Jere-Rigged

Wall To Wall To Wall

It's taken me awhile to digest the experience, but early on Saturday morning I went uptown to Symphony Space to see the Wall to Wall Sondheim concert, the massive, once-in-a-lifetime, 12 hour event celebrating the 75th birthday of uber-composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim.

What A Day!. It was THRILLING...it was EXCITING...it was AMAZING...it was LONG.

And I lasted, right there in the second row, through all 12 hours of it. I'm ever so glad to have gone and I was so happy to get the hell out of there at the end. Here are some highlights:

-A bunch of material from Sunday in the Park with George. Michael Cerveris and Melissa Errico sang "Sunday in the Park with George" and "Color and Light," Cerveris was joined by Mary Beth Peil for "Beautiful," original cast member Dana Ivey and Isaiah Sheffer did "No Life," and, later on in the day, Carolee Carmello and Gregg Edelman performed "Move On." The last number of the long day was the Juilliard Choral Union performing a Jason Robert Brown arrangement of "Sunday." And I was in tears through most of it. It was literally edge-of-the-seat thrilling. I've been a big fan of Errico's since I saw her as Eliza Doolittle in the early 90's revival of My Fair Lady. She brings something to even the worst productions (ahem...Dracula) and when given the gift of superior material, as she was here, she's brilliance personified. In fact, I've always said that she's the new Bernadette Peters and here, singing Peters' finest role, she proved my point admirably.

-Seeing Angela Lansbury perform live in person. Can I just say "Wow!"? This lady hasn't been on Broadway in over 20 years and likely will never again do another play or musical. I was so happy to see her and George Hearn appear to do "A Little Priest," a number from Sweeney Todd. Lansbury still has the stuff of Mrs. Lovett in her and, even when she had some trouble due to an awkward page turn, the crowd LOVED her. She seemed surprised at the sheer adulation and love that emanated from the crowd. She shouldn't have been; if she didn't know she was one of Broadway's most beloved icons, she sure does now. I only wish she'd performed something from Anyone Can Whistle as well.

-What can one say about Elaine Stritch? I'd seen her do her signature number "The Ladies Who Lunch" before in her own bravura turn on Broadway, Elaine Stritch At Liberty, and she certainly didn't disappoint here. No one does this number like her and nothing else in the world exists when she's doing it. All this woman has to do to provoke an ovation is speak the song's opening line, "I'd like to propose a toast." I love it.

-Donna Murphy has obviously recovered from the health problems that marred her run in the recent revival of Wonderful Town on Broadway. She showed up here looking glamourous and every inch a star to do a most compelling rendition of "Losing My Mind." Zowee!

-Some people love Patti LuPone and some do not. She said it best herself on a recent episode of TV's Will and Grace where she played herself, "They either love me or hate me." I'm on the fence here. I very much appreciate the lady's talent, while wishing that she would increase her appreciation of consonants and control her legendary backstage behavior. I'd even seen her do "Being Alive" before, but never like this. She showed up, diction intact, and electrified the crowd. Awesome! Awesome! Awesome!

-Michael Cerveris and Judy Kuhn, reuniting from the DC production of Passion to sing "Loving You." I'd never seen Kuhn on stage before and she's as magnificent as I'd heard. Someone find this woman a show. Now.

-Lonny Price, the original Charley of Merrily We Roll Along, reprising his "Franklin Shepard, Inc." There's just something special about seeing the originator of a role coming back to it 20+ years later. Neat.

-Laura Benanti singing the role of Anne in two selections from A Little Night Music, "Now/Soon/Later" and "A Weekend in the Country." If ever an actress was born to play a role, this is it.

-Joanna Gleason, who popped in between performances of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, (with props, I might add) to hoist herself up onto a piano and do "The Boy From...," Sondheim's hilarious parody of "The Girl From Ipanema." This song is pretty fool-proof, but Gleason knocked it out of the park. I wish she had a number even half as good in DRS.

-the yeoman work of Michael Cerveris, Kate Baldwin, Telly Leung, and Michael Arden, all of whom stuck around the entire day and sang an enormous amount of material in big spots and small. Cerveris, in particular, had a field day, assaying the roles of Georges, Booth, Giorgio, and Happgood, at various points during the day in addition to an array of smaller duties.

-the discussion groups, with the exception of a truncated one on the creation of Merrily We Roll Along (where Daisy Prince's answer to every question was "I don't really remember; I was very young at the time."), were very informative and funny. Sondheim, himself appeared in a couple of them and he seems much more relaxed talking about himself and his work now at 75 than he has ever been in the past. He seems like a really nice man. Of course, all the moderators steered clear of his personal life, but that's not really why we were there anyway.

Some random observations:

-Bernadette Peters, perhaps Sondheim's greatest star, was not in attendance. She was stuck in California where she is doing a pilot with Christine Baranski. The star did telephone though and the conversation was broadcast in the hall.

-Both Alice Ripley and Emily Skinner appeared, but not together. I was hoping they'd do a live version of their "You'll Never Get Away From Me," which they first did years ago as a comic counterpoint to the musical in which they were then starring, Side Show. It's also on one of their duet albums. I have heard that they mutually agreed to stop performing together at some point because fans kept confusing them. Well, that shouldn't be an issue anymore; I doubt anyone could confuse the waif-thin Ripley with the zaftig Skinner. So , get with it girls! You've never been as good apart as you were together. Do another album, do another show. Somebody write a big diva musical for these two to reunite and kick some ass in.

-There were four real-life married couples in the mix of talent: Jason Danieley and Marin Mazzie, John Dossett and Michele Pawk, Jason Robert Brown and Georgia Stitt, and Gregg Edelman and Carolee Carmello. Everyone got to do a number (or, in the case of Brown and Stitt, a panel) with their spouse. There may also have been some couples up there, gay or straight, that I just didn't know about. I wanted to tell the pack of screaming girls a couple of rows behind me (testing their lung capacity in service of Michael Arden, mostly) not to waste their time and that the men on stage were either married or gay. Or possibly both, who knows?

-there was one father/son duo amongst the performers, although Alexander Gemignani did not sing anything during the part of the program when his father Paul was leading the American Theatre Orchestra.

-I amused my friend Greg, sitting next to me, by leaning over and whispering "I saw her boobs" whenever appropriate to the current performer. Just in case you were wondering, there were four actresses up there whose bare breasts I have seen on stage: Alice Ripley, Melissa Errico, Kate Burton, and Marin Mazzie. There were also three men I'd seen shirtless on the stage: Jason Danieley, Michael Arden, and B.D. Wong.

-the piano players were ALL amazing and versatile; most of the program was accompanied by piano only. Where are these guys when I'm trying to sing a little Sondheim in an audition? The cutest one was a guy named Sam Davis. Whoo-Hoo!

-there were quite a number of performers singing songs whose originators were also present at the event. Yikes! It was an interesting choice to not have everyone do the numbers they originated. Sometimes I agreed with it, sometimes not. I especially felt bad for Debbie Gravitte who had to sing "Me and My Town" with the great Lansbury in the building.

I may add stuff about this incredible day as I think of it, but I just gotta tell you...

I was physically ill afterward from sitting all day. You'd have thought I was out digging ditches or something. I was wrecked. It was a combination of no food, not enough bathroom breaks, and all the screaming. I was headachy and nauseous for about the last hour or two. But damn it, I was going to stick it out if it killed me.

Greg, Jason (my other friend in attendance) and I all went out to Park Cafe afterward for a very expensive, too close to Times Square meal that helped, but I wasn't feeling normal again (shut up, Fosca) till the next morning when Greg and I finally roused ourselves.

I am very glad I went. I am very glad it's over. I am very glad I never have to do it again.

All hail the great Sondheim. Amen.

Posted by Jere at March 24, 2005 11:17 PM | TrackBack