Merrily We Roll Along

Stephen Sondheim and George Furth's Sunday night I went to see the Encores! presentation of "Merrily We Roll Along" at City Center, along with my composer pal John Prestianni, and some people from the Chelsea Rep Lab. (Link to City Center's website above- it's running until the 19th). I felt like I'd waited my entire adult life (and longer) to see this show. I know all the lyrics from the original cast album. I could tell where lyrics had been changed, like 90% of the first (last) party scene, and one word in "Bobby and Jackie and Jack" ("cream" became "beige," and I like "cream" better for the character).
I really enjoyed Colin Donnell and Celia Keenan-Bolger (though the more I think about it, the more thankless the role of Mary seems to me. I'm not sure why she's there). Lin-Manuel Miranda's acting was fine, and his singing was okay. But I heard him making up harmonies (egregiously), and sliding up to notes when he was flat. Adam Grupper and Betsy Wolfe were fine as Joe and Gussie. It really helped to clarify the relationships once I could see the characters on a stage, rather than in my head.
John mentioned at intermission (and I mentioned this in my City Center survey the next day) that the orchestra sounded like it was in Long Island City, instead of just behind the actors. We didn't have that experience when we saw "Lost in the Stars," and these were slightly nearer seats. It really took away from the immediacy of the experience. I pushed one of my students, Greg Cohan, into coming. (He's mentioned that he'd seen some real musicals like "Memphis," and I felt compelled). He loved "Merrily" so much that I kissed him afterwards. Now he knows what a good score is supposed to be.

Follies

I saw Follies yesterday, the Kennedy Center revival that's now at the Marquis. I have never seen it before, though I own the libretto and I know the music. I'd hesitated seeing it, because I had a very bad personal experience with one of the principal actors (not one of the leads) many years ago. But I got over that, and spent a wonderful afternoon at the Marquis. That is not my favorite Broadway house, but Derek McLane's design made me believe it actually was an old, warm theatre, as did Kai Harada's sound design. The only problem I had was with the ghosts. There are so many design possibilities with those ghosts, that didn't exist when the show was first produced in the 1970s, it was disappointing to see the design team made the same choice for this production.
I cannot say enough good things about the music and lyrics, or the acting. I'd had people tell me that the libretto may work on paper but not on stage- I disagree. It was crystal clear to me where we were, and moved fast enough all the way through. All the roles were beautifully cast. Florence Lacey, who was in the first Broadway musical I saw (Jerry Herman's The Grand Tour) played Sandra Crane beautifully. It's not that large a role, but it didn't matter. Bernadette Peters, Danny Burstein, Ron Raines, Jan Maxwell- I've seen them all before, but I don't think I've ever seen them this good.

Donna Murphy

Two weeks ago, the League of Professional Theatre Women and the NY Public Library for the Performing Arts had an oral history event with Donna Murphy. She was interviewed by Rick McKay, the guy who made Broadway: The Golden Age (and is working on its sequel). The first time I saw Donna Murphy was in Song of Singapore, and I remember poking my friend Jeff Bieganek in the shoulder, multiple times, saying, "Isn't she great?"
There was a lot of talk (much more than I needed to know) about her time at NYU, studying with Stella Adler. But once she got past that, she talked about the workshop for Passion, and how they started with an unfinished book, and one (1) song. I know that Sondheim writes and rewrites a lot in rehearsal (me, too- so much that I can make some actors and directors crazy). I never think of him starting with quite that little. I like knowing that's the case.

Finishing the Hat

My friend Cheryl Davis gave me a copy of "Finishing the Hat" a few months ago. I started reading it last Saturday, and was up until 2AM. It's wonderful. How Sondheim writes about the writing process, looking a multiple drafts of lyrics, lyricists he admires and why (he's much bigger on Frank Loesser than Oscar Hammerstein, as am I). I am in the middle of the Anyone Can Whistle chapter.
Sondheim did not answer my abiding question about Do I Hear a Waltz? (which may well be a Richard Rodgers questions, but he's not around anymore). Why would you set a musical that's all waltzes in Venice? What is Venetian about a waltz?
The link above is to Paul Simon's review in the New York Times.

Betty and Boo-y and Steve?

Last night, my boyfriend Tom and I took our friend Mark who’s in town from Chicago for the week to see “The Marriage of Bette and Boo.” We thoroughly enjoyed it, being lapsed Catholics to varying degrees, and Mark and Tom had never seen a Durang play before. Bill Irwin was in the audience. John Glover, Victoria Clark and Julie Haggerty were particularly funny.

But the treat of my evening was when I came by at 7 to pick up the tickets. This man in his 70s held the door to the lobby for me. I went to one window to get my tickets. He went to the other. For a moment I thought, “You know, if he’d had a haircut lately I’d think it was Steve Sondheim.” And the man says to the box office person: “Name is Sondheim, first name Steve.”