Side by Side by Sondheim

Side by Side by Sondheim
Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Music by Sondheim, Leonard Bernstein, Jule Styne, Richard Rodgers and Mary Rodgers. Director: Neil Gooding. Seymour Centre, Sydney. April 12 – 16, 2011.

In an audience liberally peppered with musical theatre aficionados, I had a quiet chuckle from time to time as narrator Jessica Rowe explained that we probably wouldn’t know the occasional ‘obscure’ Sondheim song. That back catalogue is now so familiar, due to three and a half decades of subsequent recordings and concert performances.

While the narration of this intimate 1976 revue of the first half of composer / lyricist Stephen Sondheim’s career seems dated, the Broadway master’s songs continue to thrive, and invite fresh interpretation.

Jessica Rowe, news reader and current affairs personality, takes on the role filled by John Laws in the original 1977 Australian production. Initially a touch tentative, she found composure and poise as the evening continued. A few bars, however, make it clear that she is no singer.

Opening night was the first performance in this short season, and the jitters were obvious early on, most noticeably for producer and sole male performer, Sydney-based Irish performer Enda Markey.

Even early in the night, though, when Amelia Cormack and Margi de Ferranti combined their irresistible forces on ‘If Momma Was Married’ from Gypsy, it became clear there were real treats in store.

Amelia Cormack scored with her big numbers all night, with ‘Broadway Baby’ and ‘Another Hundred People’ in the first act, and a fabulous ‘Losing My Mind’ toward the end of the show my personal highlights.

Both Cormack and Margi de Ferranti displayed versatility and range, from dramatic to comic, across the evening, as well as calling on the full range of their richly contrasting, formidable musical theatre voices.

De Ferranti’s knowing comedy in I Never Do Anything Twice and The Boy From …,  a delightful contrast to her powerful I’m Still Here.

I haven’t seen Enda Markey previously, but though he stumbled a little early on, he went on to reveal that he is a capable music theatre performer. The contrast, though, with the musical theatre firepower of two of our finest female performers, tended to linger.

The repartee between the trio peaked in the show’s lively finale, The Conversation Piece, with snippets from about as many songs in seven minutes as we’d had in the previous two hours.

Basic production values included very simple dress and setting; formal dress, a backdrop of blacks, and two stunning Steinway Grand Pianos, played wonderfully by two top accompanists, Craig Renshaw and Lindsay Partridge.

It’s always a treat to enjoy an evening of Sondheim, well performed, though it’s really time to seriously update the framework of Side by Side by Sondheim.

Neil Litchfield

Photographer: Kurt Sneddon

See our Q & A with the cast.

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