Julia McKenzie everythings coming up Sondheim Essay Example For Students

Julia McKenzie: everythings coming up Sondheim Essay On paper, Julia McKenzie and Stephen Sondheim couldnt seem a less likely couple. Shes the archetypal English suburbanite who lists cooking and gardening as her hobbies in Whos Who. Hes the quintessential New York cosmopolite, an overtly brilliant wit and lover of puzzles whose musicals have transformed the American theatre. And yet mutual admiration societies dont come much stronger. In Britain, McKenzie is without peer as a Sondheim interpreter, having starred in four of his musicals, with a fifth Sweeney Todd due at the National in June. The recent Off-Broadway opening of Putting It Together, running through May 23 at Manhattan Theatre Club, tests her mettle on Sondheims home turf for the first time since she brought Side by Side by Sondheim to Broadway in 1977. But this time, McKenzie is offstage, not on, directing none other than Julie Andrews in that toughest of genres a play-as-revue. Outline1 One peak to another  2 Somewhere on an emotional line  3 Andrews with an A   One peak to another   We will write a custom essay on Julia McKenzie: everythings coming up Sondheim specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now Weve been making up words; maybe its a revue-sical, the 52-year-old McKenzie jokes a week into previews, pleased at the progress the show is making. No one knows what the hell to call it. Lets just say that people come out believing theyve seen a play. To me, its just whatever it is. Its certainly not a concert, not a revue, not a musical, not a play. At heart, its another tribute to Sondheim from an actress-director who has gone from one Sondheim-related peak to another. To be sure, McKenzie has had her share of success elsewhere, ranging from Alan Ayckbourns quietly demented Susan in Woman in Mind to the hilarious yet wrenching Miss Adelaide at the heart of Richard Eyres 1982 National Theatre production of Guys and Dolls. But its in partnership with Sondheim that she has really soared. In Side by Side, McKenzie avoided the overriding archness, offering a Broadway Baby that moved from girlish insouciance to full-throttle bravura. As Sally Plummer in the 1987 London Follies, McKenzie was a haunted musicals haunted center: a portrait of erotic longing and marital despair hidden behind bright eyes and almost constant good cheer. Inheriting Bernadette Peterss role as the Witch in Into the Woods (1990), she lent a cohesive morality to an emotionally diffuse showa performance at once fun and furious, loaded with poignancy and pizzazz. Surprisingly, McKenzie the singer admires most about Sondheim the demands he makes on McKenzie the actress. All Steves songs are complete acting pieces, so you dont feel the frustrations of a normal musical. We have in Britain a very great tradition of literature and the theatre, and I think Steve is part of that. Somewhere on an emotional line   McKenzie has little time for any received opinion about the coldness of his material. I find his stuff tremendously emotional; it triggers off immense feelings for me. The passion in his lyrics is so emotionally put. His people dont say I love you ever straight in a song. Instead, its like in Too Many Mornings |from Follies~: All that time wasted / merely passing through. That to me is an epitome of a relationship; we meet somewhere on an emotional line. As she recalls it, McKenzie was approached on the same day to play the Witch in Into the Woods and direct a kind of sequel to Side by Side. Unsurprisingly, she said yes to both, only realizing later that a straightforward Side by Side 2 would be untenable. I didnt think we could possibly do another Side by Side with three stools and a narrator, says the director, who won a Tony nomination for her work on that production. For Putting It Together, I got the songs I couldnt leave out, the ones I desperately wanted to use. A framework of sorts followed: We have an older couple, seemingly very happy and a younger couple wanting what the older couple have. 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When the lack of a theatre made a West End transfer impossible, McKenzie and producer Cameron Mackintosh instead turned to the Manhattan Theatre Club. The arrival of Julie Andrews altered the event further, adding an event status to what had been an ensemble show. But beyond bringing in Could I Leave You from Follies to end the first act (a violation of McKenzies early rule that no song from Side by Side could reappear in Putting It Together) the director maintains that Andrewss presence has made no difference. It hasnt distorted the show or weighted it in any way. If you look at the poster, Julie Andrews appears in alphabetical orderits not her fault her name starts with A. With the show in previews, McKenzie is due back in London to prepare for Sweeney rehearsals under the direction of Declan Donnellan (Angels in America). Its the one Ive been waiting for, she says of the role of Mrs. Lovett. Shes eager to take on the production without any preconceived notions. Declans such an unusual director that whatever I think will not be what he has in mind; besides, since Ive directed, Im awfully good to directors. But will McKenzie make good on the other Sondheim lead she has so far put off the monstrous Mama Rose in Gypsy? On this point, she gently demurs. Oh my God, no. It needs an American. I could act it, but I wouldnt be it.