Marry Me a Little – Drayton Arms Theatre

Marry Me a Little continues at the Drayton Arms Theatre, London until 26 May 2018.

Star rating: three stars ★★★✩✩

As admirers of Marry Me a Little will know, the musical takes songs that didn’t make Sondheim’s well-known repertoire of shows and designs a whole new storyline just for them. The hour-long musical doesn’t contain any dialogue so this is the ultimate night out for hardcore Sondheim fans.

Set in 1978, two single people live in the same New York City apartment block and are both going through break ups. The musical shows each of them alone for the most part, as they go through their memories, fantasies and dreams, which all leads on to them moving on from their break-ups and finally getting the courage to talk to each other.

The musical opened off-Off Broadway in 1980 as the brainchild of Craig Lucas and Norman Rene. Since then, the show has been revived several times on both sides of the pond, with its most recent British outing being staged at London’s St James Theatre (now The Other Palace) in 2014.

The story works well in the intimate venue as the audience is brought into the two apartments, although they’re staged as one. It’s kept simple and highly relatable to any audience member whether they’re 20 or 60. It does, however, work on the cliched tale of the man and woman who are meant to be together but don’t know it yet. This is the kind of show you see for the soundtrack rather than the plot.

Stephanie Schmalzle and Keith Merrill play the woman and man who are going about their business on a lonely Saturday night. Despite each character supposedly being alone, they complement each other quite well as they duet accompanied brilliantly by Jonathan Musgrave on the piano.

Although Merrill is highly entertaining to watch, it’s impossible to not be glued to Schmalzle whether she’s singing a beautiful rendition of the title song or pretending to laugh at the TV while her co-star sings. Her character allows for more versatility. whether she’s providing some comedy or singing a more heart-felt piece.

It seems that Man doesn’t have quite the same opportunity. as the only time we see him leave his serious, lost, frustrated writer character is when the pair dream about a date while singing, ‘Pour Le Sport’.

Perhaps songs like ‘Can That Boy Foxtrot!’, ‘Saturday Night’ and ‘Happily Ever After’ will help Sondheim fans forgive the weak plot, but if you’re looking to enjoy the composer’s work as part of a decent storyline, perhaps this isn’t the best place to start.

Tal Fox