SONDHEIM UNPLUGGED – Various Artists (Yellow Sound – YSL567353) Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ [This review was written before the death of Stephen Sondheim on 26 November 2021] With masterly musical direction and piano accompaniment by Joseph Goodrich we have a cornucopia of Sondheim. Not only the recognisable songs from the […]
Tag Archives | Putting It Together
Ruthie Henshall reschedules tour dates
West End favourite Ruthie Henshall has announced new dates for the UK debut of her hit show In My Life after the tour was shelved due to Covid-closedown. Originally due to arrive in the UK in April following a critic and audience-pleasing tour of Australia, the intimate show which features Henshall accompanied by her musical […]
Putting It Together – Hope Mill Theatre, Manchester
Putting It Together continues at the Hope Mill Theatre, Manchester until 24 November 2018. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩ ‘Having just a vision’s no solution, everything depends on execution: putting it together, that’s what counts’ – if ever there was a song to encapsulate the ethos behind the creation and development […]
Putting it Together – Lyric Theatre, Belfast
Putting it Together continues at the Naughton Studio, Lyric Theatre, Belfast until 19 December. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩ It’s not just that Blunt Fringe Productions is doing what no one else in Northern Ireland is doing, it’s that they do it so well. Musical theatre has long been ill served by professional […]
An Afternoon with the Sondheim Society – Alex Parker & Friends
An Afternoon with the Sondheim Society and… Alex Parker & Friends at the Leicester Square Theatre, London. For a young man of 23, multi-talented Alex Parker has packed plenty into his burgeoning career. But you ain’t heard nothing yet. This fiercely ambitious musical director-pianist-composer’s credits already include a concert version of A Little Night Music, […]
Everything’s Coming Up Jule Styne – interview with musical director Alex Parker
Composer Jule Styne wrote some 1500 songs in a long career in Tin Pan Alley, Hollywood and on Broadway. Everything’s Coming Up Roses: The Jule Styne Songbook, opening at London’s Crazy Coqs on 2 September, is a tribute to a great songwriter who died 20 years ago this month. Devised and directed by Alastair Knights (Putting It Together, The […]
Sondheim Society marks anniversary with God, a celebration and parody
As part of its 20th anniversary celebrations, the Stephen Sondheim Society will be paying tribute to the composer/lyricist with a brand new show called God, premiering at London Theatre Workshop for only six performances in July (8-12 July). With tongue very firmly in cheek, there will be gentle parodies that serve to demonstrate Sondheim’s art, songs that emphasise his genius, and brand new compositions inspired […]
Sondheim Only …Slightly Rearranged – The Pheasantry
Sondheim Only …Slightly Rearranged was performed at The Pheasantry, London. Twenty-seven of Stephen Sondheim’s finest sung by six names that were new to most of us and therefore eager to show what they could do – and with the fun idea of getting the three gals perform the composer/lyricist’s ‘fella’ material and vice versa. Yes, Sondheim […]
Janie Dee and Jason Carr – The Pheasantry
Janie Dee and Jason Carr performed their shows at The Pheasantry, London. It was little wonder that the divine Janie Dee chose the old Liza Minnelli number ‘Yes’ for her late-show cabaret at The Pheasantry as the Kander & Ebb classic encapsulates exactly the sort of trip this extraordinary actress-singer is on right now. You […]
Putting It Together – St James Theatre
Putting It Together continues at the St James Theatre, London until 1 February. This is a lesser-known Stephen Sondheim revue that was first performed in 1992 at the Old Fire Station Studio Theatre in Oxford. Subsequent productions took place, notably in New York, Los Angeles and Chichester, each slightly different in song content and ‘story’. […]
Putting It Together – G Live, Guildford
Putting It Together was performed at the G Live Studio, Guildford. The rarely-seen Sondheim revue Putting It Together, a veritable orgy of familiar and less familiar songs from the great man’s rich repertoire worked into an admittedly pretty flimsy storyline, made a welcome return with a classy cast of five at Guildford. First performed at […]
