
-- Kennedy Center -- A. Almost as good as the original. Mitchell and Baranski both would have won Tony's if they originated the roles. Not the scale of the original production, but felt very much like it.
-- John Doyle version. A. Two times in 3 days. An incredibly original production with a cast that was nothing short of miraculous. I was sitting very close and had a headache by the end of the show that I attribute to jerking it constantly, in order to miss nothing on the actors' faces.
Merrily We Roll Along:
-- The original production -- F-. It was so bad that I didn't even realize how good the score is. Absolutely, the worst evening of the theatre associated with Sondheim. I have tickets to see it in Boston in September...am hoping for an awful lot, based on the reviews.
SITHWG:
-- Original production from second row center at the Booth and hated it -- D- the first time. Became familiar with the score, and went back. Still only a B. I actually thought some of the songs by minor characters in the first act were boring, and it still seemed cold to me, even with Bernadette Peters wonderful performance.
-- Roundabout Revival -- A. This remains one of the best performances I have seen of a Sondheim show. It was perfection. This contained all the warmth that the original production was missing. If I really didn't like Act 2 in the original production, I thought it made this production. Act 2 was just a revelation for me. I saw it 3 times during its limited engagement, since -- luckily -- I was working in NYC for awhile while it was open, even though I was not living in the NYC area.
-- Boston 2016 -- B. This may be a case of inadequate leads. IT was just lacking. SITPWG is an incredibly demanding show...it demands a great cast.
Into The Woods:
-- Original production -- D. I just got tired of this show. If I heard 'Into the woods, the woods, the woods' one more time, I was convinced that I was going to scream at the top of my lungs. (Also felt this every time the case started singing 'Merrily We Roll Along' during that interminable show). I purchased the CD and listened to it a number of times, but never grew fond of it. As a result, I have never had any interest in seeing it again.
Assassins:
-- The Roundabout production. D. The only Sondheim show I ever walked out of. I was not offended, I just didn't get it. I never even purchased the CD. Doubt that I will ever see this again...had I been in NYC, I would not have found the time to see the Encores production, due to other opportunities and lack of interest.
Passion:
-- I also didn't like this show. D. I was bored, never warmed up to the score. Never have had any interest in seeing it again, not that there have been opportunities for someone who gets to NYC 2 or 3 times a year.
Did Not See:
-- Frogs
-- Anyone Can Whistle. I have played the CD countless times and would love to see a production of this some day. I suspect that I would like it a lot, based on my love of the score.
-- Bounce and its many title variations.
I concluded a while ago that Sondheim started getting too 'esoteric' for me somewhere after he parted ways with Prince. I don't know whether he would have had a different body of work or not had they remained together, but I did not like the body of work, with the exception of SITPWG. With this in mind, I can't wait to see Bunuel, and I have every expectation that I will not like it and not like the cast recording; I really hope I am wrong, since he is the composer / lyricist of 4 or 5 of my favorite musicals ever: A Funny Thing Happened, Follies, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, and SITPWG.
Updated On: 7/17/17 at 11:26 AM
