Sondheim on Sondheim: An Evening with the Great Man and His Music

Photo Mark S. Howard

Boston’s Lyric Stage, a professional theatre company, demonstrates its commitment to the city by hiring mainly local performers, musicians, and technicians. It shows its commitment to talent through its long-term policy of inclusive casting. The majority of their productions are new American plays that have recently been released to the regionals. Artistic director Spiro Veloudos has a particular fondness for musical theatre.

Veloudos’s current show, Sondheim on Sondheim, devised by James Lapine, is a paean to the great composer-lyricist. It is at once a live musical revue and a filmed documentary. Sondheim wrote one new number for it, the autobiographical God. Set designer, David Towlun and lighting designer Chris Hudacs create the impression of Broadway at the opening with two glittering marquees that cover the Lyric’s upstage balconies. Later, the marquees become screens projecting images that pertain to Sondheim’s life. Center stage, hangs an enormous screen, primarily used to show interviews with Sondheim at various stages of his more than half-century career. The actors perform on a rectangular platform and the stage itself.

Sondheim is considered by his fans and most theatre critics – myself among them – to have brought the American musical to its pinnacle. He continued to experiment with style throughout his career, writing characters with depth, and exploring their inner as well as outer lives. While he wrote for the theatre, some of his musicals such as Sweeney Todd and A Little Night Music have been produced as operas. And although he wrote brilliant songs, few were hits in part because of the complexity of the music and lyrics. In addition, they tend to be so intertwined with the story-line they often do not stand well alone.

The shape of Sondheim on Sondheim works against the show. Sondheim discusses his music and/or tells a story and a song follows. Learning that Sondheim, the son of a cruel mother and neglectful father had an unhappy childhood from which he was saved by his mentor Oscar Hammerstein is interesting, even touching, but detracts from the music. Lapine attempted to link Sondheim’s tales with songs, but it is generally an awkward fit. Sondheim on Sondheim is likely most enjoyed by those who are deeply acquainted with his oeuvre.

The eight talented performers – Leigh Barrett, Mala Bhattacharya, Maritza Bostic, Christopher Chew, Aimee Doherty, Davron S. Monroe, Sam Simahk, and Patrick Varner – have all previously trod the boards of the Lyric Stage. Each has at least one well deserved solo. They are good singers (who thankfully are not miked) as well as competent dancers and actors.

Sondheim on Sondheim runs through February 21, 2016.

Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim

Conceived by James Lapine

Directed by Spiro Veloudos

Music Director, Jonathan Goldberg

Scene Design, David Towlun

Costume Design, Gail Astrid Buckley

Lighting Design, Chris Hudacs

Projection Design, Seaghan McKay