From left, Anne Tolpegin, Sleiman Alahmadieh, Solona Husband, Noel Anthony Escobar, Nick Nakashima and Melissa WolfKlain embraces new possibilities in TheatreWorks Silicon Valley’s ‘Being Alive: A Sondheim Celebration.”
The late composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim was an incomparable genius of the American musical theater. TheatreWorks Silicon Valley honors him with the world premiere of its homegrown revue, “Being Alive: A Sondheim Celebration.”
Conceived and directed by the company’s retired founder-artistic director Robert Kelley in collaboration with musical director William Liberatore, it focuses on love and romantic relationships in all their ups, downs and permutations in Sondheim’s complex music, rhythms and lyrics.
In this revue, three women and three men portray actors rehearsing a musical.
“Being Alive” delves into some of the songs from Sondheim’s treasure chest of great musicals. Some are well known, others not so much. TheatreWorks has staged 20 of his works, some more than once. Kelley directed most of them.
As Kelley wrote in his director’s notes ,the licensing agent for Sondheim’s works had strict rules:
The songs could come from only 15 of his works with no more than three from any one show and only three more songs from the five previous Sondheim revues, and those had to have been cut from other works. That left a choice of a mere 334 songs, Kelley wrote.
Hence some viewers might be disappointed that a favorite isn’t included, but the show still has some memorable tunes such as “Children Will Listen;” from “Into the Woods;” “Send in the Clowns;” from “A Little Night Music;” and more.
Recommended for you
The six performers all sing and act well as they portray relationships in various stages. They’re loosely paired by ages with Sleiman Alahmadieh and Solana Husband as 20-somethings, Nick Nakashima and Melissa WolfKlain as 30-somethings, and Noel Anthony and Anne Tolpegin as the 40-somethings.
Fumiko Bielefeldt’s costume design puts them in street clothes for the first act’s run-through and their performance costumes for the dress rehearsal of the second act.
Although associate director Alex Perez’s choreography is perhaps secondary, it nevertheless suits the mood and adds interest to each song.
With appropriate lighting by Pamila Z. Gray, Wilson Chin’s scenic design features a few set pieces in front of the backs of flats stamped with the names of the Sondheim shows for which they supposedly were used. The sound design is by Cliff Caruthers.
Running about two hours with an intermission, “Being Alive” is both interesting and entertaining. It will continue through June 30 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro St., Mountain View.
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO
personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who
make comments. Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd,
racist or sexually-oriented language. Don't threaten. Threats of harming another
person will not be tolerated. Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone
or anything. Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on
each comment to let us know of abusive posts. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Anyone violating these rules will be issued a
warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be
revoked.
Please purchase a Premium Subscription to continue reading.
To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account.
We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription.
A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means you’re helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much!
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.