SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

SEEN AND HEARD UK CONCERT REVIEW

Stephen Sondheim 80th Birthday Concert: Maria Friedman, Graham Bickley and Daniel Evans, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, David Firman, Cadogan Hall, 3.4.2010 (BBr)

 

Songs from Merrily We Roll Along (1981), Anyone Can Whistle (1964), Company (1970), Evening Primrose (1966), Follies (1971), Into the Woods (1987), A Little Night Music (1973), Sunday in the Park with George (1984), Sweeney Todd (1979)


Sometimes we need a jamboree of this kind to remind ourselves just how good a composer’s work is -  as if we ever needed such a thing with Sondheim.  It must be said though, that with such a body of work, one tends to concentrate on the most recent that show one has seen, at the expense of what preceded it. I’m still full of Anyone Can Whistle, a production of which I reported on only a fortnight ago but  here we were, celebrating the master of Broadway with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and three singers renowned for their stage performances of musicals.

Starting with a performance of Merrily We Roll Along, truncated to about an hour, but including much of the music and a smidgen of dialogue, things got off to a very good start. This is not the easiest of shows to follow – the action moves backwards in time from beginning to end – but the songs are strong and effective, when heard in context, as here. The voices worked well together, the trios and duets were excellent, as was the individual singing, and one was conscious of the lives of the characters outside the show itself. Accompanied by a band without strings – winds, brass, percussion, piano, electric keyboard and guitar only – this was an inspired start to the celebration.

To follow we had a selection of songs – one cannot say that this was the best of Sondheim for we all have different ideas about what constitutes this man’s best work, but there was certainly something here for everybody – with piano and electric keyboard accompaniment. An hilarious version of Getting Married, from Company, was followed by one of my very favourite Sondheim songs I Remember, from a 1966 TV musical, and which I am sure, was discovered by many when Judy Collins recorded it on her Hard Time for Lovers album. Graham Bickley was superb here, muted and understated in his delivery, which is just what this song of reminiscence requires. The duet Barcelona, also from Company, was given straight faced by Friedman and Evans, and thus it appeared all the more tragic and pathetic. Part 1 ended with two numbers from A Little Night Music, Sondheim’s celebration of the waltz among other things. Ms Friedman ended with Send in the Clowns, a song which over the years, seems to have grown in stature, but I wish she hadn’t performed it in a very breathy way, but had sung it straight without any theatricals. She is too good an artist to need to fall back onto this outmoded delivery.

After the interval we had a full theatre orchestra and the second half started with pieces from Follies; Evans, resplendent in full voice, in Beautiful Girls, Bickley doing a wonderfully manic turn in Buddy’s Blues and a gorgeous Losing My Mind from Ms Friedman. Then came Sweeney Todd – the Demon Barber of Fleet Street. When this opened in London, in 1982  if I remember correctly, I saw it 45 times (!) and it still makes me shiver to think of it. The band gave us a Suite (arranged by Don Sebesky), which meant that we were robbed of hearing the beautiful Joanna – surely one of Sondheim’s best love songs – sung, but we did have a barnstorming performance, from Ms Friedman, aided by a member of the audience, of The Worst Pies in London, a very delicate Not While I’m Around  from Evans, sounding every bit like the little boy apprentice, and a riotous A Little Priest, from Ms Friedman and Bickley, where they celebrate the various fillings of Mrs Lovatt’s pies! This was gloriously over–the–top.

To end, a beautiful David Firman arrangement of the title song from Anyone Can Whistle, a raucous Broadway Baby, from Ms Friedman, and the whole ensemble came together for Sunday from Sunday in the Park with George. This caused a veritable riot of enthusiasm from the audience so Ms Friedman returned to sing a number from Sondheim’s most recent show Bounce, and all three singers reprised Old Friends from Merrily We Roll Along, in an arrangement with the full band.

The RPO did Sondheim proud with this show, they swung like a theatre pit band and David Firman’s direction was perfect, but how could it not be? This man has the theatre in his blood. Did we enjoy it? Of course we did, and if we had had our way, the company would still be performing for us now!

Bob Briggs