The Stephen Sondheim Society

As no-one else has posted anything about Cardiff yet, I thought I'd jot down my thoughts on the Sondheim stuff I've seen so far.

Claire Moore did a very stirring and passionate Being Alive as part of the Opening Gala last week, but with the most horrible arrangement behind it. As far as I remember that was the only Sondheim number in the event, but it did at least mean he had a presence in the show.



On Friday evening there was a concert of show extracts from local schools, and the evening started with the first 20 minutes of Sweeney Todd performed by Whitchurch High School in Cardiff. It's quite scary how talented such young people can be! Following extracts from Fiddler, Sweet Charity, Annie and Me & My Girl, the evening ended with all 250 performers on the stage singing Sondheim's Our Time from Merrily. What a wonderful opportunity to hear this sung by so many people - but absolutely ruined from having it choreographed from start to finish. Imagine 250 pairs of arms being waved and flung about (in perfect co-ordination, I grant you), and then trying to concentrate on what they were singing. Done with the best of intentions, I'm sure, but way too distracting for me.



The weekend was Sondheim-rich starting with the excellent Sondheim Day on Saturday. Split into three parts, the day started with Stuart Pedlar sharing his wisdom and knowledge about musicals generally, Sondheim especially, and with particular reference to the structure of the opening of Sweeney Todd. The Welsh National Youth Opera were on hand to sing, both the opening and other sections of the show which they are currently rehearsing for performance later in the week. The standard was extremely high, and sounded delicious - with perhaps the most baby-faced (but 6 foot tall) Sweeney you'd ever see! Made it all the more sinister though.



Stuart Pedlar was an inspiration, putting Sondheim into an historical context of music theatre composition, and then using this context to illustrate how the writing in Sweeney fits alongside the standard structure used by many other composers, but also to illustrate just how sophisticated Sondheim's writing is compared to those others. He made it clear from the outset that he was going to be technical in his talk, and for someone like me it was a pleasure to be challenged with this level of technicality - which now just makes me marvel at Sondheim's writing all the moreÉ.



After lunch, 6 young students from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, performed in a masterclass with Julia McKenzie. For the life of me I don't know why the BBC didn't film this (or the rest of the day, come to that) as I'm sure it was extremely valuable to the students and would be equally so to many other people. The students were a mix of singers and actors-who-sing, which made for a more interesting session, and Ms McK drew, from each of the students, a performance which had focus and interest. It was fascinating both to watch the students develop like this, and to see how Ms McK got them to do so.



After this we had a panel 'Question Time' with Julia McKenzie, Stuart Pedlar, and the MD of the Welsh National Youth Opera. Paul Kerryson couldn't make it, and Edward Seckerson joined the panel towards the end of the session. A couple of very enjoyable hours, discussing Sondheim issues, such as favourite shows, the different approaches to staging Sondheim, approaches to playing in his work etc.



And then on Sunday evening, Anyone Can Whistle was staged as a concert performance at St David's Hall. Sadly not many tickets had been sold, so everyone was seated together on the floor of the Hall, which meant we all had excellent seats for what was a really wonderful evening.



I don't know the show at all, so was very curious, and I was certainly not alone in thinking that this writing was nothing like anything I'd heard before, but it was delivered with such energy and talent, it was difficult not to be carried along with it anyway. The Chorus and smaller parts were played by local amateurs, at a completely professional standard. The Principals (Jenny Logan as the Mayor, Paul Bentley as Schub, Simon Green as Hapgood and as a replacement for the advertised Linzi Hatley, Jessica Martin as Nurse Fay Apple) were all on top form, with Simon Green and particularly Jessica Martin absolutely excellent. (She turned out a wonderful performance at the Opening Gala too.) It was a romp from start to finish, with Angela Rippon in suitably suave control as the evening's narrator.



Although done as a concert performance, there was a fair sprinkling of dance in there too, and some wonderful comic play between the company and narrator, particularly with the French language section.



But I think overall, it was Simon Green's Everybody Says Don't and Jessica Martin's singing There won't Be Trumpets and Anyone Can Whistle that will stay with me most of all.



Apart from Sweeney Todd later this week, that's pretty much it for advertised Sondheim at The International Festival of Musical Theatre, though there's lots of other good stuff still to come, and I suppose there's a good chance that some of the singers in the Voice of Musical Theatre competition at the end of the Festival will be singing some Sondheim too.



Anybody else at these events? What did you make of it all?