The star of the show is Stephen Sondheim in Oil Lamp’s ‘Side By Side By Sondheim’ revival
“Side By Side By Sondheim” — 2.5 stars
To say Stephen Sondheim was prolific would be an understatement. The award-winning composer/lyricist — who died four years ago at age 91 — created 16 musicals and wrote lyrics for four others. He also composed for film and TV and provided incidental music for plays.
His incomparable contributions earned the musical theater titan a total of nine Tony Awards, eight Grammy Awards, one Oscar and a Pulitzer Prize.
His work also inspired seven revues. The latest, “Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends,” opened on Broadway earlier this year. The first, “Side By Side By Sondheim,” premiered in London in 1976 and is currently running at Glenview’s Oil Lamp Theater, an intimate venue for which it is well-suited.
Titled after a number in Sondheim’s “Company” and peppered with biographical tidbits and backstage anecdotes, “Side By Side By Sondheim” is composed of songs from such tuners as “Gypsy,” “Follies,” “A Little Night Music” and “West Side Story.” (Note the show doesn’t include selections from “Sweeney Todd,” “Sunday in the Park With George,” “Into the Woods” or any of Sondheim’s post-“Pacific Overtures” works. Fans of those shows will have to seek out one of the later Sondheim anthologies.)
Directed and choreographed by Christina Ramirez, with music direction by pianist Amy J. Branahl, Oil Lamp’s respectable revival features singer/actors Jacob Alexander, Daria Koon, Abbey Loria and Tommy Wells.
The cast fares best as a quartet. The ensemble numbers are among the production’s best, as evidenced by the rousing opener “Comedy Tonight/Love is in the Air,” the bouncy first-act finale “You Could Drive a Person Crazy” and the titular “Side By Side By Side” that closes the show.
Duets also fair well. Loria and Koon blend beautifully on “If Momma Was Married.” Alexander and Wells deliver an enjoyable soft-shoe version of “Can That Boy Foxtrot,” a number cut from “Follies” before its Broadway premiere. Speaking of “Follies,” Loria hits all the right emotional notes on the wrenching “Losing My Mind.”
As for the aforementioned lesser-known gems, the personable Alexander (sporting a mink stole and an outsize chapeau) delivers the delightfully saucy “I Never Do Anything Twice.” Originally titled “The Madam’s Song,” Sondheim wrote it for the 1976 film “The Seven-Per-Cent Solution,” but it was cut from the final edit.
The standout performance comes courtesy of understudy Koon, who filled in for Alondra Rios at the matinee I attended. Her spunky performance of “I'm Still Here” and her terrific turn on the fiendishly difficult patter song “Getting Married Today” are among the production’s highlights.
Ramirez’s efforts to contemporize the nearly 50-year-old show with smartphones and ring lights are admirable, if not entirely successful. Moreover, some of the vocals are inconsistent and not every cast member is up to the demands Sondheim makes on his singers.
Still, audience members’ enthusiastic response to the revival suggested the show’s appeal depends more on the songs than how they’re sung, thus confirming that the real star of “Side By Side By Sondheim” is Sondheim himself.
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Location: Oil Lamp Theater, 1723 Glenview Road, Glenview, (847) 834-0738, oillamptheater.org
Showtimes: 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday; 3 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday; 3 p.m. Sunday through Sept. 14
Running time: About 2 hours, 15 minutes with intermission
Tickets: $55
Parking: On the street
Rating: For teens and older; some references to mature subjects