Eric Hafen is foremost a director of plays, so words are important to him. That's probably why, as Artistic Director of the Bickford Theatre, he chose to open the 2012-2013 season with You're Gonna Love Tomorrow, a revue with songs by Stephen Sondheim, Hafen's favorite composer and lyricist, and an artist for whom the story told in words really matters. (Left: Adrianne Wick sings “Another Hundred People Get Off the Train” from Company)
On a minimal stage comprised of several platforms (all painted black), a video screen on which scenes and titles (and a video of Sondheim himself at the piano) are projected, and a white sail-like sheet stretched rather incongruously across the back, six talented singers perform tunes from a variety of Sondheim musicals for which he wrote both the music and lyrics by himself.
For 90 minutes we are treated to 22 Sondheim songs sung by six very talented performers. Hafen keeps them moving effortlessly around the stage, segueing from one number to another with nary a moment to breathe. Best of all, the singers actually act the lyrics, so that we get a poignant "Being Alive" (Company) sung by Adrianne Hick (it's actually sung by the male lead in that show) and a heart-wrenching rendition of "Not a Day Goes By" (Merrily We Roll Along) warbled by Tamara Hayes. That the latter is sung before a divorce proceeding, as the narrator tells us, makes her pain even sharper.
There is great fun in this production, too, provided most often by the men singing selections from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, a musical version of Aristophanes' The Frogs (first performed in a Yale University swimming pool) and a little-known play called Saturday Night. This mood is set in the opening moments when the cast calls upon the gods of the theater to smile on them and then launches on a list of don'ts for theater patrons (Above). Among them are don't cough, don't leave, don't say, "what?"
Three guys on a stoop lamenting being alone on a Saturday night ("you might as well be dead") recalls the classic film Marty, and the meeting at a dance by one of the guys (Michael Padgett) with a pretty girl (Lindsay Wood) has a bittersweet quality as they intone "This is Nice, Isn't It" before the whole thing fizzles. Hilarity is omnipresent in selections from Forum, especially "The House of Marcus Lycus," where Danny Arnold as the slimy procurer Lycus attempts to "sell" one of his courtesans (sinuously danced by the women) to the slave Pseudolus, aptly portrayed by Patrick John Moran, with a great voice and expressive face. Michael Padgett's General Miles Gloriosus has a fine time telling us "There's Something About a War," the humor of which is undercut by thoughts of Iraq and Afghanistan. How true the line that with war, the generals have the "knowledge they'll never be out of work." It gives one something to think about. (Above L-R: Danny Arnold, Patrick Moran and Michael Padgett)
Other standout selections are Lindsay Wood's interpretation of "The Miller's Son" (A Little Night Music) wherein she sings the praises of sowing her wild oats before settling down to what will probably be a boring, prosaic life. In "Johanna" (Sweeney Todd), Michael Padgett conveys the longing a man feels for his lost love. "You're Gonna Love Tomorrow"/"Love Will See Us Through" gets the full vaudeville treatment, with four singers (two couples) singing the separate melodic lines at the same time while dancing nimbly around the stage. (Right: Lindsay Wood and Michael Padgett sing “So Little to be Sure of”)
For me the most interesting moments came in the performance of two songs from Pacific Overtures, the only Sondheim show other than Saturday Night that I have not seen. Its premise is the opening of Japan to the West—in this case the Americans—in 1853; doesn't sound like an topic for musical theater, but once again, Sondheim's lyrics tell the compelling story of the clash of two very different cultures. In "Poems," an American ship captain (Patrick Moran) and a Japanese samurai (Michael Padgett) pass the time taking turns composing poems about rain, haze, wind, dawn. The samurai's are artful and detached while the American's express his homesickness for Boston and his family there. It is very touching and a bit droll. The other song has to do with the treaty itself, recounted by an old man (Danny Arnold) who as a ten-year-old boy (Tamara Wood) observed the goings on from his perch in an overhanging tree and a samurai (Patrick Moran) who, hidden under the floor of the tea house, overheard the conversations. Their memories put together give a credible account, but what was said there is less important than the recollections of the two men.
Musical accompaniment by Jim Donica on the bass and Jonathan Gleich on percussion at first was quite loud and made it hard to hear the singers, but it quieted down as the performance progressed. They are joined from time to time by Adrianne Hick on cello and Lindsay Wood on violin to fill out the sound. Andrea Dante has dressed the women in jewel-toned jersey dresses that stand out against the black background. Lighting by Thomas Rowe was a tad spotty; several times singers were in shadows until they moved to a lit section of the stage.
You're Gonna Love Tomorrow is an interesting glimpse at the ability of Stephen Sondheim to tell a story through his lyrics, words that, in this case, are acted by the talented singers performing them. Without the glitz and glamour, it is easy to focus on the words. My only complaint: at an hour and a half (no intermission), the show felt a bit too short. I was left wanting more.
You're Gonna Love Tomorrow will be performed through October at the Bickford Theatre, 6 Normandy Heights Road, Morristown. Performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 8 PM and Sundays at 2 PM. For information and tickets, call the box office at 973.971.3706.
