Posted: 4/9/24 at 2:05pm
A small theater in Evanston, IL is performing an entirely custom Stephen Sondheim musical revue (titled "Sondheim Tribute Revue" ).
In its review, the Chicago Tribune outlined how the Sondheim Estate is permissioning custom Sondheim tribute revues on an ad hoc basis right now:
"For a limited time, the Sondheim estate has been granting permission to theaters to create their own customizable revue of the late, great one’s incomparable catalog.
There are certain parameters:
- Sondheim had to have written both music and lyrics (so no “West Side Story” or “Gypsy” ),
- no more than three songs can be from one show
- no spoken material from any of the musicals is permitted,
- and you can’t come out in full slasher-barber garb since no show-specific costumes are allowed.
- (And as far as I can discern from looking at the contract, you can’t orchestrate beyond a piano.)
But that still gives you 15 great musicals from “Saturday Night” to “Road Show” (a.k.a., for Chicagoans, “Bounce” ). I cannot image a more fun assignment than picking which songs."
Jones also calls attention for the need for newly designed Sondheim tributes because:
"Up until now, audiences basically have been restricted to hearing the pre-determined selections present in “Side by Side by Sondheim,” which came out in 1976, thus missing some of the most productive years, or the better “Sondheim on Sondheim” from 2010, a show that intersperses interviews with the songwriter between his songs, but that’s not licensable (Cameron Mackintosh also produced a show called “Old Friends” in London in 2022)."
I'm looking forward to seeing more of these appear at regional theaters, and I'm sure that they appreciate the creative opportunity generated by the constraints.
Updated On: 4/9/24 at 02:05 PM
