Side by Side by Sondheim

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More About

• West Side Story (Musical)
• Stephen Sondheim
• A Little Night Music (Musical)
• Musicals
• Arts, Entertainment, and Media

Stephen Sondheim has graced the musical theater landscape with wry urbanity for more than 50 years. This 1976 revue of the composer and lyricist’s work will delight devotees and features songs from a vast cross section of his work, some familiar and some obscure, all rendered in fine fashion. Brian Shipper has designed an understated set consisting of a large, framed black-and-white photo of a Broadway venue, flanked by bar stools and two panels displaying a collage of smaller pictures of the Great White Way. Coupled with this small venue’s intimacy, it creates a cabaret-style atmosphere that accents many of the songs’ delicacies and of the composer’s devilishly witty lyrics. Director Dane Whitlock has assembled a splendid quintet of performers (Jenny Ashman, Jennifer Blake, Joe Donohoe, Morgan Duke, Nick Sarando), who sing and dance their way through 30 of Sondheim’s songs without one dropped note, sometimes prefacing the selections with interesting historical information about the productions. Also featured is music by Leonard Bernstein, Mary Rodgers, Richard Rodgers and Julie Styne, all of whom Sondheim collaborated with on many shows. (The songs are drawn from West Side Story, A Little Night Music, Pacific Overtures, Gypsy, Company, Sweeney Todd and others, as well as lesser-known productions like The Seven Percent Solution and Evening Primrose. Musical Director Richard Berent provides stellar accompaniment on the piano.
Fridays, Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 p.m.; Fri., April 23, 8 p.m.; Sun., April 25, 2 & 7 p.m.; Fridays, Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sun., May 2, 2 & 7 p.m.; Sundays, 2 p.m. Starts: March 12. Continues through May 16, 2010