One of the wittiest little morsels in TheatreWorks Silicon Valley’s world premiere of “Being Alive: A Sondheim Celebration” is this observation: “Though he didn’t marry until his 80s, Sondheim always knew a lot about marriage.”
Turns out, Stephen Sondheim knew a lot about a lot of things.
In “Being Alive,” co-conceived by Robert Kelley and William Liberatore, Sondheim’s greatest introspections about love, lust, children and friendship are given the star treatment, placing the genius of the oft-produced composer and lyricist onto a two-hour traffic of the stage. The result is a lovely and beautifully sung reminder of why one of theater’s most recognizable names continues to solve the riddles of our world with panache and poignance.
Both Kelley, who retired from TheatreWorks in 2020 after a 50-year run as artistic director, and Liberatore, the longtime current resident musical director, are in fine form in crafting a narrative that showcases the warmest of Sondheim’s complicated melodies and ideas. They provide wonderful opportunities for each of the six talents tasked with singing Sondheim’s scintillating songs that expose the heart’s affairs.
The basis of the narrative is all about the minutiae of rehearsal, complete with a visible stage manager and a tiny combo of musicians, including Liberatore on piano and Artie Storch handling drum duties. All of these details, which are not about the largesse of Broadway, take the music to its roots, when Sondheim’s massive collection of blue pencils were crafting some of the most consequential compositions in musical theater history.
Each of the cast members offer up a delightfully fancy blend of sound, a collection of principal performers tasked with interpreting each of Sondheim’s many observations on what makes our hearts go pitter pat, but also, kaput. Collectively, there is a richness to the offered texture, with each performer presenting their own individual moments in the limelight.
There are times when the device of a rehearsal, and then ultimately, a final dress rehearsal, comes off as distracting. Even though some tender moments were interrupted, when untimely noise broke up critical empath, the device is still a great vehicle for Sondheim’s journey of pure musicianship on Wilson Chin’s detailed scenic design. Each of the performers are given a character name, which never really developed into anything more than that, does not take away from the music being served on a silver platter and served with sweet garnish to the audience.
That audience will certainly recognize some performers who have made TheatreWorks a common stop on their musical theater journey. While Solona Husband, Sleiman Alahmadieh and Anne Tolpegin are making their TheatreWorks debuts, Nick Nakashima, Melissa Wolfklain and Noel Anthony are making returns to the famed Peninsula company.
The show’s opening number, smartly lifted from “The Frogs,” with lyrics from “Putting it Together,” features the ironic reminder of not humming along to familiar tunes. Turns out, despite Sondheim’s penchant for unhummable songs, this was an excellent direction, as many of the selections are pulled from some of his most well-known shows.
Vulnerable hearts are where the show lives, despite some songs that feature the funny and frolicky. Nakashima and Anthony’s take on the deceptively charged “Pretty Women” from “Sweeney Todd” is terrific, with more Sweeney offered by Alahmadieh’s “Not While I’m Around, a number that is hauntingly tender. Husband’s mastery of “The Miller’s Son” from “A Little Night Music,” a tricky number with its various cadences and tongue-tying lyrics, feels so quintessentially Sondheim. And the luscious legato of “Move On” from the Pulitzer-winning “Sunday in the Park with George,” delivered by Nakashima and WolfKlain is a powerful take on yet another Sondheim masterpiece.
Tolpegin’s Broadway pedigree informs beautifully what may arguably be Sondheim’s most famous crossover hit, the wistfully painful “Send in the Clowns” from “A Little Night Music.” It is not just Tolpegin’s ability to offer up warm nuance in such a complex composition, but also where the song is placed in the show, that makes it so effective. The song continues to offer up more devastation in its reprise, which brings in Anthony to add his rich timbre to the standard.
Sondheim belongs to that pantheon of composers who can impart wisdom to listeners at almost any stage of their existence. His impact carries on for eternity.
David John Chávez is chair of the American Theatre Critics Association and a two-time juror for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama (‘22-‘23); @davidjchavez
‘BEING ALIVE: A SONDHEIM CELEBRATION’
Co-conceived by Robert Kelley and William Liberatore, presented by TheatreWorks Silicon Valley
When: Through June 30
Where: Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro St., Mountain View
Running time: 2 hours, with one intermission
Tickets: $27-$82; theatreworks.org
