SONDHEIM @ 80: 'There's A Lot I'll Have Missed But I'll Not Have Been Dead When I Die'

A lot will be said in celebration of the extraordinary talent that is Stephen Sondheim this week. What more could I possibly add to this justified mountain of praise? Sondheim has been the score to my adult life and so I've decided the most fitting way for me to celebrate him is to remember some of highlights of my Sondheim theatregoing. I'll inevitably want to change this list as soon as I've submitted it, but I hope it makes everyone reading this piece think of their favourite moments.

West Side Story

The most immediate production of the Bernstein/Sondheim/Laurents masterpiece I have ever seen was some ten years ago. It brought together Catholic and Protestant teenagers from Northern Ireland. It, as you might expect, had a dramatic punch which was spectacular. I subsequently became friends to the production's Tony - Mark Dugdale, who would later find success in Chicago and Les Misérables. Clearly I've always had good taste in actors!

Pacific Overtures

"This is the best musical I've ever seen," whispered my then-partner near the finale of Pacific Overtures. It was a show which altered what he thought a musical could do - something Sondheim has consistently achieved throughout his career. My favourite moment (and apparently Sondheim's own favourite song) is Someone in a Tree. We are told that nobody witnessed the negotiations between American and Japanese politicians, whereupon an old man appears and announces that, as a young boy, he watched the events from the branches of a tree. The force of his memory makes his younger self appear in the tree and he proceeds to describe what he is witnessing. Unfortunately neither can hear the events, whereupon a warrior situated under the treaty house, announces he can hear the negotiations. As JoAnna Gordon has said, "History is viewed as random fragments of experience arranged in order to reveal a partial truth."

Merrily We Roll Along

When I was writing my dissertation on Sondheim, the Donmar's Olivier Award-winning production gave me the first cathartic experience I ever had in the theatre. The story of Frank, Mary and Charley broke my heart, before the glorious Our Time filled it up again. Merrily has a reputation as one of the most difficult of Sondheim's shows to pull off, but this production did so with aplomb.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

One of the few times I have been genuinely scared in the theatre was during Sweeney Todd. In John Doyle's much lauded actor-musician revival, the pared-down setting combined with Sondheim's music, based on the Dies Irae, combined to make a terrifying evening. Yet, for all of the horror, the blood, the terror, the musical is at once blackly funny and tragic. It is a truly astonishing achievement. Todd is an outsider, an obsessive who decides to change the world. We could all be Sweeney Todd if our passions remain unbridled. That has to be the scariest thought of all.

Company

I've only experienced one or two real show-stops in my life - those moments were the audience react so dramatically the show literally can't continue. One of these occasions was in John Doyle's actor-musician production of Company on Broadway. Robert's friends and girlfriends doubled as the shows musicians, but Robert himself did not play an instrument. At the show's climax, Robert, as we all know sings Being Alive. Doyle pulled off the brilliant coup of allowing Robert to play a piano for the first time. As Raul Esparza tentatively started to play those famous opening chords, the hairs on my neck stood up and as he poured his soul into the lyrics and melody, I knew something special was happening. At the end of the song the audience stood as one. It was truly astonishing and all the more bizarre because there were another five minutes of the show to play out. We sat down simply to re-stand for Esparza moments later.

A Little Night Music

I saw Trevor Nunn's beautiful revival of A Little Night Music three times. There was much to love in this production, but Kaisa Hammarlund's sexy Petra, full of warmth and joy was a sensation. Her performance of The Miller's Son was one of the evening's crowning glories blasting the follies of those around her and celebrating sexual liberation.

Sunday in the Park with George

My final choice is Sunday in the Park with George. It is a show I feel a profound connection to. It doesn't matter how often I see it or hear it this story of an artist struggling to balance his desire to create with his desire to have human connection can move me to tears within minutes. In the Chocolate Factory's sublime production the colour and light referred to throughout the piece, took on a physical life and in the spectacular projections became a fully-fledged character in the show. The shows most famous moment has to be when the cast recreate A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. It is not uncommon to see an audience in floods of tears after this, but for me, the most exquisite moment of the show is when, near the end, when George turns to the subjects of his painting, who bow to him and in doing so reaffirm his ability to create.

What's next?

In the immediate future I am very excited about the Donmar Warehouse's new production of Passion. This is a show that has always divided opinions and I can't wait to get the chance to re-evaluate it. With the sensational Elena Roger as Fosca we are guaranteed a contender for next year's Olivier Award for best actress.

In my fantasies I imagine a new production of Gypsy is meant for London soon. Will Patti LuPone get to reprise her Tony-winning Rose turn or will Maria Friedman eventually get the a role she is destined to play?

London too must be in line for the first international production of Road Show but where and who will do it? Either way it can't be far off and perhaps its production will be the most appropriate way to celebrate the unique talent of Stephen Sondheim.

Peter is a 2009/10 recipient of an apprenticeship under the Stage One/SOLT New Producer's Bursary Scheme and is placed with Sonia Friedman Productions and Really Useful Group over the year.

He has honorary membership of the Sondheim Society; sits on the management board of theatreVOICE.com; helped curate video content for Theatre & Performance galleries at the V&A; and is one of 'The Audition Panel' group of practitioners who answer questions about the industry on broadwayworld.com.

Peter directed the inaugural Sondheim Society Young Performer of the Year Award at the Venue, Leicester Square and two Snappy Title concerts at the Pigalle Club - featuring a host of West End stars singing songs from new musicals.

 

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