The Mayor Who Would Be Sondheim: I Say Don't

If you're going to call your play The Mayor Who Would Be Sondheim and make your main character a politician who keeps singing his own parody lyrics of Broadway showtunes as part of everyday conversation, it might be a good idea to make this concept have something to do with your plot. Just a thought.

Instead, playwright John Doble gives us a slight drama (with attempts at humor) involving race relations and political deal-making, stocked with two-dimensional character types. Every reference to Sondheim and musicals can be easily removed from the slow-moving two acts without creating the tiniest hole in the story.

Mayor Kevin J. McFadden (Stu Richel), a white man, became the unelected mayor of Northeast Orange, New Jersey when the previous man in office was indicted. There's a good deal of racial tension between his predominantly minority constituents and the predominantly white police force. On top of that, a garbage strike is stinking up the town and he's running third with the voters in his bid to stay office behind a stereotypical Italian guy with "connections" (Mitch Poulos) and a black community leader who speaks in fiery political rhetoric (Craig Anthony Grant).

Meanwhile, the new staff member (Scott Giguere), a white kid who hasn't learned the seamier side of government, is infatuated with the Mayor's black assistant (Nina Daniels), a serious-minded woman who has secrets this white guy wouldn't understand. Larry Greenbush plays the salty-tongued hardened veteran of the staff.

The cast does a fine job despite the worn out character types they're assigned. And Doble does come up with an interesting scene at the play's finish, involving a racial incident, offering Grant and Richel a chance to contribute some higher quality work.

Okay, so where does Sondheim come into the picture. The mayor, like I mentioned, likes singing showtunes. He'll welcome a visitor with his own version of "Hello Dolly". He'll have his staff chant "garbage" while he impersonates Harold Hill with new lyrics to "Trouble". At one point he even sings, "Phone rings, door chimes, must be the Governor."

It seems the Mayor believes Broadway lyricists to be among the 20th Century's great writers (no argument from me) and compares Fred Ebb to Robert Frost, Lorenz Hart to Langston Hughes and considers St. Steve, as he calls him (or should that be St. Steph?), to be Broadway's Walt Whitman.

The theme the playwright is trying to bring out, as expressed by the Mayor, is that lyricists must work within the boundaries of the music, just as elected officials must work within the boundaries established for them. Unfortunately, that's not exactly how shows are written nowadays. The idea of a lyricist "filling in the words" started becoming antiquated with Oklahoma!. It's been pretty common since 1943 to have Broadway lyricists write their words first, or at least work together with composers to match the lyric with the music. And besides, Sondheim writes his own music. He can change whatever he wants.

 

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