Stephen Sondheim’s musical arrangements are creating a new meaning.

‘Putting It Together’ is touted as a review (not to be mistaken for a ‘revue,’ as one of the show’s characters pointedly remarks), showcasing Sondheim’s songs in an entirely different context than their original sources.

The show takes pieces from some of his popular musicals, such as ‘Sunday in the Park with George,’ ‘Into the Woods,’ ‘A Little Night Music,’ ‘Sweeney Todd’ and others to illustrate a new story of love – both lost and found, forgotten and redeemed – while tossing up familiar tunes and lyrics for reinterpretation.

‘Putting It Together’ is virtually void of any plot, a fact that the cast takes no effort to conceal, focusing the audience’s attention instead on character development and the eloquently expressed themes found latent in Sondheim’s works.

From the start, the show retains a cosmopolitan flair. The set is styled to resemble a swanky New York City high-rise, bedecked with a chandelier and balcony, and the exchanges between the actors are as bitingly comical as you would hope sharp-tongued urbanites to be.

Five nameless characters – three men and two women – portray a pair of bright-eyed lovers, a rather jaded older couple and a butler who occasionally observes and narrates the events unfolding on stage.

Tony Award-winning actors Chuck Cooper and Lillias White play the older man and woman with heartbreaking weariness, their characters struggling to keep up appearances as a ‘rich and happy’ couple while facing the fact that their marriage may have gone irrevocably stale. The younger two, played by Tyler Hanes and Stephanie Youell, prance and dance around the stage with a contrasting vibrancy that becomes progressively tainted as they realize the work it takes to turn their easy affection into a resilient love.

The lack of dialogue, save for a few interjections from the butler (played by André Ward) is a bit off-putting at first, but the cast uses the opportunity to completely command the piece with subtle changes in tone or expression, while the dimming lights and gentle music carry the actors’ words.

The play, based on human connections, delivers its most humorous and poignant moments when raw emotions break through propriety. White is especially hysterical upon revealing her affair with the butler in ‘Everybody Ought To Have A Maid,’ sashaying and romping with Ward around the furniture while cheekily declaring that everybody should have someone ‘to offer you the sort of help you never get from a spouse.’

Ward himself provides much of the comic relief during the two-hour performance by staying animated and irrepressibly lively, keeping the evening fresh and preventing the audience from becoming overwhelmed with melodrama.

‘Putting It Together’ isn’t aimed toward a general public; its ritzy and exclusively Sondheim repertoire will be better appreciated by those who are familiar with the composer’s lyrics of layered meaning and who understand theater as a reflection of themselves.

The irony, however, lies in the notion that anyone capable of feeling, and therefore any viewer, will be able to relate to these characters. Everyone’s lives are made up of the relationships they create and develop, and along the way, who hasn’t been conflicted about a fear of rejection, a dream that failed to materialize and the occasional stretch of loneliness?

Sondheim wants to reinforce the common adage that behind the pretense – and yes, the city glamour – we’re all kind of the same. And that is exactly what connects us to not only the people on stage, performing in full view, but also to those fighting unseen battles – the ones sitting right next to us in the theater, perhaps.

shlee10@syr.edu

Published on February 1, 2009 at 12:00 pm