Word: sondheims
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...stupid, men are vain/Love's disgusting, love's insane/A humiliating business." This is hardly the typical love-song sentiment. But Stephen Sondheim is not a typical lyricist, and an evening of his persistent cynicism can be quite wearing. Fortunately, the creators of Love is in the Air have coated the bitterness of Sondheim's songs with enough comic relief to make for a delightful experience...
This production marks the fourth annual Sondheim cabaret to benefit AIDS patient care at New England Deaconess Hospital. Judging from the masterful performances and energy displayed in Love is in the Air, another splendid Harvard tradition has taken root...
Unlike most popular music, which functions best as dance music or as the soundtrack to a video, Sondheim's works reward close listening. The rhymes are breathtaking. Whereas most lyricists are content with two words, Sondheim often rhymes three, four or, in "Two Fairy Tales," 15 words. He also plays with consonance, matching pinch, punch, pauch, pouch and pension...
...song which lasts only a few minutes, the sentiments Sondheim expresses through words and melody can be quite subtle. But with careful modulation and precise diction, the cabaret cast makes almost every song accessible. In many Harvard musicals the leads sing considerably better than the supporting cast. However, in Love is in the Air each vocalist does an impressive job, though Lynda Doctoroff stands out for her clear, powerful voice and considerable acting ability. And David Eggar, the pianist, both provides skillful accompaniment and shows his own talent during the piano solos of such songs as "Being Alive...
Still, for all its wit, the text (by John Weidman, Sondheim's collaborator on Pacific Overtures) has no obvious topical resonances -- and probably could not, given that the authors view assassination as arising from thwarted ambition rather than any ideology or cause. As satire, Assassins is pointless: it attacks people who have no defenders. As pop sociology, it makes points about fame, envy and media culture that were made far more richly in John Guare's The House of Blue Leaves. One is left wondering -- not least because of an imagined conversation between a would-be assassin and composer Leonard...