Foundry Theatre, January 8
8/10
This makes one’s brain fizz without resort to champagne. When the wit, elegance, craft, intelligence and passion of Stephen Sondheim’s songs are married to superlative performances, ingenious arrangements and stylish design, I can’t imagine a more charmingly sophisticated night out.
The apotheosis comes when Caroline O’Connor sings The Ladies who Lunch (from Company). No one does caustic satire in musicals like Sondheim, and he never did it better than in this song about the female idle rich, including the ones who “play wife”, “Keeping house, but clutching a copy of Life/Just to keep in touch.” Sipping a martini, Caroline O’Connor electrifies each word, and meanwhile milks the pauses like they’re breastfeeding.
Sondheim reluctantly assembled Putting it Together (with Julia McKenzie) in 1992, when the Side by Side by Sondheim revue had been done to death. Director/choreographer Cameron Mitchell has gathered an exceptional cast: Stefanie Caccamo, Michael Cormick, Nigel Huckle and Bert Labonte all hold their own against the remarkable O’Connor, and shine individually and collectively.
Equally impressive is the work of Guy Simpson and Kevin Wang in reducing Jonathan Tunick’s original orchestrations to just two pianos (Wang and Nicholas Till) and myriad percussion instruments expertly played by Richard Gleeson. These arrangements are so complete in terms of colour, breadth and contrast that one never misses the lack of strings or wind.
Across the show, the recurring theme is disappointment in life and particularly in love. Sondheim’s characters routinely find their love unrequited, waning, souring, cheated upon or just a fantasy, and they sing about their dilemmas with shrewdness and irony.
Caccamo was outstanding on the bluesy Sooner or Later (Dick Tracy), exhibiting the ability to change the timbre of her voice in any range, like moire fabric being rustled in the light. The fireside warmth of Cormick’s baritone was heard to full effect on The Road You Didn’t Take (Follies), and Huckle’s tenor soared on Marry Me a Little (Follies). Also from Follies came Buddy’s Blues, a fabulous showpiece for Labonte as a comedian, capped by Gleesons’s slapstick woodblock highlights.
But then highlights abounded, including O’Connor and Caccamo delivering their devious plans for murdering rival women in There’s Always a Woman (Anyone Can Whistle), and earlier sharing the exquisite Every Day a Little Death (A Little Night Music). Similarly, Cormick and Huckle brought Pretty Women (Sweeney Todd) to full bloom.
Nick Fry (set), Nigel Shaw (costumes), Trudy Dalgleish (lighting) and Michael Waters (sound) ensured the show had the requisite stylishness, and the Foundry proved an admirable addition to Sydney’s venues on my first visit. My only reservation is that, given the riches available in the Sondheim oeuvre, I’m not sure the great man did himself full justice in the choices he made, with his ultimate masterpiece, Sunday in the Park with George, under-represented, for instance.
Until February 15.