DVD Review - Sondheim! The Birthday Concert

I have just finished watching the DVD of  the 80th Birthday concert celebration of one of the most influential people in the musical theatre, Stephen Sondheim, filmed live at Avery Fisher Hall, New York City in March 2010. And I must say that this star-studded event was overall a very enjoyable one.

David Hyde Pierce hosted the event and he was very funny. I especially like how he kept going back to the fact that he wants Steve's songs to be sung in other languages and how he kept stopping Paul Gemignani, the musical director, from playing Sweeney Todd tune.

The performers presented here were a very talented and, no doubt, flawless in interpreting Steve's songs. They include the like of Patti LuPone, Bernadette Peters, Donna Murphy, Victoria Clark, Marin Mazzie, Jason Danieley, Manday Patinkin, Elaine Stritch, to name a few.

The show begins with the talented and Tony-winning Karen Olivo and her fellow castmembers from West Side Story performing 'America'. This really shows why she earns herself that Tony Award.

The production was cleverly done. I like how the show opened with the Overture from a mix of Steve's shows with all the performers in that evening parading out on the stage. I also like how the camera always close-up on Steve in the audience. I just wish they would seat him somewhere the camera could have a better view of him.

Chip Zien and Joanna Gleason in 'It Takes Two'

About 30 minutes into the show, there was a section on performance from original cast members. Standouts were Joanna Gleason and Chip Zien (as the Baker's Wife and the Baker) singing 'It Takes Two' from Into the Woods and Bernadette Peters and Mandy Patinkin singing songs from Sunday in the Park with George

George Hearn, Patti LuPone & Michael Cerveris joined forces in 'A Little Priest'

I also like how they put 2 Sweeney Todds on the same stage, George Hearn and Michael Cerveris performing 'Pretty Women' and then Patti LuPone (who played Mrs. Lovett with both of them in different productions) joined them in an impeccable performance of 'A Little Priest'. I was fortunate enough to see Michael and Patti on Broadway when they revived Sweeney Todd and here, it just shows how excellent their actings were.

"Beautiful Girls" (from left to right)
Patti LuPone, Audra McDonald, Bernadette Peters, David Hyde Pierce,
Elaine Strich, Donna Murphy and Marin Mazzie

However, the best part definitely has to be the "Beautiful Girls" section where David Hyde Pierce introduced the 6 leading ladies of Broadway: Patti LuPone, Marin Mazzie, Audra McDonald, Donna Murphy, Bernadette Peters and Elaine Stritch, each then took turn in singing a song by Stephen Sondheim. Patti was really good in 'The Ladies Who Lunch' from Company and it made me looking forward to seeing her and hearing her sing this song live this April even more. It was really hard to judge who was the best so I gave it a 6-way tie then. :)


I personally didn't like Nathan Gunn's rendition of 'Johanna' from Sweeney Todd though there's nothing bad that I could flaw about his technique. I just didn't like they way it was sung, I guess. Frankly, some of the not so popular songs had me on fast forward sometimes, notably the ones sung by Gunn, Audra McDonald, and Laura Benanti.

Running at just under 2 hours, I feel that the concert didn't really do justice to all of Stephen Sondheim's works and the songs chosen weren't really fairly spread between the musicals. How can it be fair when you have 7 songs from Follies and none from A Funny Thing.., Passion or Assassins. His standard songs such as 'Send in the Clowns' 'Being Alive' were excluded as well. Probably since there has been many Stephen Sondheim tribute concerts over the decade so they were trying to be different. The unfamiliar songs were nice but admit it, sometimes we want to hear those same old songs in a celebration like this.

However, it was still a great DVD to be seen and it's worth the money already just to hear the 6 Broadway's leading ladies sing their songs at the end.

Man of the hour: Stephen Sondheim

"First you're young, then you're middle-aged, then you're wonderful. This was wonderful. Thank you all." -- Stephen Sondheim

SONG LIST
Overture
America from West Side Story (Karen Olivo & Company)
We're Gonna Be Alright from Do I Hear a Waltz (Jason Danieley & Marin Mazzie)
Don't Laugh from Hot Spot (Victoria Clark)
Johanna from Sweeney Todd (Nathan Gunn)
You're Gonna Love Tomorrow/Love Will See Us Through from Follies
(Matt Cavenaugh, Jenn Colella, Laura Osnes & Bobby Steggert)
Too Many Mornings from Follies (Audra McDonald & Nathan Gunn)
The Road You Didn't Take from Follies (John McMartin)
It Takes Two from Into the Woods (Joanna Gleason & Chip Zien)
Growing Up from Merrily We Roll Along (Jim Walton)
Finishing the Hat from Sunday in the Park with George (Mandy Patinkin)
Move On from Sunday in the Park with George (Bernadette Peters & Mandy Patinkin)
Pretty Women from Sweeney Todd (Michael Cerveris & George Hearn)
A Little Priest from Sweeney Todd (Michael Cerveris, George Hearn & Patti LuPone)
Theme from Reds with Pas de Deux
So Many People from Saturday Night (Laura Benanti)
Beautiful Girls from Follies (David Hyde Pierce)
The Ladies Who Lunch from Company (Patti LuPone)
Losing My Mind from Follies (Marin Mazzie)
The Glamorous Life from A Little Night Music (Audra McDonald)
Could I Leave You from Follies (Donna Murphy)
Not a Day Goes By from Merrily We Roll Along (Bernadette Peters)
I'm Still Here from Follies (Elaine Stritch)
Sunday from Sunday in the Park with George (Company)