There are many great people who have contributed to musical theatre, none greater – and potentially more understated – than Stephen Sondheim. His work is best known in Sweeney Todd, Into The Woods, Gypsy and of course West Side Story. And this February is the perfect chance to catch a tribute to Sondheim, Side By Side.
‘He’s coming on his 80th birthday and he’s still with us,’ explained Side By Side director Gregory Jones, ‘so it’s a timely opportunity to want to pay tribute to his earlier works, from West Side Story to Pacific Overtures, Company; there’s a whole list of them there.
‘That’s probably some of his best work, which was when he was collaborating with people like Leonard Berstein and Richard Rodgers. So you’re getting a real variety of his work.’
Sondheim is probably best known for his song Send In The Clowns, which appears as part of the Side By Side medley. But as Jones points out, Side By Side isn’t a show: it’s a musical revue, a veritable tribute to the genius that was Sondheim and his work.
‘The show is a tribute that was created in 1976, it premiered on the West End and then moved to Broadway after that, and it didn’t intend to be such a huge success, even though it actually did.
‘Because it’s so involved with all his earlier work, I think it’s really brought a new audience to him, as well, of people who wanted to find out more about the other shows they hadn’t heard about, so that was a plus.
‘It originally was for three performers, but we’ve taken it to five performers,’ Jones said of this more recent production. ‘There’s about 30 songs in the show, in total, there’s two grand pianos with two pianists playing at the same time, like duelling pianos, and a narrator, who talks the audience about Stephen Sondheim’s life; it’s about his connection to New York, relationships, marriage, and working in theatre.’
Orno Interiors are supplying furniture to make the space incredibly decadent, adding to the overall elegance of the evening. But what makes this review intriguing is the sense of performance it conveys.
It’s all about the performance,’ Jones concluded. ‘It’s about not repeating a performance we’ve seen in the past, but actually the performer in the moment looking at it with fresh eyes and what they’ve been through in their lives and putting that into the song as well, not just rehashing what’s been done on Broadway or whatever.’
Side By Side features Gillian Binks, Casey Edwards, Sherry Anne-Hayes, Tim How, Simon Loughton and Ross Bryant as the Narrator, with musical direction from living legend Tim Cunniffe. It runs until February 13 at the Subiaco Arts Centre.
Scott-Patrick Mitchell
