CELEBRATION

The Pasadena Playhouse’s tribute to the late composer-lyricist was created with both Sondheim fans and brand-new audiences in mind. / BY LIBBY

IF STEPHEN SONDHEIM had done nothing other than write the lyrics for West Side Story, his place in entertainment and cultural history would have been cemented.

But when the musical theater titan died in November 2021 at age 91, he left a legacy of so much more: the music and lyrics for 13 Broadway musicals including Company, Follies and Sweeney Todd; the lyrics for Gypsy and Do I Hear a Waltz?; nine Tony Awards; and the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Sunday in the Park with George

It’s not surprising, then, that Pasadena Playhouse is producing a nearly five-month Sondheim festival of full-scale musical productions, solo and choral concerts, shows by student performers, even an improv revue.

As it turns out, A Sondheim Celebration, which runs through June 11, was conceived by Playhouse producing artistic director Danny Feldman prior to Sondheim’s death, during the dark days of Covid-19 lockdown when he was trying to find hope and to look forward to a time when theaters would resume performances.

Sondheim himself signed off on the idea.

Though Sondheim’s death was “pretty devastating,” Feldman says, he decided to move forward. He had chosen to showcase the composer-lyricist because, he says, “Sondheim changed musical theater forever. Before, there was a darkness and a nuance to a lot of shows, but it was mostly kept offstage.

“Sondheim was about bringing all of that onstage. He was writing about the complexities of human beings, and in a way that didn’t sound as commercial or square as a Rodgers and Hart song. The New York Times obituary [said], ‘He taught us how to hear differently.’ His level of artistry was at such an unparalleled level.”

The celebration roster was designed, through varying styles and approaches, to engage both diehard fans and people unfamiliar with Sondheim’s work.

The “anchor marquee” offerings, as Feldman calls them, are Sunday in the Park with George (Feb. 14-March 19) and A Little Night Music (April 25-May 21) on the Playhouse mainstage. Larry Owens, pre-Broadway lead of A Strange Loop, performs his Sondheimia concert (Feb. 27 and March 6), followed by indie folk singermusician Eleri Ward’s Acoustic Sondheim (April 14-15).

Impro Theatre’s Sondheim UnScripted (May 5-6) runs at the Playhouse’s Carrie Hamilton Theater. A free concert by community choral groups, Song by Song by muse Bernadette Peters (June 10-11) on the Playhouse mainstage.

Sunday in the Park with George, an exploration of what it means to be an artist inspired by Impressionist pointillist painter Georges Seurat, is directed by Sarna Lapine, who helmed the 2017 Broadway revival and is the niece of longtime Sondheim collaborator/ book author James Lapine. The production retains many of the same designers as the revival and scenically, the director says, is still “very simple. It’s very stripped down, and the orchestra will still be on stage.”

Lapine brings her experience working with Sondheim to the production. “He was always a very generous communicator, and always incredibly joyful and supportive,” she says. “His notes are always so precise. He is looking at the balance and the color of the score in a very detailed way. I often found that his notes were so actor friendly, as opposed to very technical singing notes—they were about the spirit and the tone and the way that the actor would approach something.

“His writing is so character driven,” Lapine adds. “And he’s such a detailed and clever storyteller. His compositions are about the complex inner workings of characters. I consider him to be the master of ambivalence, which means he’s constantly creating dramatic tension.

“People are always at odds with themselves—the human condition is very paradoxical and contradictory. This is such a brilliant dramatist. He is not just a composer.”

The cast of A Little Night Music must be /CONTINUED ON PAGE 30