Deprived as we are of any English-language musicals in Paris while the Theatre du Châtelet is closed for refurbishment, there is still some Stephen Sondheim to be seen in 2019 at the Theatre Marigny just off the Champs-Elysees.
Running from 30 January to 24 February is Marry Me a Little, that revue of out-takes from many of Sondheim’s best pre-1980 shows including such gems as ‘There Won’t Be Trumpets’ (originally cut from Anyone Can Whistle), the naughty but hilarious ‘Can That Boy Foxtrot!’ (cut from Follies) and the title song (cut from Company).
There are 19 songs but no dialogue in the 70-minute show directed by Mirabelle Ordinaire and will be sung through in English by Damian Thantrey and Kimy McLaren, both familiar names from past Châtelet musicals.
Thantrey, guest artistic director of this year’s Lichfield Festival, was in Into the Woods, A Little Night Music, Sunday in the Park With George, Passion and The King and I. Canadian soprano McLaren played Julie Jordan in Carousel and Cinderella in Into the Woods.
The idea of Marry Me a Little, conceived as an Off-Broadway revue by Craig Lucas and Norman René in 1980, was seen in London in 2014 at the St James Studio Theatre (now The Other Palace) with Simon Bailey and Laura Pitt-Pulford playing the two lonely single New Yorkers who live in the same apartment block, know of each other’s existence but never pluck the courage to talk to each other.
Jeremy Chapman
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