Year after year, older and older

I went to a "look-in" at the Kennedy Center with the lead cast members of Follies--basically, a discussion. The first half hour, the cast answered questions from the moderator; the second, they answered audience questions. One guy asked Bernadette Peters something like, "If someone isn't familiar with Sondheim, what song do you think would be the best example of him?" Response of the audience: "Oooooh."

Bernadette Peters couldn't answer it. Sondheim, of course, is too elusive. It's crazy when you look at his shows, when you listen to the incredible variety of music he writes. There's the pastiche in Follies, the journey through American songs in Assassins, the classical influence of A Little Night Music...It's crazy.

It reminds me of when I was talking to the two teenage guys in my tap class. I mentioned Sondheim, and they hadn't heard of him. (Maybe because they're European? ...Or teenage boys?) I was trying to think of something they might know, and came up with Sweeney Todd. Which they DID know. But that's the thing about Sondheim--this genius, yet so many of his shows flopped. Have most people heard of him? I don't even know.

One of the actors made a comment in the look-in about Sondheim's songs. There was a discussion about singing his songs on their own, in concerts and so forth. Bernadette Peters said that she wouldn't sing "Send in the Clowns" outside of Night Music, because for her, it's too much part of the story. Another of the actors then pointed out that the great thing about Sondheim is that the songs work both perfectly in the shows...but their lyrics are so universal that a lot of the time, they don't need the show. I knew "Clowns" and "Losing My Mind" and "Broadway Baby" and "Putting It Together" and "Side by Side" before I knew the shows they came from. They mean more now...but they were pretty great before, too.

Between the look-in today and reactions to the show I was reading on message boards, there is a LOT of love for the original production of Follies. Gushing about the music, the staging. People gushing about it affecting them, lingering with them for the 40 years since the show premiered.

It didn't have that effect on me. Of the Sondheim shows I've seen, it's probably my least favorite. Random, extraneous songs; too many characters. There are some really fantastic numbers--really. fantastic. But, it didn't touch me. Maybe I'm still too young for it?

And that's what it comes down to. In trying to decide my favorite Sondheim, it comes down to that emotional connection for me. Emotionally, Company is my favorite; objectively, Sunday in the Park With George probably is. But Bobby is a character I can relate to only too much. "Move On" from Sunday very well may be my favorite song, but I am Bobby. Company is My Sondheim.

(Side note: I totally want to go have drinks with Elaine Paige. She seems fantastic. I feel like she would be awesomely gossipy about everyone in British theatre.)

Hoping for triumph of romanticism over cynicism

When I studied abroad in England, one of the first things I wanted to do in London was find Dress Circle, a shop in London that specialized in musical theater merchandise. I had ordered things from them already; in those days, before the Internet was as huge as it's become, it was hard to find certain things--for example, Michael Ball CDs in the United States. So I ordered from them. I was on their mailing list. When I finally made it there, it was like Mecca. I couldn't have been happier.

So of course I was bummed to see an article about its fight to stay open. Long gone are the days when every production of a show got a cast recording. And now there's the Internet, the bane of small, specialized shops. The combination is a deadly one.

I can only hope for its survival. I haven't been there in a decade, but it brings me back to my teenage years, when I lived for musical theater. Dress Circle meant a lot to me then. And the thought of it closing is an incredibly sad one.