Love is in the Air

After the house lights came up at the conclusion of 12 hours of Wall-to-Wall Sondheim at New York's Symphony Space, the deliriously happy audience did not want to leave. Having reveled in the joy of seeing and hearing an excitingly stellar roster of artists performing the crème de la crème of the last forty-odd years of the American musical theatre, the attendees continued their string of standing ovations long after honoree Stephen Sondheim had blown out the candles on his seventy-fifth birthday cake, and had graciously thanked everyone on stage, backstage and in the audience. Host Isaiah Sheffer had to return to the microphone, announce that the event was over, and bid everyone good night in order to bring the audience back down to earth. Days this joyous and serendipitous are rare, and it is understandable that no one wanted to see it end.

The final three hour segment was anchored by the 35-piece American Theatre Orchestra conducted (mostly) by Paul Gemignani. This segment highlighted Stephen Sondheim's music with its wonderful original orchestrations, mostly by Jonathan Tunick, which made virtually every musical segment soar. Each audience member will have his/her own favorite performances, but, for an extraordinary amount of the time, the air was rarefied and intoxicating. For me, the 10 most thrilling segments were:

1. Lonny Price (assisted by Michael Cerveris) reprising his original performance as Charlie Kringas in Merrily We Role Along, singing "Franklin Shepherd, Inc." This is not just a song. This is a pulsating, dramatic vignette filled with passion and pain, and Lonny was electrifying both dramatically and vocally. Actually, a lot more so than he was back in 1981.

2. Angela Lansbury and George Hearn recreating their roles from Sweeney Todd to deliver "A Little Priest", the giddy first act finale. Hearn was powerfully amusing and letter perfect. Ms. Lansbury flubbed a couple of lines, but her wonderful comic timing and vocal interpretations were a delight to re-experience. She exuded an aura of star power in her very being, which is as rare as it is thrilling. We felt honored by her very presence.

3. Since I'm talking about star power, a very big moment for the audience was Patti LuPone's powerful rendition of Company's finale "Being Alive." Starting at the top, LuPone then went over the top and over that, performing as if she might never have a chance to sing again. Hearing her strong and secure voice, it was a pleasure to be swept up in this lady's ability to bring down the house.

4. In a diametrically opposite manner (accompanied on the piano by Chris Fenwick while the orchestra took its required break), the extremely warm and sensitive Alvin Ing delivered the most heartfelt and deeply moving interpretation of Evening Primrose's "Take Me to the World" that I have ever heard.

5. Among three superb orchestral pieces conducted by Paul Gemignani, the stringless, mostly brass overture of Merrily We Roll Along" soared highest into the stratosphere. The pulsating, rhythmic jazz-inflected arrangement was Swingin' Broadway at its pinnacle.

6. An exquisite, moving Donna Murphy perfectly and powerfully captured the desperation of Follies' haunting "Losing My Mind." Murphy was able to do this while adding a great deal of individual style to her interpretation.

7. It is always a special treat to hear a rarely heard song and realize that it is exceptionally wise and beautiful. With Jonathan Tunick conducting, Mackenzie Mauzy as Fredrika sang the lively but plaintive "The Glamorous Life" from the film version of A Little Night Music. In this song, which is quite different from the song of the same title in the show, Mauzy lightly captures the sadness of Desiree's daughter as in her loneliness she tries to take comfort from her mother's accomplishments.

8. The dazzlingly witty and psychologically rich "Someone in a Tree" (which seemed to lose some of its luster in the Roundabout Pacific Overtures revival) restored to its full richness as performed by B. D. Wong, Alvin Ing, Telly Leung and Evan D'Angeles. Perhaps it is the restoration of the original arrangement or the interplay between age and youth as performed by Ing and Leung, but "Tree" was again as richly satisfying on stage as it is in our memory.

9. It was a special thrill to see the original Follies Broadway cast Young Sally (Marti Rolph), Young Buddy (Harvey Evans) and Young Benjamin (Kurt Peterson), (joined by the delightful Michelle Pawk as Phyllis) now singing "Waiting for the Girls Upstairs" with great aplomb and strong voices in the roles of their mature "selves." For the record, Peterson now looks just like "Mr. Benjamin Stone," Evans looks like a real life Buddy, and, truth be told, Rolph looks more like the sophisticated Phyllis than she does the older Sally.

10. Multiple tie here. Debra Monk strongly and solidly delivered Carlotta's "I'm Still Here" (Follies); Patrick Quinn and Isaiah Sheffer offered a hilarious "Invocation" (The Frogs); a ravishing Laura Benanti (Anne), together with John Dossett (Fredrik) and Danny Gurwin (Henrik), sang "Now/Later/Soon" in strong voice, and they were then joined by Kate Baldwin (Petra), Randy Graff (Charlotte) and Marc Kudisch (Carl-Magnus) for arguably the best first act finale ever written, the thrilling and witty "A Weekend in the Country" (both from A Little Night Music). The latter was conducted by Charles Prince.

Also tied for tenth place are Jason Danieley and Marin Mazzie (the original Clara), lovingly singing "Happiness" from Passion and "Too Many Mornings" from Follies; Greg Edelman and Michele Pawk flirtatiously delivering "The Best Thing that Ever Happened" from Bounce; and Michele Pawk and John Dossett's tender "Send in the Clowns" (A Little Night Music).

Neil Patrick Harris

Also well sung were "The Gun Song" (Becky Ann Baker, Michael Cerveris, James Clow, Merwin Foard) and "The Ballad of Czolgosz" (Patrick Cassidy with Ivy Austin, Sidney J. Burgoyne, Debra Joyal, Thom Christopher Warren), both from Assassins.

The incomparable Barbara Cook (accompanied by Jeffrey Harris on the piano) sang "In Buddy's Eyes" from Follies. The dynamic and loveable Debbie Gravitte sang "Me and My Town" from Anyone Can Whistle. Ivy Austin emphasized the frightening frenzy some feel in the Big Apple in her rendition of Company's "Another Hundred People"

Jason Robert Brown prepared a nice arrangement of the title song and "The Hills of Tomorrow" from Merrily We Roll Along for the Juilliard Choral Union which he accompanied on the piano. For the finale, Brown arranged "Sunday" from Sunday in the Park with George for the orchestra and Choral Union.

For much of the day when not on stage, Sondheim graciously sat out front amongst the delighted audience. He appeared to be relaxed and content, seeming to truly enjoy the wonderful birthday party that Wall-to-Wall had assembled for him and us both.

May Stephen Sondheim be blessed with many more happy birthdays. His 75th birthday bash at Symphony Space will never be forgotten by those who were lucky enough to be there.

Random notes: re: the 4:40 —8:00 P.M. segment

- Michael Cerveris and Judy Kuhn beautifully sang "Loving You" from Passion

- Nora York sang her own, rather odd (to these ears), highly stylized arrangements of "I Remember" and "Being Alive".

- A panel on "Sondheim and American Popular Culture" moderated by Frank Rich seemed lacking in both focus and content. Melissa Bernardo (Entertainment Weekly) told a story about a student production of a Sondheim show depicted in a Ben Stiller movie; Joss Whedon, who wrote the Buffy musical episode, stated that he and other Hollywood TV writers with New York backgrounds love Sondheim. Sondheim joked that if he had known that when they were introduced that he would have greeted Whedon in a friendlier manner. Andrew Lippa was adorable in his random comments. And Sondheim was relaxed, good humored and just plain happy. Not appearing at all prepared to moderate the topic, Rich asked Sondheim about his favorite movies. I was happy to hear Sondheim name Michael Curtiz as one of his favorite directors as I am a strong admirer of Curtiz.

Singing "Move On" Carolee Carmello and Greg Edelman

- Composer Georgina Stitt arranged three Sondheim songs for The Ying (String) Quartet and vocalist. By far, the most effective was "Losing My Mind" which was sung with considerable power and poignancy by Angelina Reaux.

- Joel Fram (a key Symphony Space producer of Wall-to-Wall) moderated a panel on "Favorite Sondheim Lyrics" featuring Jason Robert Brown, Richard Maltby Jr. and Georgia Stitt. Richard Maltby was especially convincing illustrating with the lyrics to "A Weekend in the Country" how Sondheim's words fall on notes which mimic natural patterns of speech.

- When Daisy Prince was asked some questions about stories which have made the rounds about her inspiring the collaborative work of her father and Sondheim, she pleaded ignorance citing her tender years at the time.

- Randy Graff performed "Could I Leave You" reasonably well, but left me with the feeling that she could do more with it.

- Although rather youthful for the material, Telly Leung performed "Bowler Hat" smoothly.

- Patrick Cassidy and Michael Cerveris with "The Ballad of Booth" and Alexander Gemignani and Annie Golden with "Unworthy of Your Love" represented the Roundabout Assassins quite well.

- Hudson Shad created a beautiful vocal sound for "The Sun Won't Set," but seemed totally unaware of that song's considerable humor.

- David Shire presented a brilliant sounding technical explanation of the brilliance of Sondheim's musical composition. It was impressive and convincing even to those of us without the music education to truly understand his remarks.