With all the Sondheim at 80 hoopla happening this month, I thought I would listen to yet another of the many revue versions of his work. Side by Side by Sondheim may have been one of the first such revues, and was created in 1976 when the composer was just entering his musical maturity. It is interesting to hear a revue created before many of the shows that I most readily name with Sondheim--Sweeney Todd, Sunday in the Park with George, and Into the Woods.
With these shows yet to be written, this revue has room for a deeper investigation of Sondheim's early shows. It was particularly interesting to hear songs for which Mr. Sondheim wrote the lyrics but not the music. "The Boy from..." charmed me again as it had done when I listened to a collection of songs composed by Mary Rodgers. The real find for me was "I Never do Anything Twice" which was written for a film. It's hysterical.
The cast of three performers are uniformly good and versatile, particularly David Kernan, who was involved in the creation of this revue. Millicent Martin sings "I'm Still Here" as well as anyone. As I learned when I looked up this production, the London version was created first and imported later to Broadway, with its British cast intact.
Side by Side by Sondheim
Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, Mary Rodgers, Richards Rodgers, Jule Styne, Leonard Bernstein
Opened in London in 1976
Cast: David Kernan, Millicent Martin, Julia McKenzie
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