Time Out New York Theater Review: "Sondheim On Sondheim"
By: David Cote - Time Out New York
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He's a giant in the world of musical theater and now a new Broadway show is taking a look at the life and work of Stephen Sondheim. NY1 contributing critic David Cote of Time Out New York filed the following review on “Sondheim on Sondheim.” Broadway icon Stephen Sondheim could plant a park with all the laurels he’s got. The composer-lyricist behind “Sweeney Todd,” “A Little Night Music” and a dozen other landmarks has been revived nearly every season and this year, with his 80th birthday, the hosannas have been nonstop.
Now the Roundabout tops it all with what amounts to a live television documentary, “Sondheim on Sondheim.”
Like a classier episode of “Behind the Music,” this combo biography and musical revue gets the story straight from the horse’s mouth. Sondheim appears on video talking about his youth, his apprenticeship under Oscar Hammerstein II and his breakthrough collaborations with Leonard Bernstein and Arthur Laurents on “Gypsy” and “West Side Story.”
But it’s more than a linear history lesson; director James Lapine sprinkles in numbers from later works, such as “Sweeney Todd” and “Passion.” The songbook connections are thematic, more than strictly chronological.
For Sondheim fanatics, the video bits are musical-theater catnip. You see the master himself reclining in his office, sharpening pencils, explaining how he lets the libretto inspire the songs and, in a painfully honest moment, what a poisonous relationship he had with his mother. What emerges is a portrait of a tightly-controlled artist who approaches human emotion with a mix of mathematical coldness and deep empathy.
But hey, this is more than a TV show, right? Unfortunately it is, and this is where the show becomes hit or miss. No question, there are talented actor-singers in the eight-member ensemble, such as the comedy belter Leslie Kritzer and the charming and funny Euan Morton, not to mention the lovely Vanessa Williams. Norm Lewis and Tom Wopat add manly pipes, and Barbara Cook is a national treasure. But unfortunately, Lapine’s overly-perky staging comes across like a Sondheim Glee Club or a corporate function.
Yes, we love the scores: but that’s what Broadway cast albums are for.
Despite multimedia razzle-dazzle and clever medleys, “Sondheim on Sondheim” is best, sadly, in its prerecorded bits. By all means, everybody stand for Sondheim, but the greatest tribute? Revive another of his shows.