Merrily, merrily!

We finally used the gift tickets that had been moldering (and thankfully, not lost under piles of my junk) to see a show over at the New! and Improved! Signature Theater. They have a reputation as being dirty Sondheim-ophiles, and, because one of my great sadnesses about moving to DC when I did, other than not buying a home immediately, was to have missed the big Sondheim festival in summer of '02, I've tried to hit the one-Sondheim-a-season that they generally perform. Last year was Assassins, which, while spare, was interesting, thought definitely not my favorite. This year's Merrily We Roll Along got mixed reviews, but, The List! Of Sondheim Shows I haven't seen! Must be faithfully chipped away! And so we went (thanks, L&C!!)

The new space is really nice. It's slightly bigger, but still a blackbox that can't seat more than a few hundred people, so retains the intimacy of the former theater. The staging was well thought out, as they made the most of the balcony arrangement by having a grand staircase for many of the entrances. In the brief glimpse of Into the Woods that I saw last season, they did something similar with the vertical space. Very cool.

I can see why this is reputed to be one of his most uneven shows. The story, about the friendship and the musical-writing process, is very meta, which must be handled delicately, humorously, or is best left the well alone. The tone was pretty much dead on earnest, which was slightly irksome at times and did nothing to countermand the idea that Theater Folks are ridiculously self-absorbed.

The action rolls backwards in time, tracing the path of three friends at the dissolution point in their lifelong friendship, back to its inception. A neat idea, but lacking the emotional resonance present when a story is told in linear progressive fashion (there IS a reason that we do that!). The reprises of songs from "before" (i.e., not yet heard) don't hit with as much force, because while you feel that they might be important, you're not sure until later in the show, when the original is sung. There's a fun, "AHA!" moment, and then a moment of "Oh!" pathos, but it doesn't mean quite as much as it could have.

The costumes were zany and glitzy and very of the 70s (eyepopping!), most of the acting was quite good, lots of sharp and funny lyrics and lines, and a couple of genuinely astounding songs - Bobby and Jackie and Jack and Franklin Shepard, Inc. The "going back in time" motif, with the poor backup dancers/characters doing their best Austin Powers club scene impressions, was cute but silly. The most impressive thing about the back-up cast was the way they held themselves still as background scenery as nightclub lounge people.

I like the happy ending, though. Because they end at the highest moment of hope and promise, even though you know the end of their path, you can leave in a good mood, whistling the jaunty signature tune (that they sung over and over and over and over, and which stuck in my head for WEEKS!). (There's nothing quite like leaving a show right after a funeral scene. Even though the deaths of Eva and Juan Peron were the best things that could happen, it really dampens the spirits of the theatergoer.)