“Surprise is the lifeblood of the theater,” master composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim insists in his book, “Look, I Made a Hat.” He explains theater surprises come “in many flavors: a plot twist, a passage of dialogue, a character revelation, a note in a melody, a harmonic progression . . . all the elements of theater.”
So surprise! Open Stage of Harrisburg is bringing Stephen Sondheim to Harrisburg. No, not in person. But the Broadway genius will be chatting with OSH audiences via taped video footage during the production of “Sondheim on Sondheim,” a musical that opens on June 10.
“It’s a challenge selecting musical theater to present in our intimate venue,” explains director Don Alsedek. “So many musicals are physically just too large for our space. ‘Sondheim on Sondheim’ has a chamber feel and is well suited in size and content for Open Stage.”
Conceived by director/playwright/librettist James Lapine, “Sondheim on Sondheim” combines Broadway songs—songs created by the prolific 80-year-old Sondheim for 19 shows produced over six decades—with sometimes intimate, sometimes funny, and sometimes painful archival and interview footage. The audience will be surprised at what they learn about this legend who spent his formative years “next door” in Doylestown, Pa., living three miles from Dorothy and Oscar Hammerstein. The Hammersteins became his surrogate parents; Oscar was his role model.
Though some may characterize this musical that premiered on Broadway in 2010 as a “cabaret,” music director and keyboardist David M. Glasgow believes the reality is more complex.
“What we’re finding as we dig down into it as a production team and as a cast is that this really is an autobiographical portrait of a wonderfully generous musician, artist and teacher,” he says. “Most of the songs are ones we’ve heard before. But, in the context of Sondheim’s own story, they take on new poignancy and reach us in wonderfully unexpected ways.”
It’s no surprise that Sondheim’s signature dissonant harmonies may jar some ears.
“A lot of people—a lot of musicians anyway—joke that, in a Sondheim musical, the pianist is in one key, the orchestra in another and the singers in a third,” says Glasgow. “But every dissonance and key change is there for a reason.”
Eight Harrisburg-based musical theater artists will tackle and interpret the challenging score. Local theater patrons will recognize the names and talents of Anne Alsedek, Anthony Barber, George Diehl, Becky S. Mease, Stuart Landon, Sarah Pugh, Amy Rosenberry and David Ramon Zayas.
Lafferty describes Sondheim’s music as “quick moving and very wordy so it can be hard to keep up with.”
Barber, making his Open Stage debut, agrees.
“It is more of a physical challenge to get all of the words out and trying to figure out when to take a breath,” he says.
Lafferty adds that, sometimes, the music “looks like it wouldn’t make sense, but when you study it, you realize there is no other way to make it work so beautifully!”
Rosenberry says that she can “actually feel” Sondheim’s words when she sings them.
“He describes scenes and emotions through song like no one else can,” she says.
Barber adds that there’s “rarely, if ever” a filler song in a Sondheim show.
“I think his music drives the story along in a way that only his shows can succeed in doing,” he says.
The performers agree that the surprising personal information Sondheim shares adds to their musical interpretation. Hearing the poignant genesis of “Children Will Listen” has inspired Rosenberry to sing it for her sons.
Lafferty is surprised by the quirks Sondheim reveals about himself in the song “God.”
“So many people do look to him as a musical “god,” and these quirks really show how human he is,” she says. “Brilliant, but still human.”
Glasgow concurs, calling the man we meet in the video interviews “humble and fallible and even insecure.”
“We’re used to seeing the finished product,” he says. “We forget that even someone like Sondheim struggles along the way with artistic choices and integrity and criticism and how to make art that still pays the bills.”
“Sondheim on Sondheim” runs over three weekends, June 10 to June 26. Tickets are $25 to $35 and can be purchased online at www.openstagehbg.com or by phone at 717-232-6736 or at the box office. Open Stage is located at 25 N. Court St., on the street level of the Walnut Street parking garage, in downtown Harrisburg.
June Theater Events
At Harrisburg’s Professional
Downtown Theaters
At Gamut Theatre
www.gamuttheatre.org
FREE SHAKESPEARE IN THE PARK
“The Merry Wives of Windsor”
June 3-18
Wednesday-Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
POPCORN HAT PLAYERS PRESENT
“Wonder Tales From Around The World”
June 6-18
Saturdays at 1 p.m.
Wednesdays and Thursdays available by request for groups of 20 or more
AT OPEN STAGE
OF HARRISBURG
www.openstagehbg.com
“SONDHEIM ON SONDHEIM”
A musical revue
June 10-26
Tickets $25-$35
The “HUNDRED ACRE WOOD” Project
A theater workshop for students 8 to 11
exploring the world of Winnie-the-Pooh
June 20-July 8
Enrollment by audition: 717-214-3248
MUSIC THEATRE WORKSHOP Auditions
Sunday, June 12
A summer intensive for students 8 to 11
Workshop July 11-29 at Open Stage of Harrisburg
Enrollment by audition: 717-214-3248
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