"Marry Me a Little" Brightens the Season

We’re in that dreary, flavorless period between the 12^th day of Christmas and Valentine’s Day. Sigh. But if you need a truffle, a trifle, a delightful hour, see New Rep’s production of “Marry Me A Little.” The evening’s entertainment (more of a musical revue than a play) is a pastiche of Stephen Sondheim “discards,” songs written for various musicals and cut out for a variety of reasons having nothing to do with their quality.

The four characters live in separate compartments on the ingeniously designed set, décor reflecting their various stages of life. The experienced older woman makes dinner in her well-equipped kitchen. The established architect in his chilly minimalist dining room fiddles on his laptop, spreads out a set of plans, drinks. The young violinist practices and dreams in her small room which still carries the flavor of her childhood – bear on pillow, polka-dotted sheets. A young man of indeterminate profession gazes at his reflection in the mirror, preens and paces around the room that will remind you of your younger brother’s first apartment, making occasional half-hearted attempts to at least confine the clothes (dirty? clean?) carpeting the floor to a single pile.  

Their characters are designated simply Woman 1 and 2 and Man 1 and 2. Though the externals of their lives are defined by the spaces they inhabit, the inner identity shifts and is redefined as they transition from song to song, sometimes a solo, sometimes in duet, dreaming of relationships, some gay, and some straight. What they have in common is the tentative, fumbling longing and uncertainty, so typical of Sondheim. We see ourselves in their oh-so-human frailty and isolation and we smile at them and at ourselves. They dream of love and companionship without surrender or risk. Marry me – a little. Love me – but not too much.  Only at the end do they venture out into the world and risk a real encounter.

All four singer/actors had voices well-suited to musical comedy. Erica Spyres, Woman 1, sings with a bright, clear soprano, perfect for our ingénue. In the role of Woman 2 Aimee Doherty reveals a voice which is more powerful and well-suited to her more mature role. Brad Daniel Peloquin, Man 2, reveals his classical training in the exceptional sweetness of his tenor as the sophisticated architect, while Phil Taylor, Man 1, convincingly sings the confusion, vanity and ambition of the younger man.

Todd C. Gordon and David McGrory, who provide accompaniment from pianos on opposite sides of the stage, play with spirit and provide secure grounding for the whole production. And we loved the way Spyres’s violin practice was integrated into the accompaniment for other singers.  (Talented girl!)

A bonbon of an evening, yes, but reflective and sweet-natured and thoughtful. Well worth a midwinter drive to Watertown.

~ Johanna Ettin & Shauna Shames, New Rep Reviewers

Sondheim at New Rep

--Victoria Petrosino, New Rep Reviewer

New Rep’s production of “Marry Me a Little” provides an intimate glance into the private lives and elaborate dreams of a series of NYC apartment-dwellers.  The show features songs cut from other Stephen Sondheim productions woven into a charming musical.  Traditionally staged to tell the story of two NYC individuals at home on a Saturday night, New Rep widens the appeal to illustrate four individuals for all combinations of passions and disappointments.  The effort is particularly successful in adding some weight to the diminutive 75 minute production.

Scenic designer Erik Diaz envisions an ambitious set with four separate apartments, a fire escape with city views, and two smaller brick-walled rooms for the pianists.  Each apartment is elaborately decorated and helps to provide a few much-needed clues about the occupant, since the dialogue-free play yields little actual story.  For the most part, each character remains in the separate apartment (even while singing duets), highlighting that although several share the same longings, they are separated by timidity or circumstance.  Small moments of intimacy come from knocking on the walls or stomping on the floor to quiet the neighbors.

The live music (Erica Spyres also plays the violin) and apartment scenes create a cozy environment for the audience.  We watch the characters arrive home, unpack groceries, drink wine, get ready for bed, and leave again the next day.  The coziness partially offsets the lack of a story, but for me, the production overall lacked substance.  The music was excellent, the singers were all talented, but the impression left by each song was too fleeting.  Maybe that is the beauty of the production.  Each character leaves an ephemeral impression in the life of another.

A Little Sondheim Music

by Frank Furnari, New Rep Review

Marry Me A Little presents a great, short (75 minutes with no intermission) evening of Sondheim music that is bound to delight Sondheim fans.  The numbers are uninterrupted by dialogue or a story line like other Sondheim reviews – the focus here is on the songs and the stories told through them.  The numbers, except for the title song are all ones that did not make it into other Sondheim musicals; so they may not be familiar to many.  One may not normally want to hear songs that didn’t make it into a musical, but this is Sondheim, so even the ones that didn’t make the cut are still great numbers.   New Rep’s production is a little different than traditional productions in that it is a cast of four – two men, two women rather the normal one man, one woman.  This allows the production to have three couples, one straight, one gay, one lesbian (this change was blessed by Sondheim) to reflect today’s reality.

Director Ilyse Robbins assembles a strong cast for this production of both New Rep favorites, Aimee Doherty, Brad Daniel Peloquin who was in New Rep’s Moby Dick, as well as two new faces to the New Rep stage – Erica Spyres and Phil Tayler.  Each of the actors delivers a great performance and has a few moments to really shine. 

This reviewer is a little conflicted about this production – there are some things that worked and others that weren’t as strong for me.  Of the things that really worked was the fact that each actor always had stuff to do even if it wasn’t their number.  Since the actors are on stage for the entire production, it really gives you the sense that you’re looking into each person’s apartment as they’re living their lives.  It added a nice layer to the performance.  The part that didn’t work so well for me was the staging - except for a few moments in the show, the actors were never physically together when singing their songs.  To me, it never really established the couples. The rest of the production, however, is very solid.  I’ve heard many of the songs before, but I’ve never seen a production of this piece before.

Musically, the show is very tight, there are two pianos on either side of the stage and one of the actors, Erica Spyres plays violin in a few of the numbers from her apartment.  Even though they are all separated, the musicians and the singers are always in perfect sync.  Speaking of the singers, they are all very good and while they were wearing microphones, it seemed as if they weren’t being used.  The mics was often not needed, but it would have been useful in the numbers when all the actors are singing as they weren’t well balanced since some were closer to the audience than others. 

All of the technical parts of the production were flawless.  Erik D. Diaz’s bi-level set beautifully depicted four New York City apartments, each with its own distinct style.  Joe Stallone’s properties design made them all feel like they had been lived in for some time.  Christopher Ostrom’s lighting design and David Reiffel’s sound design added additional layers to the production, greater enhancing the reality on stage.