MUSIC
A good thing going: Sondheim is a living legend
by Ivan Martinson
Mimi MacLeod and Ken Magos.
You're Gonna Love Tomorrow: A Stephen Sondheim Evening at Crepe de Paris restaurant through June 11
If Gay life has a patron saint, a reigning balladeer, a figure who expresses in song the essence of our lives, as Dylan did it for the early hippie weary of acoustic guitars and Springsteen does it for the Middle American whose life reached its high point in high school, it is Broadway's Stephen Sondheim.
True, few of his pianistic melodies and lapidary lyrics have become standards "Send in the Clowns," "Broadway Baby," and "Comedy Tonight" are about the only numbers that can be hummed by people who never heard of the composer, which is how I judge what is and is not a standard, and his lyrics for Gypsy and West Side Story are hardly unfamiliar.
But to those who follow the evolution of the musical theater, Sondheim is a living legend, the master of the song that delves into its singer's character as deeply as a Shakespearean soliloquy, the song of self-analysis, the ode to selfdisgust. He is the man who makes musicals about the opening of Japan (as seen
from the Japanese side), about the characters in a famous painting, about aging chorus girls, about cannibalism in Victorian London.
Accordingly, evenings of Sondheim are the darling of the revue circuit, as sentimentally appealing as if the man had been dead 20 years instead of still writing new shows and finicking with old ones, as if his songs brought back lost innocence and sweet memories as they do, even when brand new.
This lengthy introduction (inexcusable by theatrical standards) is an attempt to explain the appeal of shows like You're Gonna Love Tomorrow. And no such analysis is necessary. Put two dozen Sondheim songs on stage with lively and attractive people to perform them, direct it as vividly as Andrew Duxbury has done at the Crepe de Paris in Rainier Square, and the Sondheim lovers will swoon ecstatically, while those who wish merely to be entertained will have a rollicking time as well.
I have got so jaded on Sondheim that I'm almost tired of familiar songs like the exquisite "Too Many Mornings" and I'd be happy to forego "Another Hundred People" for a decade or so (though if anyone could save it, Dawn Brazel, who does it here, would be that person). A few of the peculiar songs also fall flat:
The Seattle Repertory Theatre Presents A World Premiere
EASTERN STANDARD
by Richard Greenberg
11
"The play has the spinning wit and structure of a Hollywood screwball farce....a dream first production of a new play." Frank Rich, New York Times
NOW THROUGH MAY 29!
SEATTLE
REPERTORY
Tickets and reservations: 443-2222
THEATRE or call Ticketmaster: 628-0888
AT&T and SAFECO Insurance Companies are Producing Partners
The "Echo Song," cut from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, is worth cutting, and "Fear No More," a setting of the dirge from Shakespeare's Cymbeline, is a bland academic exercise. "Johanna" from Sweeny Todd needs a stronger tenor than it gets here, and "Getting Married Today" lacks point if the preposterously rattling lyrics are not perfectly displayed but that may have been opening night jitters. This leaves the show only about 20 bright numbers.
I always like the "Instructions to the Audience" from Aristophanes' The Frogs ("Please no grass. This is a classic, not a class.") I like the tongue-twists of "Lucy and Jessie" (from Follies) and "The Miller's Son" (from Night Music) whenever they turn up, but I would probably love anything sung, as they are here, by Mimi MacLeod whom you may recall as the marginally less insane female in Texas Chainsaw Manicurist. Besides tossing off these athletic feats as if they were no tougher than nursery rhymes, she looks splendid in leather for "The House of Marcus Lycus." This woman was born to bring down the house.
Ken Magos, who has the strongest voice in the show, is another performer I would welcome in anything, and he is very special in "Good Thing Going" from Merrily We Roll Along and a duet. with Ms. Brazel from the too-rarely revived Anyone Can Whistle. Jan Zabel has a winning presence and sings with real feeling in "Too Many Mornings" and "Not a Day Goes By," Melodie Kvalik is charming in a backhanded hymn to New York, "What More Do I Need?" from Saturday Night, that was quite new to me, and Charles Crowley joined the adorable Ms. MacLeod for a most winning rendition of the evening's piece de resistance, the North American permiere of a new song Sondheim wrote for the current London revival of Follies. The song is called "Country House," and it sounded a sure-fire revue regular to me.
Among the show's wittier production numbers (calling for dinner jackets, togas, kimonos, and kitsch all handled elegantly) were the "House of Marcus Lycus" from Forum, in which a procurer displays his wares not all female, in this version, and not even all human and the thoughtful but musically thrilling "Someone in a Tree" from Pacific Overtures. To conclude, moreover, there is an exquisite six-part a cappella version of "Send in the Clowns" that rescues the song from the most jaded Judy Collins-phobe.
The racy accompaniments (mostly Sondheim's originals) come from producer Mark Sandberg at the piano, and I only found fault with him for blowing the line quoted above from The Frogs.
You're Gonna Love Tomorrow is a sophisticated and lively entertainment with energy that doesn't quit and a nicely varied rhythm. I recommend it to anyone.
Michael Cerveris and Tom Hulce; Photo: Chris Bennion
Club Soda presents "Seattle Women in
Rhythm and Blues"
Flo.
Club Soda Association, the alcohol free entertainment alternative presents an evening of Rhythm and Blues featuring Seattle's finest female vocalists.
"Seattle Women in R & B" is back by popular demand, Sunday June 5, 8 p.m., The Backstage (2200 N.W. Market, 789-6953).
The group features: Duffy Bishop, Patti Allen, Nancy Claire, Nora Michaels, L.J. Porter, Flo Ranier and Kathy Hart. Last year members of Club Soda's Seattle Women in R & B was one of the most popular in the Club Soda series, playing to a sold out house and later opening for Roy Orbison at Bumbershoot.
These women will each perform solo numbers backed by the group, and then unite for a grand finale.
Duffy Bishop is from "Duffy and the Rhythm Dogs" and has worked extensively in the Seattle area in music as well as work with the A.C.T. She was voted the Best Female Vocalist at the 1988 NAMA Music Awards.
Patti Allen performs with "Sisters in Song" and has performed and recorded as lead vocalist with the Dona Ellis Band. She has been on the R & B circuit since the '60s working with Lou Rawls, Larry Coryell and Little Bill.
Nancy Claire (The Wailers) is an original pioneer of Northwest R&B. Nora Michaels is also a local artist (Pink Door, U. Bistro, Golden Crown) in cabaret and as a commedienne.
L.J. Porter is predominately a touring artist, and also is featured as a lead singer with the local Les Folies and Greg Thompson Follies.
Flo Ranier (Sisters in Song) was background vocalist with James Brown for three years, and a former member of the Paris based group Frantique.
Kathy Hart (Duoglide with Kathy Hart) is the founder of Seattle Women in Rhythm and Blues, which premiered last year about this time playing a three night weekend, with the third night as a Club Soda event. She is the first white artist to be signed with a subsidiary label of Motown (1974), and is responsible for the hit single "Syncopated Love."
Tickets for this event are $8.50 in advance, $10 at the door. Club Soda members may purchase tickets at a special $6 price. Membership information may be obtained by calling the Club Soda office, 324-3307.
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18.
Seattle Gay News
May 27, 1988, Section 2