Even Stephen
Why Sondheim stays alive on Philly stages.
; "BEING THERE: The Sondheim revue <i>Being Alive</i> opens at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre on Oct. 24.")
BEING THERE: The Sondheim revue Being Alive opens at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre on Oct. 24. (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION) |
Calling Stephen Sondheim the most revolutionary musical theater artist of the 20th century is a no-brainer.
As a composer, his use of polyphonic vocals, oddly angled harmonies and intricate melodies gave A Little Night Music (1973) and Sweeney Todd (1979) equal standing in opera houses and revival houses. His deeply cerebral, psychologically rich lyrics opened Broadway to themes and structures beyond the usual musical fare.
Though Sondheim's Company (1970) tore up the book regarding musical theater's subject matter and subtext, it wasn't his first innovation. As the lyricist for Gypsy (1959), he captured being a child of divorce when the territory was still uncharted. His interracial romance for West Side Story was a rarity for musical stages of 1957.
The cannibalistic savagery of Sweeney Todd, the merry history of presidential murder that was Assassins (1990) and the impressionist manner in which he handled Impressionist painter Georges Seurat in Sunday in the Park with George (1984) were but pieces of cake.
Sondheim also has eschewed linear delineated plot for vignettes and lyrical through-lines while remaking the American musical in his image. He made it blabbering, weirdly harmonious, bitchy, damaged and smart. And if you ever wanted to annoy Nirvana-loving neighbors, blasting Elaine Stritch's screeching finale to the woozy, sarcastic "The Ladies Who Lunch" works wonders. It's twice as nihilistic as anything Cobain could muster and blusteringly urbane to boot.
There's no slowing of Sondheim's necessity in the 21st century. A Broadway staging of Bounce — once mounted with Nathan Lane and Sam Mendes — is rumored for 2009. Tim Burton's singing bleeding Sweeney Todd with Johnny Depp hits theaters this Christmas. And in the Philadelphia of fall 2007, it's all Sondheim all the time.
What makes Sondheim so crucial?
"He forged a path for work that's fierce, funny, complex and daring," says Terry Nolen, Arden Theatre's producing artistic director. Sondheim's open-ended nature welcomes — almost begs for — risky reinterpretation like chamber productions and those where casts double as the orchestra. Before I can bring up Sondheim's influence on fine but pale imitations Spring Awakening (Steven Sater, Duncan Sheik) and Caroline, Or Change (Tony Kushner/Jeanine Tesori), Nolen does it for me. "Without Sondheim, there wouldn't be those musicals."
Assassins is Nolen's 10th stab at Sondheim. Nolen had no interest in producing the history-rich take on John Wilkes Booth, Harvey Oswald and their company before 2007. "But with the ever-growing divides that exist in our country and our culture's insatiable obsession with celebrity, Assassins gave me a place to work through the confusion I felt about the perversion of the American Dream," says Nolen.
Nolen compares Sondheim's continued presence to the plays of Shakespeare where artists continue to see new truths and resonances in the work. So does Mandy Patinkin, who collaborated with Sondheim on Sunday in the Park and often performs Sondheim in concert, including at the Prince next week (see Agenda, p. 67). "Like Shakespeare, Stephen's a genius in that there's sensitivity to the absolute nerve of a thought — the ability to zero in on the human condition in its most malleable form that makes someone timeless," says Patinkin.
Such complexities are a big part of why Philadelphia Theatre Company producing artistic director Sara Garonzik chose Sondheim for the first production in the Suzanne Roberts Theatre. "We wanted something joyous, and Being Alive is it," says Garonzik, of the new Sondheim revue. "Sondheim created an intellectual brand of American musical theater — often without a traditional "book" — that worked through different parts of the human experience," says Garonzik. "And it still contained heat and passion."
That sounds like Being Alive, African-American cabaret singer and director Billy Porter's revue of four decades of Sondheim music funneled through black musical idioms like gospel and R&B. Utilizing Shakespeare's "Seven Ages of Man" speech as organizing principle, Being Alive was workshopped at Vassar in 2006 when Garonzik first saw it. But it wasn't quite ready to serve, according to Sondheim.
A year later, Porter and Sondheim had simmered Being Alive to a boil, taking the music beyond white upper-middle-class concerns and singers. "Sondheim told me what Porter had done was made his music hip," says Garonzik . As a troupe focusing on premiering new works and new interpretations, the swelling sounds of Being Alive is perfect for Philadelphia Theatre Company's new room debut. "Sondheim changed the rules on how musicals are structured and what its concerns are," says Garonzik. "He made the American musical modern."
Assassins runs through Oct. 21, $29-$45, Arden Theatre, 40 N. Second St., 215-922-1122, www.ardentheatre.org. Being Alive runs Oct. 24 through Dec. 2, $10-$63, Philadelphia Theatre Company's Suzanne Roberts Theatre, 480 S. Broad St., 215-985-0420, www.philadelphiatheatrecompany.org.
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