Sondheim in the age of Zoom

For died-in the wool Broadway show lovers, Stephen Sondheim is more than legendary – the word “iconic” better describes his standing with his fans.

True enough, some folks prefer more traditional fare like Oklahoma, Hello Dolly, Guys and Dolls and such. Sondheim’s shows demand a slightly different taste. They’re more philosophical, intricate, and serious, but never have singing choruses or dancing. Musicians regard his music and lyrics as challenging and demanding.

At age 90, Sondheim is old enough to have witnessed many theatrical tributes to his music. 

But I must say, I have never seen a celebration of his work quite like the one that is currently available on You Tube called Take Me To The World    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A92wZIvEUAw .  For anyone who enjoys great voices singing some of the most sophisticated songs ever written, this is a true treasure.

While most celebrations of this ilk feature fancy costumes, flashy musical arrangements and high production value, the COVID-19 quarantine has demanded that the songs for this show be sung in front of a single stationary camera, in the homes of the performers. 

Professional mics and cameras were used, but minimalist lighting and almost no sets.  Just living rooms, dens, family rooms and backyards serve as the backdrops. And the only musical accompaniment provided (with a couple of exceptions) is a piano.

The audience gets to appreciate great voices singing great songs, without the glitz.  

Coming away from this 2 ½ hour video was the realization that these Broadway stars are more than just singers – they are actors.  And those acting skills are what make these performances something special to behold.  There they are, without the benefit of a dancing chorus or a big band, but these great performers are fully capable of bringing a song to life. They use not only their highly trained voices but also facial expressions and body movements.  The camera doesn’t move, but that doesn’t stop the flow of music and expression.

At the beginning of Sondheim’s Broadway career, he only wrote lyrics and not the music for some shows.  This was a frustration to him, but it also was a period of some of his greatest success, namely the timeless lyrics to West Side Story and Gypsy. Sadly, Take Me To The World does not include songs from those beloved shows.

This You Tube homage to Sondheim only used the songs he wrote music and lyrics for, so we hear lots of selections from Into The Woods, Sweeney Todd, A Little Night Music, Sunday In The Park With George and others.

 Although some may find a stagnant camera focused from the chest up, as boring, I found this Zoom presentation to be intense and personal.  Especially since we also got to see some of the stars’ children, pets, and home decorations.

Sometimes the singers gave short intros about their feelings for Sondheim and his music, sometimes not.  Other times, big stars (Nathan Lane, Steven Spielberg, for instance) didn’t sing at all.  They just told compelling stories about Sondheim that give us more insight into the man.

The tribute begins, strangely, with two overtures. Stephen Schwartz, who wrote music and lyrics for Wicked and Pippin, played the piano version of the overture for Follies. Then a full Broadway (Individually, Zoom style) band played the overture to Sondheim’s little known Merrily We Roll Along.

After the overtures the audience is treated to a banquet of performances by 37 Broadway stars.

The most interesting: For me, the most interesting aspects of the show were the number of songs that I was least familiar with and the singers who I didn’t know previously. I found it fascinating to see and hear great performers of whom I had I had no knowledge.

Although Sondheim is considered a god by many Broadway fans, many of his shows were unable to find large audiences.  Passion, Pacific Overtures, Assassins, Anyone Can Whistle, and others are all shows that were not successes on Broadway, but all have individual songs that play well a concert setting. We even heard a tune from Saturday Night which I believe was written when he was in college and Evening Primrose which was a musical for TV.

One of the great joys of the video was delighting in  lesser known (to me) singers. Brandon Uranowitz, Elizabeth Stanley, Chip Zien, Alexander Gemignani, Aaron Tveit, Maria Friedman, Melissa Errico , and Beanie Feldstein – all of whom I never heard of before but have had leading roles on Broadway  (or London’s West End) and were all impressive.

A delightful bonbon added to the mix were the kids.  At the end of Sutton Foster’s wonderful singing of There Won’t Be Trumpets, her precious 4-year-old ((?) daughter sang happy birthday to Sondheim.  Neil Patrick Harris had his two children act as props, and child super star Iain Armitage (Young Sheldon) was featured in a video when he was 5 or so, singing Finishing The Hat, while he was busy drawing a hat. A great talent, even at that age.

And the stories by Jason Alexander, John Weidman, Victor Garber and others were fun and illuminating.

The Best: It’s difficult to choose the best from all these world-class singers/actors.  But there were some that indeed stood out.

Neil Patrick Harris was wildly entertaining with his take on the Witches Rap from Into the Woods.  His face was a a showcase of a constant array of expressions as well as his great acting skills.

Linda Lavin was hilarious with her rendition of an impossible-to-sing piece of fluff that Sondheim wrote for The Mad Show (1966), called The Man From…  It’s a crazy parody on the popular song of that time, Girl from Ipanema. It displays Sondheim’s (he only wrote the lyrics for this one) sense of the absurd and is so much fun to listen to. Only Lavin could give it the deadpan goofiness it deserves.

The great Brian Stokes Mitchell brought his imposing baritone voice to a song that was cut from Assassin, The Flag Song. It’s an unabashedly patriotic song without Sondheim’s usual irony and darkness. It was a big surprise because I never heard it before and Mitchell sang it with stand-up-tall strength and idealism. 

Another revelation was seeing Alexander Gemignani (another newby for me) sing the showstopper Buddy’s Blues from Follies on a swivel chair in his home office.  Lots of sass, lots of expression and lots of energy.  Somehow, he even danced in his chair.

Everyone was performing with little musical support, but Bernadette Peters bested them all by singing the heartfelt No One is Alone from Into The Woods a capella – no musical accompaniment.  Although not perfect, Peters was totally disarming with her intense simplicity and vocal skills.

Randy Rainbow has been a You Tube sensation in the last few years, creating terrific parodies of politicians and entertainers alike. Here, he was dazzling in his own production of By The Sea from Sweeney Todd.  Rainbow brought his signature ultra-gay personality with great humor to the song.  His appearance added to the variety of the entire show.

A pair of group songs were both standouts, Ben Platt and Beanie Feldstein, somehow singing together from two different houses, in It Takes Two from Into The Woods. Again, both of them displayed their strong acting ability and expressive voices.  They played off each other beautifully.

For many, the blockbuster of the production was Christine Baranski, Meryl Streep and Audra McDonald, all cavorting with glasses of wine, in Company’s Ladies Who Lunch.  They were clearly having more fun than anyone (and that’s the joy of watching them), but when Audra McDonald chimed in with her dark, gorgeous voice, she put the other two actresses to shame.

Not So Good. Of course, there had to be some negatives to an otherwise great show.

I was very disappointed with Josh Groban.  The superstar sang two memorable songs - Children Will Listen and Not While I’m Around (a great pairing).  Although Groban has a stunning voice, he is not an actor.  Compared with those brilliant stage performers, Groban could not hold a candle.

Mandy Patinkin performed Lesson No 8, a capella, from Sunday In the Park With George out in a park (his property?) with his Labrador at this feet. His voice was weak, and the song did not make it.

One of Sondheim’s truly great songs was assigned to Lin-Manuel Miranda, Giants In The Sky from Into The Woods.  Miranda who became a huge international star for writing and starring in Hamilton, did not seem to have the voice to do this song justice.  He’s fine with hip hop-style music but didn’t to have the depth of voice for this song.

The most production work appeared to be used in the song Someone In A Tree, from Pacific Overtures, but it just didn’t come together.  It used four singers (Ann Harada, Austin Ki, Kelvin Moon Loh and Thom Sesma), but it came across as very long and musically uninteresting. 

Two things were very apparent from this remarkable video.  First was that Sondheim is indeed a genius song writer.  The fact that one man could have written all of these songs, lyrics and music, each one with its own personality and story to tell, is nothing short of amazing.

And the other obvious thing is the complete commitment all of these great artists had to the material.  They all LOVED Sondheim’s music and loved singing his songs.  That sincere enthusiasm made this video something that every lover of Broadway music should see, more than once.