Send in the Sondheim: San Antonio theaters celebrate a master
Stephen Sondheim fans, take note.
In a bit of serendipity, three of the late legend's musicals are slated for San Antonio stages in the next five months: “A Little Night Music,” “Merrily We Roll Along” and “Into the Woods.”
There's a lot of Sondheim going on elsewhere, too. “Merrily We Roll Along” is being revived on Broadway this fall, with the lead roles played by Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff and Lindsay Mendez. And “Here We Are,” a musical inspired by two Luis Buñuel films, will premiere in September in New York. Sondheim had started working on it years ago, collaborating with director Joe Mantello and playwright David Ives, and was still crafting the music when he died in 2021.
San Antonio's Sondheim slate starts with “A Little Night Music,” which the UTSA Lyric Theatre program is producing in collaboration with Wonder Theatre.
Director William Mccrary, who heads the UTSA program, has directed and performed Sondheim throughout his career, including a long run as Anthony in a California staging of “Sweeney Todd.”
“I've been wanting to do something since his passing, and I think that ‘Night Music' is such a great piece for a lyric theater college opera program,” Mccrary said. “We have some really great singers right now, so we wanted to do something that would showcase their voices. That's what we always try to do.”
The production is being staged at the Woodlawn Theatre, where Wonder has been in residence for just over a decade. The actors will be performing on the set for Wonder's production of “Ragtime,” the company's final show before it makes its big move to Wonderland of the Americas this summer.
The best-known song in “A Little Night Music” is “Send in the Clowns.” It also includes “Every Day a Little Death” and “You Must Meet My Wife.”
“It really is, I think, some of his best music,” Mccrary said. “Working with younger singers and younger performers, the nuance of all the innuendo is a challenge. But why do something if it's not a challenge? That's what I feel.”
The show opens March 30
and can be seen at 7:30 p.m. March 30-April 1 and 3 p.m. April 2 at the Woodlawn, 1920 Fredericksburg. Tickets range from $5 to $15 at music.utsa.edu.
Next up is “Merrily We Roll Along,” which is being staged by The Public Theater of San Antonio. The musical moves in reverse chronological order and follows the careers and relationships of a composer, a writer and a lyricist/playwright. The score includes “Old Friends” and the title tune. The
set will be designed by Overland Partners architects, which is a bit of a callback: The firm also designed the set for the theater's 2002 staging of “A Little Night Music.”
“Merrily We Roll Along” opens Aug. 4. It can be seen at 7:30 p.m. Fridays-saturdays and Aug. 17 and 2 p.m. Sundays through Aug. 20, The Public Theater, 800 W. Ashby. Tickets range from $19 to $49 at thepublicsa.org.
The last Sondheim musical in the works is Wonder's staging
of “Into the Woods.” The show, which includes the songs “Giants in the Sky” and “Agony,” explores what happens to fairy tale characters after “and they lived happily ever after.” It is slated to be staged in the company's new digs. Dates and other details are being hammered out. An announcement likely will be made in the next few weeks. Info, woodlawntheatre.org.