Together at last
People bemoan the fact that America’s great theater songwriters – Rodgers and Hammerstein, Cole Porter, George Gershwin – are all long gone.
Yet they lose sight of the fact that one of the greatest of all time – Stephen Sondheim – is still producing brilliant song after brilliant song.
The Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre’s production of “Putting it Together,” the 1992 musical revue, promises to be an excellent introduction to Sondheim. And if you’re already an aficionado, it serves as an outstanding distillation of his pre-1990s output.
This show takes songs from many of his legendary shows – including “Company,” “Follies,” “Sweeney Todd” and “A Little Night Music” – and packages them together with a rough “plot” revolving around a 25th wedding anniversary dinner party.
A mysterious, uninvited “guest” comments on the action, which deals with an ever-present Sondheim theme: the complexities of relationships.
“Putting it Together” comes with high expectations, since the first Sondheim musical revue, 1976’s “Side by Side by Sondheim,” was one of the most successful musical revues ever.
In fact, “Putting it Together” was conceived as a kind of companion piece, although it uses a different, more dramatic structure. It even includes a few songs that were in “Side by Side,” including “Marry Me a Little” and “Getting Married Today.”
“Side by Side” has been performed a number of times in our region, but this is our first chance to see a professional version of “Putting it Together.”
The show’s national pedigree is impressive. In London in 1992, it starred Diana Rigg as The Wife. In its 1993 Broadway debut, it starred Julie Andrews. In the 1999 revival, it starred Carol Burnett.
David Richards of The New York Times called the 1993 Broadway production “one smart and sexy evening.”
“Mr. Sondheim’s songs are dazzling on their own merits,” he wrote. “Has there ever been any doubt of that? Link them as they’ve been linked here, and you also get an eminently civilized investigation into the myriad ways we catch one another or let ourselves be caught.”
Sondheim is famous for his uncommonly literate lyrics. He wrote the lyrics (but not the music) to two of the most revered musicals of all time, “Gypsy” and “West Side Story.”
Audience members would be well advised to take particular note of Sondheim’s wordplay and artful use of vivid metaphor, which will be evident in songs as playful as “Everybody Ought to Have a Maid” from “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” and as bittersweet as “Sorry-Grateful” from “Company.”
Yet Sondheim is also a sophisticated melodist, a trait that should be evident in the majority of the 30-plus songs (and parts of songs) in this revue.
Producing artistic director Roger Welch directs a cast that includes Judy Ann Moulton, Mark Cotter, Dane Stokinger, Christian Duhamel and Krystle Armstrong.
The music will be provided by an eight-piece pit orchestra directed by Steven Dahlke.