The Stephen Sondheim Society

I can't comment from a personal perspective as I am not seeing the show until Sunday.

However, from the perspective of other people, an awful lot of people have contacted me with their comments about the show and I would say that it is roughly 90% favourable and 10% anti. It certainly seems to have had a higher rating than most of the other recent compilations shows. I even had one person last night who was lamenting that the show won't be running longer or to a wider audience.

Lynne

I saw the show last night and loved it. The talk afterwards by Clive Paget was veryinteresting and I thougt the four men singing both male and female parts worked very well. I particularly liked 'Country House.

I disagree totally - You Must Meet My Wife and Country House (like a previous poster, I hadn't liked this song before) worked perfectly when done 'gay'. Some of the songs didn't work that well out of context but any chance to hear David Firth give his John Wilkes Booth again ! Everyone in the audience seemed to be a fan already so the lack of context wasn't a problem. My only quibble would be 2 people singing Is THis What You Call Love and No-One Has Every Loved Me to each other which doesn't really make sense - they do have to be sung by the same person. And, IMO, it is such a relief to spend an eveing at a Sondheim review without Send in the Clowns, I'm Still Here or Broadway Baby. There, I've said it now - what a relief to finally get that off my mind !

If 'You Must Meet My Wife' is gay then who is cheating? Nicky, you haven't appreciated the nonsense of this setting! The evening is a bore.

Surely the point is that it is sung by a younger man to his older *ex*-boyfriend ? Why is it ridiculous ?

I think Mork went to a diffferent show! I did my usual long distance trip and was not disappointed. I think, in my humble northern opinion, that if you present a 'concert' of Sondheim songs it is essential to contextualise them in some way to make them accessible to people who are not familiar with the original work. If you don't, then the whole thing becomes very elitest. Of course, if you want to be purist, then don't go to concerts at all and stick to the fully staged productions. Anyway, if any of them didn't work very well I would suggest that it was 'The Ballad of Booth' where the dialogue line 'I did it because there isn't any Santa Claus' could have been cut to make more sense. The performances were excelent and the journey well worthwhile.

Disagree Steve. SBSBS was a concert and silly contextualisation just hinders enjoyment. Nikki clearly hasn't listened to the lyrics of Must Meet My Wife. Or is this show targeted at gays?

Of course I've listened to the lyrics ! What makes you think I haven't. Nothing in the lyrics suggests that anyone is cheating on anyone else (now, in fact, does the show since Fredrik and Desiree haven't met since before Frederika's birth). It's about someone trying to describe their new love to an old flame who still carries a torch. Not about cheating.



As someone says, the songs can be done however you like as long as they are meaningful in the show. Thus Could I Leave You sung by a chap in Side By Side.



No, it wasn't targeted at gays (anymore than Side By SIde was targeted at straights). But with four blokes singing love songs by a gay composer, inevitably some gay themes crept in. And frankly, from the make-up of the average Sondheim audience, who would have a problem with that ? !

Nothing wrong with a gay show but if SS wanted the songs to be gay he would have put them in a gay context.

This one looks like running longer than any of Sondheims shows ever have! Sorry Mork but I think that you are probably on your own out there and it's time to admit you may be wrong. I don't know what all the fuss is about really, the point is you're always going to have a problem if you try to take songs from shows (whoever they may be written by) and try to make a concert out of them. Songs in musical thatre belong in the show that they were written for. As regards to the lyrics of You Must Meet My Wife, if you are going to take it out of the show then it can be gay or straight or both as it was at the Bridewell. If you title your comment in a negative way you can expect to be challenged, but I'm sure you knew that.

I completely agree with you steve, i thought that You Must Meet My Wife was the comic highlight of the show and a complete success. it was great to be able to go to london and hear many excellently performed sondheim songs - maybe performed in slightly tenuous contexts, but enough to give them clarity - and we should celebrate the fact. Sondheim productions are unfortunately thin on the ground, so it is a little churlish to criticise events like this one - additional to fully-staged shows, not instead of.



I would like to praise the bridewell for its continuing dedication to the composer.

Went on Sunday. Wonderful and I can't remember when I laughed as much at Sondheim's lyrics. "Everbody ought to have a maid" was hilariously done and I did enjoy "There's something about a war" which I had never heard before. (A copy out to be sent to George Bush Jnr.although he probably wouldn't understand the irony). Sometimes taking songs out of context gives them a fresh slant and they are seen in a different light.

Oh, and Mork. Men singing or talking to men, even about romantic love, may or may not be a gay happening. Its not axiomatic! I don't put on a deep, dark voice when talking to other males about my partner.

Oh Ron. You're getting over sensitive about it!

Mork: "You're getting oversenstive" is not a reasoned critique to my comments; unless I'm getting oversenstive!

OK chaps, back on song please.

Thanks

Lynne