Putting it Together: Cast Sings up Sondheim Storm

Putting It Together is a collection of songs from about 14 Stephen Sondheim musicals, some of them classics like A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and A Little Night Music, others lesser-known.  But don't expect Send in the Clowns or Comedy Tonight.

Take five people at a New York cocktail party:  An older married couple whose long relationship has hit a stale patch; a pair of attractive young lovers, whose future still lies before them; and the Observer, a character who acts as interpreter and Greek chorus for them all.

This is pretty much the whole plot, and the characters' musings during the evening are summed up in songs and dance numbers both wry and sad, funny and hopeful.

Sondheim has said that this is a "review" not a "revue" because he wants the audience to think.  Personally I found myself ditching the rather cliched deep thoughts of brittle, sophisticated Manhattan, in my enjoyment of the cast singing up a storm at the Abbey Musical Theatre last Saturday night.

Chris Green and Andrea Potts play 'Charles' and 'Amy', the well-heeled party hosts, Bradford Meurk and Amy Hunt are 'Barry' and 'Julie', the young lovers, and Andrew Norman (in his Abbey Theatre debut) plays 'The Observer'.

Director Scott Andrew, Choreographer Andrew Norman and Musical Director Barry Jones have honed the performers into a crisp, workman-like ensemble.  The cast's strong singing, musicality and timing invests the songs with all the nuances possible, and on Saturday night, especially in the high-energy second half of the show,there was one standout solo or duet after another.

Mind you, I'd have liked to hear some of Andrew Norman's lines more clearly (possibly masked by the music's volume) and I felt that Andrea Pott'scharacter deserved a more glamorous costume and make-up, as befitted her New York society status.

Well worth a visit.