Today we are taking a look at one of the most exciting DVD/Blu-Ray releases of the year - perhaps ever, at least as far as Broadway connoisseurs are concerned. Taped back in mid-March of this year, a week before the actual central celebratory event itself occurred, now here is SONDHEIM! The Birthday Concert, which will also be shown next Wednesday on PBS as part of this season's sensational series of GREAT PERFORMANCES at 9 PM on WNET in New York and across the country. This is a once-in-a-lifetime event that has been ever-so-lovingly rendered on disc in high definition, preserving a heavenly host of the very best Broadway talent one could ever possibly ask to be assembled together for one night. SONDHEIM! has it all - head to tails. Top-hat to tip-toes. Hats off, here it comes...
Hats Off
SONDHEIM! The Birthday Concert - DVD/Blu-RayDoes anyone still wear... a cap? I mean, how do you cap-off a year of star-studded 80th birthday salutes to the master of the modern musical theatre better than what clearly appears to be the best presentation of his material on video or television to date? Like a glossy, glittering gateau fit for a true king, this week's DVD and Blu-Ray release of SONDHEIM! The Birthday Celebration is akin to a gift from the gods themselves for any fan of theatre, Sondheim, songwriting or sheer great entertainment by the best of the best. To quote Sondheim's own DICK TRACY paean to excess, "More" - Sondheim, himself, giving a nod to Gershwin - "Who could ask for anything more?" And so there lies the answer for this concert presentation - or any presentation: No one. A tip of the bowler and a hatful of surprises are in store here - or, in this case, in haberdashery - from the first notes of the precise
New York Philharmonic under the studied baton of
Paul Gemignani to the wonderfully witty introductory and interspersed quips by
David Hyde Pierce all the way to the truly touching and tearful - if brief - comments from the man at the center of the evening himself by the time Avery Fisher Hall has been filled with chorus members from all over Broadway singing "Sunday" as if for the first time. Oh, yeah, there's that cast, too. The cast of Broadway baby fever dreams come true. And red. Reds - and not just the title of the movie for which Sondheim wrote the love theme and incidental score - that would make Sweeney Todd himself seethe with jealously. And those throats!
But, first: white. A blank page or canvas... or, so begins Sondheim and
James Lapine's Pulitzer Prize-winning SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE. Like a pristinely rendered portrait of the artist as a young and, now, old - or, as Sondheim himself joshes, "wonderful" - man,
Lonny Price is an artist of Seuratian proportions judging from his elegant work here in staging and assembling this exemplary entertainment event - beginning to end. Especially the FOLLIES-esque entrances. Each moment comes across as oh-so-carefully choreographed, yet with each performer given ample room to breathe and explore and enhance the entrancing spell being cast over the audience - then, at Lincoln Center, or us, now, in the comfort of our own homes - in their individual solo moments over the course of the increasingly exceptional and awe-inspiring evening. It's a tapestry of top-tier talent woven by a tailor of the highest order. Speaking of weavers and tailors - the costumes are impeccable. Everyone looks good-to-glorious - even, and especially, in 1080i HD as seen on the Blu-Ray - from
Matt Cavenaugh's sparkling smile to
Elaine Stritch's blood-red bonnet. Or, can we just call it a hat?
The vocal performances of the night kick off with stunning Tony-winner
Karen Olivo and the ladies of
Arthur Laurents's smash-hit revival of WEST SIDE STORY - currently playing until the first week of January at the Broadway Theater - singing a sort-of new national anthem in these satirical, sardonic, sad times we live in now - "America", music by the legendary
Leonard Bernstein. Olivo is on fire and, while the choreography suffers due to the small playing space, the song sounds alternately sumptuous and stirring, just as it should - as does "Something's Coming", which comes next, athletically performed by the recent ROAD SHOW and ASSASSINS star
Alexander Gemignani (son of Paul). Following that, real-life married couple
Jason Danieley and
Marin Mazzie treat us to some ribaldry from the
Richard Rodgers/
Arthur Laurents/Sondheim obscurity DO I HEAR A WALTZ? complete with some particularly risqué, once-censored lyrics that still sting and zing as sharply as ever - on a song written fifty years ago! Such is the genius of Sondheim, his songs never age - though he would be the first to admit some of his contributions relegated to just lyrics he finds fault with more often than not. In any event, closing out the lyrics-only portion of the night, with a song from the little-known HOT SPOT, music by
Mary Rodgers,
Victoria Clark offers an appealing and sweetly sarcastic "Don't Laugh". The epic operatic nature of the score for SWEENEY TODD is emphasized - and, not just in the recurring Dies Irae motif joke - in the particularly rousing "Johanna" due in no small part to the combination of the expert orchestrations by
Jonathan Tunick - who introduces the SWEENEY TODD section, rightfully, as Sondheim's foremost musical work (so far), his "tour de force" - and
Nathan Gunn's jaw-dropping vocal allure. Gunn's "Johanna" could melt ice. Hotter still is his duet with
Audra McDonald on the sexy, heartbreakingly gorgeous FOLLIES (post-)post-coital "Too Many Mornings". It may be the most beautifully sung duet from a musical that I ever had the pleasure to hear, see, feel and experience - somehow even eclipsing
George Hearn and
Barbara Cook doing it in the same hall all those years ago at FOLLIES: IN CONCERT. These performers make these songs sing as they have rarely been sung - and some have been so over-sung and overdone as to induce apathy in any theatrical critic or audience member. That is certainly not the case here. Everything is lustrous.
Speaking of glittering, perfectly-cast duets, we have a double-dose of them in the form of the youthful FOLLIES ghost quartet "Love Will See Us Through / You're Gonna Love Tomorrow", courtesy of the flashy and fetching
Jenn Colella and
Matt Cavenaugh, with the cute and bubbly
Laura Osnes and
Bobby Steggert. Those roles have never been more astutely cast and the performers milk each moment for all they are worth - and that's a whole lot.
John McMartin offers a considered and chilly "The Road You Didn't Take" and becomes
Ben Stone before our very eyes, forty years after he first essayed the role, peeling away the layers of time like a chef, a knife and a ripe onion. Ageless, too - but less cutting - are
Joanna Gleason and
Chip Zien, who look almost exactly as they did in the video of INTO THE WOODS, filmed over twenty years ago. "It Takes Two" may have been a less expected choice than a number of other songs from that score, but they reignite the spark and manage to discover and display what made their performances so indelible all those years ago. A warm, honey-coated delight.
Jim Walton takes the piano himself to recall the painful process of "Growing Up" from MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG, and
Laura Benanti contributes a lovely and lilting "So Many People" from Sondheim's first professional score, SATURDAY NIGHT. Ageless, timeless and delectable are
Mandy Patinkin and
Bernadette Peters, who, back in 1984 and on the subsequent video - thank you, then and now, PBS and Image Entertainment! - seemed to virtually embody the characters they were playing in SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE - Peters really looks like the girl in the painting and Patinkin made the tics of the artist, both of them, tangible and totally understandable - capture the theatrical thunder and lighting in a bottle once again with "Finishing the Hat" and "Move On". So, too, is the case for the SWEENEY TODD section featuring not one, but two Sweeneys:
George Hearn and
Michael Cerveris. The introductory dialogue is simply too funny for me to spoil here.
Patti LuPone joins them for a triptych take on the ultimate Act One Finale from SWEENEY TODD - well, besides that little ditty "Sunday", more on that soon - in the form of "A Little Priest", possessing some of Sondheim's finest lyrics to date. Like fireflies in a cage, these songs just glow with a little more - with a little more glitz and gossamer - and burn a little brighter - and hotter - than they ever have before this night in the thrall of these performers - both those recreating their original performances with the added accents of time, or those who have never sung their song before. They are all bright, shining neon signs in the winter night sky - and the songs sound new and fresh and real. There is something so emotionally revealing in these songs that they cut right to the core of the brain, body, blood - and soul. They each sparkle like a rare jewel in any guise, but the polish brought to each and every one of these songs by these performers is impossible to match. Rare jewels by the score.
Red. Each a gem. Each a tiara. Each a queen. All together, in one place? Ecstasy. The build-up meets the pay-off, right here: the blistering red-hot moment we've all been waiting for, the Ladies in Red. I could just list their names and what songs they sing and you could make your own wild, fantastical assumptions about just how fabulous and exhilarating - and ideal - each performer is for each song, and that would probably be most fair to all concerned. Why so? You see, some performances are just so memorable that you don't want to dilute the experience of witnessing them with mere words, or even a description of a feeling or an emotion derived from the moment. At such times, words fail us. Here are six such moments in my life as a critic. The list of ladies and the songs they sing, with, if forced, one (oft inelegant) word or phrase depicting one element of their sublime perfection is what follows:
Patti LuPone, "The Ladies Who Lunch" - biting;
Marin Mazzie, "Losing My Mind" - throat-slitting;
Audra McDonald, "The Glamorous Life" - earth-shattering;
Donna Murphy, "Could I Leave You?" - acid-tongued;
Bernadette Peters, "Not A Day Goes By" - devastating;
Elaine Stritch, "I'm Still Here" - peerless. Besides the requisite - but riveting, given this context - "Sunday", Stritch is the capper of the night, singing FOLLIES's strongest anthem - what a statement, considering that succulent score of warhorses - for the first time with a new lyric: goodbye Brenda Frasier and
Shirley Temple; hello
Barbara Walters. She leaves us with no questions, that seems clear. No questions about her greatness, the song's greatness, Sondheim's greatness or the magnitude of this momentous event. She has rarely been more effective - anywhere - than she is here, now, doing this song, in this white-hot moment, for this rapt audience... for this singular songwriter. SONDHEIM! confirms Sondheim's mastery of the musical form as one of the true American icons - the first such Broadway composer since Bernstein - of the new century.
To watch Stritch watch
Patti LuPone take on her signature tune, though, "The Ladies Who Lunch" from COMPANY - and, at the conclusion, to see Sondheim's reaction watching them watch each other - all whilst sitting a few feet away from her on a chair onstage alongside the five other ladies in a semi-circle of black chairs in ravishing red dresses, is an iconic moment if there ever were any on any stage. Sondheim himself told me this was his favorite moment of the night - if forced to choose just one - back in his reminiscence of the concert in our extensive conversation earlier this month - yet, even he had to say this was a night of nights he will never forget with so many rich, rewarding performances. After all, this is the best of Broadway doing many of the best songs ever written for the musical theatre, all of which have come from the pen of this one genius man, so it was destined to be good. But, what we have been given is leaps and bounds better than anything we could have anticipated. SONDHEIM! is the gift that keeps on giving, if there ever were any, and is the perfect holiday gift. You owe it to yourself - and anyone you love, or have loved.
Fade to black. I have intentionally eschewed giving much background on Sondheim or his shows here because, Frank-ly (a MERRILY pun), if you come to this concert presentation completely unaware of him, I strongly believe that this could convert you. It is that powerful, that engrossing, that exciting and that emotional and involving - for the virtual neophyte, to the neon-bright stars lighting up the stage. This music is so thrilling as performed by the
New York Philharmonic; the words and emotions have never rang more authentic and affecting as in the performances by these across-the-board note-perfect performers; the presentation is so sleekly directly by Lonny Prince, the costumes and props and accoutrement so spot-on; and, the overall technical presentation by Image, in both visual vividness and audio fidelity, collectively make SONDHEIM! The Birthday Celebration DVD/Blu Ray the best Sondheim concert I have seen on video to date. To boot, it is also the best Broadway concert on Blu-Ray, as well. Honestly, just the Ladies In Red sequence would have been enough to herald this as the Broadway event of the century so far, on any stage or screen, so all the other goosebump-inducing goodness - excuse me, greatness; no, godliness - is just gravy on top of it all. No turkey here, just the meat - whether it is white, dark or red. Hats off.
Be sure to stay tuned to BroadwayWorld for all Sondheim-related news and reviews - including this month's InDepth InterView: Stephen Sondheim - especially next week's special conversation with the esteemed producer of the spectacular SONDHEIM! The Birthday Concert, as well as many other Sondheim-related telecasts such as FOLLIES: IN CONCERT, SWEENEY TODD: IN CONCERT, COMPANY and many more - Ms. Ellen M. Krass! Also, be sure to pick up FINISHING THE HAT by Stephen Sondheim, in bookstores and on Amazon.com now!
