Marry Me A Little

This Sondheim revue / compilation is different to the other four (!) in two respects – it uses songs cut from shows (though two have been reinstated since it first appeared 34 years ago and three are from a show unproduced at the time but subsequently staged) and it attempts to link them by staging it with two NYC singleton characters ‘man’ and ‘woman’. The upside is that we get to hear songs previously unheard or less familiar. The downside is that they aren’t amongst his best – though Sondheim ‘seconds’ are better than some composers ‘firsts’!

Seven of the ‘cast-offs’ come from Follies, three from A Little Night Music and one each from A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, Anyone Can Whistle and Company. Three are from his first (1955) show Saturday Night which we eventually got to see for the first time in 1997, two are from unproduced work and two, including the title song, found themselves back in the shows from which they were cut. Still with me? Some will miss hearing the familiar, others like me will welcome hearing songs last heard 18 years ago at the Bridewell when a then less well known Rebecca Front was ‘woman’ and Clive Carter was ‘man’.

When I reviewed Dessa Rose I said that if I Can’t Sing hadn’t closed we wouldn’t have got to see Cynthia Erivo as Dessa, so I’d better say the same about Simon Bailey, who was the other best thing about that ill-fated show. Here he’s partnered by fringe musicals favourite Laura Pitt-Pulver and both rise to the challenge of Sondheim’s vocal demands. I’m not sure the staging is really necessary, and it does seem a bit contrived, but it does no harm.

This isn’t in the same league as the St. James Theatre’s other recent Sondheim revue Putting it Together, but that’s to do with the selection more than anything else. It’s good to see it again after all these years and good to visit the St. James Theatre studio for the first time. I shall be at this venue four times in twelve days, which suggests it’s fast becoming indispensible.