"Putting it Together"

Theatre review
"Putting it Together" at Syracuse Stage
Ithaca Times
February 11, 2009
660 words
"Song & Dance"

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Song & Dance

Mark Tedeschi

Putting It Together, words and music by Stephen Sondheim. Devised by Stephen Sondheim and Julia McKenzie. Directed and choreographed by Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj, with musical director Dianne Adams McDowell. Starring Chuck Cooper, Tyler Hanes, André Ward, Lillias White, and Stephanie Youell. Scenic design by Felix Cochren, costumes by Maria Marrero, lighting by Josh Bradford, sound by Jonathan R. Herter.

Stephen Sondheim's musicals disguise comprehensive ambition with lucid storytelling and fresh subtleties. By the early 1990s, his cohesive and lyrically bright songs had earned a level of popularity and prolificacy wherein compilation was inevitable; the result of his collaboration with actor/director Julie McKenzie, a musical "review" called "Putting it Together," premiered in England in 1992, on Broadway in 1999, and at Syracuse Stage last month. "Every little detail plays a part," inform the lyrics of the title number. "Putting it Together": It's what Sondheim does best.

Usually, though, when Sondheim "puts it together," he crafts a nuanced story replete with organic songwriting - not a story chassis around which to write songs, or in the case of "Together," a stock backdrop (the characters literally nameless) that sort-of fits with a handful of his preexisting tunes. Fortunately, his songs are dependably enjoyable, so the show at Syracuse, directed and choreographed by Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj, while not to the brim with pure Sondheim, is still plenty full.

André Ward (Man 3), his big, genuine smile extremely contagious, delivers the scripted curtain speech and with vim and vigor. He introduces and intermittently narrates the "story": An older married couple invite a younger unmarried couple to their swanky, contemporary Trump Tower penthouse for cocktails. They ruminate on their respective marital situations via song while Man 3 sticks around to comment.

The older, black couple (Man 1 and Woman 1) are played by Tony Award-winners Chuck Cooper and Lillias White. Cooper's resonant baritone booms early on in "Rich and Happy" from "Merrily We Roll Along" and quietly captivates later in "Good Thing Going" from the same. White solos deftly, her character progressively tipsier, with "My Husband The Pig" ("A Little Night Music") and "Could I Leave You?" ("Follies").

Like the couple they portray, the older performers are more seasoned and experienced, but Man 2 (Tyler Hanes) and Woman 2 (Stephanie Youell) have plenty of youthful exuberance to highlight their talent. Hanes holds his own alongside Cooper in "Company's" "Have I Got a Girl for You" and the "Sweeney Todd" number "Pretty Women," while Youell nails two songs from the movie "Dick Tracy": "Sooner Or Later" and "More."

Man 3 is chiefly included as a narrative tool; he introduces the songs with a single categorical word like "Happiness," "Seduction," "Competition," or "Desperation" in an attempt to justify the jumpiness of an undeveloped plot. However, Ward's irrepressible enthusiasm, showcased in his feature solo number "Buddy's Blues" ("Follies") wins him a buoyant, absorbing stage presence.

Together, the five performers master their harmonies (no easy feat with Sondheim's musical acrobatics) and explore the set under Maharaj's diverse choreography. "Bang!" from "A Little Night Music" uses quick and meticulous movements, while the minimalist gestures in the arresting "Company" song "Being Alive" softly communicate resolute hope and conviction.

Felix E. Cochren, scenic designer, also worked on "Into the Woods" and "A Little Night Music" at Syracuse previously; here, he creates a well-to-do setting using a chandelier, a top-shelf bar, fancy curtains, and two symmetrical staircases leading to an upper-level landing at center stage. The characters' clothing, designed by Maria Marrero, fits smartly with the surroundings: a sequined crimson dress, a sharp pinstripe suit, an aqua collared shirt under a diamond print sweater. Additionally, Josh Bradford's atmospheric and often inventive lighting design contributes to the posh ambiance of the palatial surroundings.

Also on stage sit the two instrumentalists: percussion and synthesizer player Jimmy Johns and musical director, conductor and show pianist Dianne Adams McDowell, who makes playing piano flawlessly for almost two straight hours seem easy.

In "Putting it Together," context destroys subtext - or at least obstructs it. Sondheim's conversational lyrics and musical motifs relate specifically to an all-inclusive show, so swiped from their original source material, the songs lack a certain logical depth. But while a full Sondheim musical may prove more fulfilling, the quality of performance and faithful delivery at Syracuse will satisfy the fans and intrigue the uninitiated.


Andre Ward, Stephanie Youell, Chuck Cooper, Tyler Hanes and Lillias White in ‘Putting It Together,’ now at the Syracuse Stage. (Photo by T. Charles Erickson)

"I Become a Guitar"

Theatre review
"I Become a Guitar" at the Kitchen Theatre
The Ithaca Journal
January 22, 2009
710 words
"Kitchen's 'I Become a Guitar' juxtaposes dreams and reality"

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Kitchen's 'I Become a Guitar' juxtaposes dreams and reality
BY MARK TEDESCHI • CORRESPONDENT • JANUARY 22, 2009

Consciously every day and subconsciously every night, we dream. The fantastic and intensely personal sojourns that our minds embark upon reveal a remarkable amount of our character: hopes and fears, confusions and curiosities, memories and prognostications. A new play at the Kitchen Theatre directed by Sara Lampert Hoover, "I Become a Guitar," explores the struggle of a modern Washington family plagued by persistent dreams of a different life.

Written by Kitchen newcomer Francesca Sanders of Portland, Oregon, "Guitar" focuses on the Stewarts: a father, mother and son frustrated with fate's curveballs. Each reacts to his or her situation in a different way, but all are guilty of letting fantasy take over. The 20-year-old son, Pablo (Nicholas Caycedo), though, has no choice - since he was six, he's suffered from Klein-Levin Syndrome, a rare and complicated neurological disorder that causes unpredictably cyclical episodes of excessive sleep lasting days, weeks or even months in which he'll rise only to eat or use the bathroom.

But we don't know that at first. Sanders recalled in an interview that one artistic director aptly noted of "Guitar": "This play starts out complicated and gets very simple." It begins with a narrated poem under blue and purple lights (Kelly Syring, lighting designer); Pablo sits in his raised bed, lyrically describing a Mexican village he lives in with his friend, Silvio. Pablo's bed is attached to a ladder, in front of a backdrop painted with a staircase in odd perspective that "connects" to an adjacent living room set with a dining table and armchair (scenic design by Kent Goetz).

Once he lays back down, the rest of the stage lights up and his parents, Kevin (David Moreland) and Madrigal (Sally G. Ramirez), enter; it's soon apparent that their love has dwindled due to a prolonged lack of communication and intimacy. Madrigal holds fast to the "eternal optimism" that their son could come to at any time, keeping his favorite foods ready 24 hours a day. The aloof Kevin constantly distracts (and thus distances) himself, exacerbating the difficulty of a return to normalcy. He has a recurring fantasy about a sultry sex therapist or "sexual surrogate," Catherine (Laura Ciresi Starr, bold and provocative), who consistently dares him to perform - consistently to no avail.

A striking sound design by the ever reliable Don Tindall, in cooperation with a poignant original score by Ron Kristy, deepens the emotional strain within the Stewart family. Rain falling or an elegiac acoustic guitar tune magnifies their constant, desolate uncertainty, a feeling likely had by any family with a Klein-Levin patient.

When Pablo does come to, his parents' expectations for his behavior fall flat. It takes him a while to regain what prior vocabulary he had, and he often acts moody and disoriented. Madrigal coddles Pablo, sparking an indifference in Kevin until they discover that their son has spent so much time in the dream state that he considers it his reality, and a preferred one at that. His slumberland existence with "Silvio" is odd, but Kevin and Madrigal realize that for their own happiness, they have to want for their son's as well.

The acting in "Guitar," no doubt thanks to Hoover's skilled direction, intensifies as the story decrescendos into a strange equilibrium. Moreland (recognizable as the principal in "Donnie Darko") stutters as he argues with his wife in the beginning, but his resonant voice crystallizes once Kevin finds potential comfort in accepting his family's unconventional situation. Ramirez's on-edge demeanor flawlessly fits a mother drowning in her own hope, and Caycedo surmounts the unenviable charge of playing a disabled, childlike adult. Occasionally, he hams up the cuteness, but when Pablo becomes upset, Caycedo's talent is undeniable.

"I Become a Guitar" raises questions about the nature of actual dreams versus invented aspirations (are they any different?) and further, fantasy versus reality. When her idealized vision of a family is marred, Madrigal laments, "It's not supposed to be!" Sanders shifts us in and out of each character's dream world, highlighting each family member's hopefulness that something from his or her illusion will cross over. When nothing does, it becomes necessary to adapt to unusual circumstances. Awakening doesn't have to entail abandonment of dreams - rather, as in this play, it can simply mean embracing new possibility.

"I Become a Guitar" runs at the Kitchen Theatre through Feb. 8. Tickets are $21-$36. Call 273-4497 or visit www.kitchentheatre.org for more information.


The Kitchen Theatre presents the world premiere of Francesca Sanders' play “I Become a Guitar,” with David Moreland and Sally G. Ramirez, through Feb. 8. (Megan Pugh/Provided)