{"id":11344,"date":"2013-01-11T20:00:31","date_gmt":"2013-01-12T03:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/?p=11344"},"modified":"2013-01-22T21:59:16","modified_gmt":"2013-01-23T04:59:16","slug":"marry-me-a-little","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/2013\/01\/marry-me-a-little\/","title":{"rendered":"Marry Me A Little"},"content":{"rendered":"

Musical Revue (1981)
\nMusic and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim<\/p>\n

Conceived and Developed by Craig Lucas and Norman Rene
\nDirected and Choreographed by Ilyse Robbins
\nMusical Direction by David McGrory<\/p>\n

New Repertory Theatre<\/a>
\nArsenal Center for the Arts
\nWatertown, MA<\/p>\n

January 6 – 27, 2013<\/p>\n

Scenic Design by Erik Diaz; Lighting Design by Christopher Ostrom<\/p>\n

With Aimee Doherty, Brad Daniel Peloquin, Erica Spyres, Phil Tayler<\/p>\n

Pianists: Todd C. Gordon, David McGrory<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Jan
Jan van Eyck, “The Arnolfini Portrait” (1434)
Courtesy National Gallery, London<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
A delightful, compact repackaging of a collection of Sondheim songs that almost made it into various of his shows.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

There are four singers in this show, each of whom inhabits an adorned space on the beautifully constructed set for this production. Two of them are presumably living lives on their own, and two are living together, though this is by no means certain. <\/p>\n

They gather in various combinations – solos, duets, ensembles – to give renditions of various delightful verbal and musical inventions. Though there is no unifying narrative, the themes that are familiar from Sondheim’s opus are evident in each phrase. The wry straightforwardness and slightly pained wit comes through in piece after piece. The themes of solitude, ineptitude and fatalism in relationship, while mixed in with a realistic romanticism, reign throughout. <\/p>\n

It is fun to listen to each song and note the sometimes striking similarity to the songs that actually survived in the popular musicals.<\/p>\n

All of the singers are great. <\/p>\n

\"Phil
Phil Tayler and Erica Spyres
in “Marry Me A Little”
Photo: Andrew Brilliant\/ Brilliant Pictures
Courtesy New Repertory Theatre<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Erica Spyres (who I happily saw not long ago as a delightful and energetic Yum-Yum in the Lyric Stage production of The Mikado<\/a>) doubles as a violinist pitching in to supplement various of the songs. I had also seen her in the Lyric’s enjoyable production of Avenue Q<\/a> last season. Phil Tayler also made a fine contribution in that same production of Avenue Q<\/em>. I had seen Aimee Doherty in the Lyric’s fine, and fun, production of Animal Crackers<\/a> two seasons ago and, as Maureen, in the New Repertory Theatre’s production of Rent <\/a>last season. It is nice to see these talented vocalists showing up all over town.<\/p>\n

\"Aimee
Aimee Doherty
in “Marry Me A Little”
Photo: Andrew Brilliant\/ Brilliant Pictures
Courtesy New Repertory Theatre<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Everything is artfully accompanied by Todd C. Gordon and David McGrory, the two able pianists whose dual, dueling score is artfully constructed.<\/p>\n

\"Brad
Brad Daniel Peloquin
in Marry Me A Little
Photo: Andrew Brilliant\/ Brilliant Pictures
Courtesy New Repertory Theatre<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My only complaint is that the show is too short – about seventy-five minutes, without intermission. <\/p>\n

I know there is a general movement to get audiences in and out quickly so as not to tax anyone’s patience; but this feels a little too abbreviated, however delightful the intervening choruses are.<\/p>\n

– BADMan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Musical Revue (1981)
\nMusic and Lyrics
\nby Stephen Sondheim
\nConceived and Developed
\nby Craig Lucas and Norman Rene
\nNew Repertory Theatre<\/a>
\nArsenal Center for the Arts
\nWatertown, MA
\nJanuary 6 – 27, 2013<\/strong>
\nA delightful, compact repackaging of a collection of Sondheim songs that almost made it into various of his shows.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-11344","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-concerts","7":"category-musicals","8":"entry","9":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11344"}],"version-history":[{"count":43,"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11757,"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11344\/revisions\/11757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}