The Stephen Sondheim-James Lapine musical “Into the Woods” contains the phrase: “Opportunity is not a lengthy visitor.” It’s an apt observation for local fans of the celebrated composer-lyricist who have not yet seen TheatreWorks Silicon Valley’s “Being Alive: A Sondheim Celebration.” The new musical running through June 30 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts caps a long line of Sondheim productions dating back to 1979 for the Tony-winning regional theater.
Created by Robert Kelley, TheatreWorks’ founder and former artistic director of a half-century’s tenure and known as just “Kelley” to everyone, and William Liberatore, the current resident musical director, “Being Alive” is less a sung-together revue of songs in the “Side by Side by Sondheim” format, and more of a theatrical experience that uses Sondheim songs to tell a new story.
The pair crafted the show from a list of over 300 songs for which Sondheim wrote both music and lyrics. This means, nothing from “Gypsy” which had music by Jule Styne and no Leonard Bernstein-scored “West Side Story.” Their only other restriction was that they could not use more than three songs from eligible scores (which include “Follies,” “Sweeney Todd,” “Company” and others, but not Sondheim’s final work “Here We Are”) or any of his film or television compositions.
“It just drove us insane,” says Liberatore. “You have to leave some of your favorite songs out inevitably, but it also led us to finding songs that we didn’t know as well from some of the lesser-known musicals.” Kelley agrees, adding, “In the end, it served us well to limit what could come from any one show. It gave us great variety of things that you’ll know, and things that you never heard of.”
A lot of Sondheim has already been heard on TheatreWorks stages over the years. The revue-style “Side by Side” was the first of 20 Sondheim productions in 40 years. “Sondheim on Sondheim,” the similarly structured Broadway compilation from 2010 would have been an easy choice for this slot, but Kelley and Liberatore decided to go another route.
“It took us all of about a minute to decide we would love [to create something new] when the opportunity came up through Music Theatre International and the Sondheim estate,” says Kelley. “One of the things that I think distinguished our take on our Sondheim shows over the years was discovering the underlying, interesting take that he had on relationships, and that became our focus as we went through the selection process.”
Another reason for creating something new, according to Liberatore, was “because you’re gonna get a Sondheim revue through Robert Kelley’s perspective. Everything is focused on what the songs are saying. Every lyric matters. There’s a consistency for each performer about the journey they’re on. It’s creating really powerful performances, because they’re never having to fake why they’re why they’re saying something. Kelley is giving them a reason to say everything. So, you’re getting an honest piece of theater instead of just an entertainment. It’s very moving.”
Even with their accumulated experience, both men discovered new challenges in the process. “I’m a really good sight reader,” says Liberatore, the show’s music director playing piano at every performance. “I don’t like to have to practice, and it’s been humbling, because I have to practice this material. Some nights the really challenging stuff goes perfectly, and then some nights it’s like, ‘Oh, Lord!’”
“The lyrics are a huge challenge for the cast,” says Kelley of the six actors who are grouped in 20-ish, 30-ish, and 40-ish age pairings. “As you might expect, the actors who’ve been around a long time have done tons of Sondheim. They kind of came in knowing, ‘OK, I guess I have to do tongue exercises every day, or something to get ready to go.’ The younger actors have some experience with Sondheim. Nothing like the others, but they bring a nice youthful style to it. I told them all we had two tasks. Learn a huge amount of music in a very short time, and own the music, care about it, and believe in it. That’s what they did.”
Could the constant company of either of these longtime colleagues drive the other person crazy? “We really understand each other’s point of view,” says Liberatore. “He knows exactly what my musical bent is, and I totally understand him as a director.”
Kelley doesn’t see any coincidence or intentional bookending in the fact that their first Sondheim and their current Sondheim are both revues. “I think of this as an opportunity to do a Sondheim that’s new. I didn’t refer back to the past of what we’ve done with him, other than, as a song would come up in rehearsal, I’d bore the cast with stories about what happened back when, and how hard it was to do.”
With as many Sondheim titles as TheatreWorks has produced, was there one that was on the books and got away? “‘Follies,’” is Kelley’s quick answer. “We had it scheduled at one point and then, I can’t remember which of the recessions happened, but our budgets had to be slashed pretty drastically. We couldn’t do the show at the level we wanted, so we did ‘Merrily We Roll Along’ instead. I still have a lingering desire to see that show on our stage, so if someone shows up with a whole ton of money, asking for ‘Follies,’ I’ll encourage Giovanna [Sardelli, current artistic director] to put it in the season.”
TheatreWorks Silicon Valley’s “Being Alive” runs through June 30 at Mountain View Center for Performing Arts, 500 Castro St., Mountain View. Tickets are $27-$100 at theatreworks.org.
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