Sondheim on Sondheim | |
---|---|
Music | Stephen Sondheim and others |
Lyrics | Stephen Sondheim |
Book | James Lapine |
Productions | 2010 Broadway 2012 Cleveland 2014 Australia 2015 San Diego 2018 San Jose 2023 London |
Awards | Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Musical Revue Drama League Award for Outstanding New Broadway Musical |
Sondheim on Sondheim is a musical revue consisting of music and lyrics written by Stephen Sondheim for his many shows. It is conceived and directed by James Lapine. The revue had a limited run on Broadway in 2010.
The revue is based on a show titled Moving On devised by David Kernan, and produced in 2000 (Kernan also conceived Side By Side By Sondheim ). Moving On ran at the Bridewell Theatre, London, for 32 performances from July 19 to August 19, 2000. [1] The show featured some narration recorded by Sondheim; a CD of the show was released but did not include the Sondheim narrations. In 2001, Moving On premiered in the U.S. at The Laguna Playhouse in California. David Kernan repeated his roles as conceiver and director. Three Sondheim vets, Teri Ralston ( Company ), Ann Morrison ( Merrily We Roll Along ) and David Engel ( Putting It Together ), led the revue with Christopher Carothers and Tami Tappan also in the cast. [2]
Under a new title, Opening Doors, the show had several performances in New York at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall in September and October 2004. [3] [4]
Lapine conceived a version of the revue in 2008, titled Sondheim: a Musical Revue, to help celebrate the 40th anniversary of Alliance Theatre company in Atlanta, Georgia. This was structured as a multimedia revue, incorporating "original and archival commentary" from Sondheim. The revue was promoted as taking audience members "to the very heart of Sondheim's life and work." [5] The production was canceled when producers failed to raise sufficient funding to cover expensive and "extensive technical requirements for film and multi-media projection" during a major recession. [6]
The Roundabout Theatre presented the revue, now titled Sondheim on Sondheim, at its Broadway venue, Studio 54, in a limited engagement. Previews started March 19, 2010, with the official opening on April 22 and closing on June 27, 2010. [7] [8]
The original Broadway cast featured Barbara Cook, Vanessa L. Williams, Leslie Kritzer, Erin Mackey, Tom Wopat, Norm Lewis, Euan Morton and Matthew Scott. [7] Choreography was by Dan Knechtges, music direction and vocal arrangements by David Loud, sets by Beowulf Boritt, costumes by Susan Hilferty, lights by Ken Billington and projections by Peter Flaherty. [7] [9] [10]
The Australian production of Sondheim on Sondheim, produced by theatre company Squabbalogic opened in October 2014 at Sydney's Seymour Centre. The production starred Blake Erickson, Rob Johnson, Louise Kelly, Debora Krizak, Phillip Lowe, Monique Sallé, Christy Sullivan, and Dean Vince. [11] [12]
A concert was presented at the Hollywood Bowl on July 23, 2017. The production was directed by original director James Lapine's niece Sarna, who had recently staged a Broadway revival of Sunday in the Park with George , and was backed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic with conductor Gustavo Dudamel and the Youth Orchestra Los Angeles. The cast featured Sarah Uriarte Berry, Phillip Boykin, Lewis Cleale, Carmen Cusack, Claybourne Elder, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Jonathan Groff, Ruthie Ann Miles, Solea Pfeiffer, and Vanessa Williams. [13]
A limited run was held in San Jose, California from January 18 to February 4, 2018 at 3Below Theaters. This limited run served as the inaugural production of 3Below Theaters and was produced and directed by Scott Guggenheim and Shannon Guggenheim.
In July 2023, the show was revived at its original home of the Bridewell Theatre by London's leading amateur theatre group, Sedos. [14] This was the first time the show has been performed in the venue since it was originally conceived by Kernan in 2000 as well as the first performance of Sondheim on Sondheim in the UK since the composer's death in 2021. [15]
The musical features taped interviews with Sondheim. The songs, including well-known, less-known and cut material, are from nineteen Sondheim shows (including student shows) produced over a 62-year period, including several songs each from West Side Story , Company , Follies , A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum , Sunday in the Park with George , Merrily We Roll Along , Passion , and Into the Woods . Songs from his school years are included. [8] [16]
Lapine describes the revue as "a kind of impressionistic view of him that’s put together with pieces of archival footage and interview footage. It’s a collage of his life, in which who he is and how he got there comes in to focus." The show uses about 64 plasma screens. [17]
List of shows represented, and songs performed, in the revue: [18] [19] [20]
‡ Cut from the original production of the show
Sondheim wrote a new song for this revue, titled God, a "self-deprecating comic song" sung by the company to open Act 2. [21]
List of shows represented, collaborators, songs performed and the actors singing the parts, in order, on the cast album:
Act I:
"My Name Is Stephen Joshua Sondheim…" (Stephen Sondheim)
"…Ten Years After I Was Born…" (Sondheim)
"…My First Professional Show…" (Sondheim)
"…For Many Years, Hal Prince…" (Sondheim)
"…Hal Prince and I Did Six Shows Together…" (Sondheim)
"…Sometimes, A Song Changes Its Shape…" (Sondheim)
"…My First Serious Relationship…" (Sondheim)
Act II:
"…If You Ask Me To Write A Love Song…" (Sondheim)
"…A Lot Of People Think…" (Sondheim)
"…We Had Three Endings To Company …" (Sondheim)
"…Jule Styne and I realized with Gypsy …" (Sondheim)
"…I Suppose If There Is One That's Closest…" (Sondheim)
"…I Had A Lot of Trouble With My Mother…" (Sondheim)
"…To Me, Teaching Is A Sacred Profession…" (Sondheim)
"…I've Often Been Asked Why I Don't Write…" (Sondheim)
The show met with mixed reviews. Most critics were in agreement that the video footage of Sondheim was the highlight of the show, that the technical aspects of the show were expertly handled and that some performances were good (notably Cook, Williams and the supporting cast). Negative reviewers tended to feel that the show was not as substantial as it could have been, that some material was poorly chosen or ill-matched to the performers, and that some performances were not successful (notably Wopat). [22]
Ben Brantley in The New York Times wrote that the revue is "a genial, multimedia commemorative scrapbook on the life, times and career" of Sondheim, with "a polished and likable eight-member cast." [23]
The original cast recording was released on August 31, 2010. [24]
Year | Award Ceremony | Category | Nominee | Result |
---|---|---|---|---|
2010 | Tony Award | Best Featured Actress in a Musical | Barbara Cook | Nominated |
Best Sound Design | Dan Moses Schreier | Nominated | ||
Drama Desk Award | Outstanding Musical Revue | Won | ||
Outer Critics Circle Award | Outstanding New Broadway Musical | Nominated | ||
Outstanding Actress in a Musical | Barbara Cook | Nominated | ||
Outstanding Set Design | Beowulf Boritt | Nominated | ||
Outstanding Lighting Design | Ken Billington | Nominated | ||
Drama League Award | Outstanding New Broadway Musical | Won | ||
Outstanding Production of a Musical | Won | |||
2011 | Grammy Award | Best Musical Theater Album | Philip Chaffin & Tommy Krasker (producers) | Nominated |
Stephen Joshua Sondheim was an American composer and lyricist. Regarded as one of the most important figures in 20th-century musical theater, he is credited with reinventing the American musical. With his frequent collaborators Harold Prince and James Lapine, Sondheim's Broadway musicals tackled unexpected themes that ranged beyond the genre's traditional subjects, while addressing darker elements of the human experience. His music and lyrics are tinged with complexity, sophistication, and ambivalence about various aspects of life.
Saturday Night is a 1955 musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a book by Julius J. Epstein, based on the play, Front Porch in Flatbush, written by Epstein and his brother Philip.
William Alan Finn is an American composer and lyricist. He is best known for his musicals, which include Falsettos, for which he won the 1992 Tony Awards for Best Original Score and Best Book of a Musical, A New Brain (1998), and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (2005).
James Elliot Lapine is an American stage director, playwright, screenwriter, and librettist. He has won the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical three times, for Into the Woods, Falsettos, and Passion. He has frequently collaborated with Stephen Sondheim and William Finn.
Barbara Cook was an American actress and singer who first came to prominence in the 1950s as the lead in the original Broadway musicals Plain and Fancy (1955), Candide (1956) and The Music Man (1957) among others, winning a Tony Award for the last. She continued performing mostly in theatre until the mid-1970s, when she began a second career as a cabaret and concert singer. She also made numerous recordings.
Thomas Steven Wopat is an American actor and singer. He first achieved fame as Lucas K. "Luke" Duke on the long-running television action/comedy series The Dukes of Hazzard. Since then, Wopat has worked regularly, most often on the stage in musicals and in supporting television and movie roles. He was a semi-regular recurring character on the 1990s comedy series Cybill, and he had a small role as U.S. Marshal Gil Tatum in Django Unchained (2012). Wopat also has a recurring role as Sheriff Jim Wilkins on the television series Longmire. Additionally, Wopat has recorded several albums of country songs and pop standards, scoring a series of moderately successful singles in the 1980s and 1990s.
Euan Douglas George Morton is a British actor and singer from Bo'ness, Scotland. He is best known for his role as Boy George in the musical Taboo, receiving nominations for the Laurence Olivier Award and Tony Award for his performance. He played the role of King George in the musical Hamilton on Broadway from July 2017 to 10 September 2023.
Merrily We Roll Along is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by George Furth. It is based on the 1934 play of the same name by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart.
Lonny Price is an American director, actor, and writer, primarily in theatre. He is best known for his New York directing work, including Sunset Boulevard, Sweeney Todd, Company, and Sondheim! The Birthday Concert. As an actor, he is perhaps best known for his creation of the role of Charley Kringas in the Broadway musical Merrily We Roll Along, Neil Kellerman in Dirty Dancing, and Ronnie Crawford in The Muppets Take Manhattan.
Lewis Cleale is an American theatre actor and singer from Houlton, Maine.
Emily Skinner, also known as Emily Scott Skinner, is a Tony-nominated American actress and singer. She has played leading roles in 11 Broadway productions including New York, New York, Prince of Broadway, The Cher Show, Side Show, Jekyll & Hyde, James Joyce's The Dead, The Full Monty, Dinner at Eight, Billy Elliot, as well as the Actor's Fund Broadway concerts of Dreamgirls and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. She has sung on concert stages around the world and on numerous recordings.
Norm Lewis is an American actor and baritone singer. He has appeared on Broadway, in the West End, film, television, recordings and regional theatre. He’s also noted for his wide vocal range. Lewis was the second African-American actor after Robert Guillaume to perform in the title role in Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera and the first one to do so in the Broadway production. In 2023, he reprised the role in the show's sequel, Love Never Dies, in London's West End.
Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer is an American musical theatre actress and singer. She was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her performance in the Broadway revival of Spamalot.
Teresa Jo Ann Bernadette "Terry" Finn is an American actress best known for creating the role of Gussie Carnegie in the original Broadway cast of the Stephen Sondheim/Hal Prince/George Furth musical comedy Merrily We Roll Along and its Original Cast Album.
David Loud is an American music supervisor, music director, conductor, vocal and dance arranger, pianist and actor. He is best known for his collaborations with and interpretations of the music of both Kander and Ebb and Stephen Sondheim.
Jim Walton is an American actor, most notable for his leading performance in the original production of Stephen Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along as Franklin Shephard.
Six by Sondheim is an HBO television documentary which pays tribute to Broadway composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim. The film was directed and co-produced by James Lapine, based on an idea by Frank Rich and "centers on the backstory of six great Sondheim songs".
Betsy Wolfe is an American actress, singer, and entrepreneur.
Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened is a 2016 theatrical documentary film directed by Lonny Price and produced by Bruce David Klein with Price, Kitt Lavoie and Ted Schillinger. Scott Rudin and Eli Bush serve as executive producers. The film tells the story of the making of the original Broadway production of Merrily We Roll Along. The film is a production of Atlas Media Corp. in association with Allright Productions.
Stephen Sondheim was an American composer and lyricist whose most acclaimed works include A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962), Company (1970), Follies (1971), A Little Night Music (1973), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1979), Sunday in the Park with George (1984), and Into the Woods (1987). He is also notable as the lyricist for West Side Story (1957) and Gypsy (1959).