BEING ALIVE
BEING ALIVE - The Music of Stephen Sondheim, Hayes Theatre Co, 25 June - 12 July 2025. Photography by John McRae: above - Raphael Wong, Blazey Best, Lincoln Elliott and Kala Gare
Stephen Sondheim is catnip to most musical theatre lovers. So, imagine the dizzy pleasure in anticipating eighty minutes of cherry-picked songs, ranging across the decades from 1962 and “Comedy Tonight” from A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, through to a swag of numbers from 1990 such as “Sooner or Later” (the movie Dick Tracy), “Ballad of Guiteau” and “The Gun Song” (Assassins). In between are many of the numbers that have made Sondheim the musical theatre god of the second half of the 20th century and beyond, and not just the obvious ones.
A deliciously sparse show – in contrast to the musical riches – begins with a company of just four: Blazey Best, Lincoln Elliott, Kala Gare and Raphael Wong, apparently gathered for a rehearsal, and the semi-comical “Invocations and Instructions to the Audience” from The Frogs – to which a line about mobile phones has been added on account of there being none in 1974. The live on-stage “band” is led from the Kawai grand piano by the redoubtable musical director Michael Tyack and consists of Amanda Jenkins on double bass (plus a turn on electric bass and RayBans), Lillian Hearne on clarinet (and a thigh-slapping tambourine), and infills on cello from Raphael Wong.
The minimal instrumentation and Tyack’s piano highlight the sometimes overlooked percussive possibilities of the piano, particularly in the way Sondheim employs the sound – heard mostly and ironically in the minor key ballads. it makes the less frequent lyrical, romantic keyboard work even more apparent and beautifully conflicting in, for instance, “The Gun Song”. Although the choice to have the singers brandishing brightly-coloured toy guns is incongruous, is it to poke fun at America’s gun obsession, or to undercut the real and symbolic violence? Whatever the reasoning, it serves only to disastrously undercut the power of the song.
Disaster is also dragged from the jaws of success in lacing together “Losing My Mind” from Follies and “You Could Drive A Person Crazy” from Company. The former is a heartrending, deeply personal lament to a lost love, while the latter is a pertly furious attack on a non-committer. Both songs are about loss and hurt, but could not be further apart in tone than the north and south poles. The audience on opening night chortled merrily, which is a mystery and a travesty, as is the treatment of “Losing My Mind”. If you want to hear an unvarnished and lovely version,n just Google “Sondheim - 80th - Marin Mazzie”, and have a hankie ready.
A similar mishap occurs with “Send In The Clowns”, the fabled ballad from A Little Night Music, and the poignant “Not While I’m Around”, from Sweeney Todd. The former is sung here by Blazey Best, who already made Desiree Armfeldt’s world-weary lament to lost love and youth her very own in the 2023 Hayes production. Yet its power and her performance are undercut by Lincoln Elliott simultaneously singing the sweetly boyish ode to Mrs Lovett, and his beautiful rendition is also sabotaged. Bizarre decisions.
Nevertheless, there are many fabulous performances. Raphael Wong’s lush baritone and a paintbrush are a delight in “Colour and Light” from Sunday In The Park With George. Lincoln Elliott and Kala Gare are riveting future stars with “Opening Doors, from Merrily We Roll Along; while Elliott and Wong make the very most of “Agony” from Into The Woods.
The individuals have their shining moments – and are dazzling – yet when the company unites for a not–so–well–known–but–wondrous delivery of “Someone In A Tree” from the equally not-so-well-known Pacific Overtures, it’s magic. Like a program of operatic arias, a concert of Sondheim songs is virtually a quick reminder, or an easy way in to a different and perhaps not as easily navigable a world.
The staging is more show than concert and parts work better than others: the less said about the costumes the better, but the lighting (Lucia Haddad) and sound design (Em-Jay Dwyer) enhance and help the singers, while the musical component is simply superb (arrangements Hugo Ceran-Jerusalemy, musical supervisor/arrangements Luke Byrne). Not sure who to point the red toy pistol at for the ruin of “Losing My Mind”, but the director is Sonya Suares. And choreographer Amy Zhang involves the performance quartet in some apt moves.
A rare treat for Sondheim devotees – like a box of your favourite chocolates with a couple of unwelcome nutty ones in the mix.
