Word: sondheims
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...trees. A deep pit in the ground. People speaking quickly, rushing by, intent on completing their tasks. A cross between a sinister mystery and an office scene? No. This is the Loeb Mainstage, a week and a half before opening night of Into the Woods, a musical by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine...
This Broadway tribute to the lyricist of A Chorus Line, who never had another hit and died of cancer in 1988, might seem a precious bit of Broadway navel gazing. Yet it is surprisingly fresh and engaging. Kleban's little-heard songs are witty and original--Sondheim without the thesaurus. And the creators (chiefly director and star Lonny Price) temper their affection with candor and insight into an artist more familiar with frustration than fame...
...steel-girder sets are drably unmemorable. Instead of the film's catchy '70s hits (Hot Chocolate's You Sexy Thing), we have a new score by David Yazbek, whose lyrics ("cojones" rhymed with "what testosterone is") are marginally better than his generic, '70s-pop-with-a-hint-of-Sondheim music. Even the supposed showstoppers--a black man (Andre DeShields) sings of his endowments; a crusty pianist (Kathleen Freeman) celebrates her show-biz past--seem earthbound and underchoreographed...
...There is not on the face of this earth a better composer or lyricist than Stephen Sondheim," with whom Prince hinted he may soon be working again after a 19-year "vacation" from one another...
Enter Marie Christine, probably the most highly anticipated of this new art-musical genre. Lyrics and music are by Michael John LaChiusa, one of the most acclaimed of the post-Sondheim composers. It has a story of thematic heft and historical color: a retelling of the Medea myth, set in the Creole society of New Orleans in the 1890s. It stars Audra McDonald, the three-time Tony Award winner who showcased the music of LaChiusa and other art composers on her CD Way Back to Paradise. And it has received an extraordinary buildup from the New York Times, the Only...