You might could call Stephen Sondheim‘s exquisite and delicate Into The Woods a “problem play.” Like Shakespeare’s problem plays (one thinks of A Winter’s Tale) to call Into The Woods problematic is in no way to criticize. Rather, it’s to…
Tag: Stephen Sondheim
Review | A Little Night Music: the perfect show for a frigid winter night
Only the great Stephen Sondheim can do this: hunched over a (grand, naturally) piano, he plunks out a simple melody. One five-five-five. “Isn’t it rich? / Don’t you approve?” And suddenly – hey, presto! – Sondheim has created “Send In…
Review | West Side Story: a lovely production of a true American classic
West Side Story (at the Guthrie, through Aug 26) was first produced on Broadway in 1957 and since then it has emphatically entered the international canon, averaging 5,000 productions per year. No other play has this kind of presence. Shakespeare?…
Review | Follies: rough-hewn charm
Like the recent The Music Man, Follies (Artistry Theater, through May 6) exudes sturdy but rough-around-the edges sweetness and charm. Director Benjamin McGovern has done a crackerjack job casting Follies, (music and lyrics by the great Stephen Sondheim, book by…
Review | Assassins: overlong maybe, but fab
Ever wonder why the dapper Johnny Wilkes Booth murdered Abraham Lincoln? Laid awake at night sorting out the reasons why the cheerfully insane Charles Guiteau put a bullet in President Garfield’s back? Tried to figure out why the effervescently cute…
Sunday In The Park With George: an affecting portrait of the artistic impulse
The design! The Guthrie‘s Sunday In The Park With George features richly fab work by projection designer Caite Hevner and by lighting designer Jane Cox. Their Sunday is gloriously, breath-takingly, mesmerizingly colorful. I’m unsure where the lighting leaves off and…
West Side Story: thrilling and inspiring
2007 was the fiftieth anniversary of West Side Story. The NPR report I listened to at the time indicated that there had been – ten years ago – 50,000 productions of the show. What this means is that, as you…
Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street by Theater Latté Da, performing at the Ritz Theater
Mark Benninghfen, who plays the eponymous character in Stephen Sondheim‘s giddy and brilliantly tuneful revenge fantasia, Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street (Theater Latté Da, performing at the Ritz Theater, through Oct 25) is a revelation: board stiff…
Into The Woods by Theater Latté Da, performing at the Ritz Theater
Chelsea: From the moment we walked into The Ritz Theater (345 13th Ave NE) for Theater Latté Da‘s production of the great Stephen Sondheim‘s rich and multi-layered Into The Woods, it felt like we were in for something good. The theater, in…
A Little Night Music by Mu Performing Arts, performing at Park Square Theatre
In Stephen Sondheim‘s marvelous A Little Night Music (Mu Performing Arts performing at Park Square Theatre, through Aug 10) little surprise or tension lies in the playing-out of the characters’ predictable arcs. Frederik is married, sexlessly, to Anne. Famous matinee…