Review: Side by Side by Sondheim

A revue of ‘most adven­tur­ous com­pos­er’ Stephen Sondheim’s works. Orig­i­nal­ly per­formed in 1976 the musi­cals rep­re­sent­ed in this revue are from the ear­ly part of his career. (Some of the musi­cals men­tioned in the show’s pro­mo­tion­al mate­r­i­al do not fea­ture.)  He explores the themes of love, rela­tion­ships, and mar­riage.

Per­formed by Julie O’Brien, Matthew Pike, Sarah Line­ham. O’Brien is the stand-out per­former for me on open­ing night. She’s expres­sive vocal­ly and makes the chore­og­ra­phy (by Leigh Evans) look easy. She’s equal­ly as com­fort­able in slow­er num­bers, breath­ing the lyrics soft­ly over a spell­bound audi­ence. Matthew Pike sings as nat­u­ral­ly as he talks with a love­ly tone. He is capa­ble of jux­ta­pos­ing sweet with con­temp­tu­ous. Sarah Line­ham had prob­lems with her micro­phone on open­ing night which popped and crack­led dur­ing the entire ener­getic first half. She final­ly men­tioned it which made us laugh but it must have been hor­ri­ble on stage too. Hope­ful­ly this hasn’t put her off too much. Musi­cal Direc­tor Michael Nicholas Williams is joined onstage by Col­in Tay­lor. They get to take part in the shenani­gans on stage with some quirky lit­tle asides while pro­vid­ing musi­cal accom­pa­ni­ment on the pianos. Lisa Maule is Light­ing and Set design­er. The set is sim­ple which leaves ample room for danc­ing. The lights real­ly help to set and change moods, and to focus our atten­tion on what’s hap­pen­ing next. Direc­tor Emma Kinane gives us a fast and fun­ny first half. The sec­ond half is a bit uneven although that’s more dic­tat­ed by the songs rather than the per­for­mances.

Sond­heim has been writ­ing and com­pos­ing for many years. This musi­cal cel­e­brat­ing the 40th anniver­sary of Cir­ca Theatre’s orig­i­nal pro­duc­tion was both fun to watch and sparked a post-show con­ver­sa­tion about favourite shows and per­form­ers.

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