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With most composers, you’d be safe to assume that their discarded songs should probably be left on the cutting-room floor. But we’re not talking about just any composer, we’re talking about the great American musical writer Stephen Sondheim, author of ‘A Little Night Music’, ‘Merrily We Roll Along’ and a whole lot more. His track record for producing top-drawer songs is pretty high, so delving into his rubbish bin of lost tunes makes sense.
That’s essentially what Craig Lucas and Norman René did to create 1980’s ‘Marry Me A Little’, a cycle of 17 songs by Sondheim written for various musicals but then cut, for different reasons, from their respective final pieces.
Included in the mix is the title tune from a once unproduced (now produced) musical ‘Saturday Night’; ‘Bang!’ a hilariously saucy track dropped from ‘A Little Night Music’ (1973); and ‘Can That Boy Foxtrot’ which was originally in 1971’s ‘Follies’.
Lucas and René set the cycle in a cosy flat in New York, and strong-arm the songs (originally selected from a whopping 45) into a vague frame, via the progression of a relationship. Starting with ‘Two Fairy Tales’ we see the couple with conflicting visions of the future. ‘Who Could Be Blue / Little White House’ in the middle bring things down to earth, and we end on ‘It Wasn’t Meant To Happen’, a sad, forthright song implying a break-up.
The tunes were undoubtedly worth saving from obscurity. From the first two tracks, Sondheim’s masterful ability with melody and his unique lyrical expression is there in full force. The tracks are sung well by Laura Pitt-Pulford and Simon Bailey, but it’s Pitt-Pulford who seems made for Sondheim’s complex verses. Her physical comedy and smooth, effortless voice in ‘Can That Boy Foxtrot’ is superb.
The cycle itself is a little weak. Though there’s obviously an attempt at a narrative, it’s not enough to bring any real drama to the evening. It’s great to hear the songs, but delivered with no real context they lose a little of their magic.