SONDHEIM UNPLUGGED – Volume Three – Various Artists (Yellow Sound Label). Conceived, directed and produced by Phil Geoffrey Bond.
Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
The death of Stephen Sondheim in November 2021 was a sad occasion relieved only by the fact that the celebrated composer-lyricist had left us a whole treasure trove of marvellous songs and musical shows. It is difficult to reckon just how important Sondheim was to the American musical theatre for, as good as his predecessors Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Irving Berlin and Rodgers and Hammerstein were, it is not difficult to put Sondheim way ahead of that list. The aforementioned musical geniuses were brilliant in their own way but… Sondheim took musical theatre to a different level, expanded what the art form could do and produced a range of works second to none. In a world of musical geniuses Sondheim was and will remain the master.
This series of Sondheim Unplugged recordings celebrates not only the songs themselves but also the wide range of Sondheim’s talents. Many years ago (in 1976) the Side by Side by Sondheim show and album demonstrated what he could do in multifarious musical ways and it really introduced him to the London theatre audience. The show ran for over 800 performances before transferring to Broadway for another 400 performances and then more productions and revivals were staged around the world. Side by Side presented a distillation of his talents that was responsible for putting him permanently on the West End and Broadway maps.
The Yellow Sound Label Sondheim Unplugged series has transferred much of the Sondheim material from the New York revue at 54 Below on to three volumes of well-known Sondheim songs plus many other favourites and also some lesser-known numbers, making them available on CD, digital and streaming platforms. There are some hundred performers contributing to the songs, and many of them have appeared in Sondheim shows over the years, including George Lee Andrews from A Little Night Music, Danielle Ferland from Into the Woods, Teri Ralston from Company, Sarah Rice from Sweeney Todd, Melanie Vaughan from Sunday in the Park With George, Jim Walton from Merrily We Roll Along and Eric Michael Gillett from Pacific Overtures etc. The music director here is singer-songwriter Joseph Goodrich on piano.
The latest, the third of the three albums, covers a varied mixture of songs from Sondheim shows beginning, appropriately enough, with ‘Opening Doors’ from Merrily We Roll Along and then goes on to cherrypick some of the best numbers Sondheim ever wrote (did he ever write a bad song?) including ‘Sorry/Grateful’, ‘Another Hundred People’ and ‘Being Alive’ from Company, ‘Loving You’ from Passion, ‘Somewhere’ from West Side Story, ‘Now You Know’ from Merrily We Roll Along, ‘Not While I’m Around’ and ‘A Little Priest’, from Sweeney Todd, ‘One More Kiss’ from Follies, and ‘Take the Moment’ from Do I Hear a Waltz? among many others.
There are 21 tracks on each of the two discs and the second one includes ‘Everything’s Coming Up Roses’, ‘All I Need is the Girl’ and ‘Rose’s Turn’ from Gypsy, ‘The Worst Pies in London’ from Sweeney Todd, ‘Happily Ever After’ and ‘Getting Married Today’ from Company, ‘You’re Gonna Love Tomorrow’ from Follies, ‘Love, I Hear’ from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, ‘No One is Alone’ from Into the Woods, ‘Me and My Town’ from Anyone Can Whistle and ‘I Have a Love’ from West Side Story, among many other superb interpretations. The album ends with ‘Sunday’, the anthemic song from Sunday in the Park With George.
Just listing and listening to those numbers again emphasises what a rich hoard we have to draw on from the writing talents of Stephen Sondheim. We can only conclude that he was the true stage musical master of the 20th century. His shows will never date and they will be performed again and again. Every new generation will benefit from getting to know his back catalogue and will be inspired to want to hear more and more from America’s prime minister of musical theatre. Finally, on a personal level, I have to admit I would rather see any show by Sondheim than anything else by any other musical creator. You will find the reason why embedded in the three volumes of Sondheim Unplugged. Listen to them and I guarantee you will be hooked on Sondheim for life.
Michael Darvell
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