Word: clever
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...cast's quick reaction to a near-tragedy erased the audience's concerns, and the play continued without a hitch. Audiences who will see the musical this weekend hopefully will not smell burnt wires and see flying sparks. The lively production of this clever, melodramatic score has plenty of sparks...
PEOPLE WHO started out thinking of Stephen Sondheim as just a clever lyricist have long ago given him his due as an artist--and a chameleon. As soon as he started writing the music to go behind his own words. Sondheim began varying the roles he could play--sliding a melody off key or twisiting a double-entendre into mid-line, he was the vitriolic social critic in Sweenes Todd, the light satirist in A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum, the gentle troubadour in A Little Night Music; he was blandly anthologized as cultural phenomenon...
Stringing 19 of Sondheim's upper-Manhattan-loneliness-love-songs together with only a sketchy, if provocative, plot does not seem to be a fundamentally good idea. Which is not to say that the songs aren't clever, funny, and tuneful, or that their presentation in the Leverett Old Library leaves anything to be desired in terms of theatrical technique. On the contrary, the difficulties in structure often have the effect of creating more levels of meaning, especially with two extremely skilled performers there to explore those levels...
Director Jennifer Tingle sends Currier's production out of the starting gate quickly, with a clever and appropriately tongue-in-cheek opening. But the first act soon falters, revealing that maybe Tingle and company didn't get the point after...
OTHER THAN THE superb costuming, the show's production lacks polish. Despite some clever staging, the crew is fairly creative, but ultimately not able to overcome the limitations of the Currier Fishbowl to create the make-believe world musicals require. The choreography is well-conceived, but occasionally stumbles on the hesitancy of the cast...