Marry Me A Little | Alisdair Kitchen

sondheim

marry me

a little

drayton arms theatre, london

& rye community centre, rye

May/June 2018

This collection of Sondheim songs cut from the original productions of A Little Night Music, Follies, Company and others were developed into an intimate musical by Craig Lucas and Norman Rene in 1980.

Told entirely through Sondheim’s music, with no dialogue, the show presents snapshot memories and fantasies of two New York singles in their respective studio apartments; little do they know that they're just a floor away from each other and the end of their lonely dreams.

A co-production with the Rye Arts Festival and supported by JAY Records

Photography by Doug Craib

Unlike recent revivals which have contemporised the setting, this production of Marry Me A Little was set roughly in the period it was conceived, in the late 1970s.

This show operates on the theatrical conceit of both actors inhabiting the same stage space, despite living in separate apartments. Rather than representing a fully furnished single apartment, the set for our production was conceived symmetrically, along an imaginary mirror-line; each actor had their own side of the stage, furnished identically and in mirror image. (Reflecting this, the action also placed emphasis on symmetry.) Behind the apartments was a shared space representing the hallway of the apartment building, with mailboxes. Placed behind a black gauze, this could be rendered invisible or illuminated as required - especially useful for memory effects. Having two apartment spaces allowed those songs grounded in reality to take place in respective apartments, but the boundary could be blurred in the fantasy/memory songs by allowing crossover between spaces.

Man: Keith Merrill

Woman: Stephanie Schmalzle

Stage Direction, Music Direction and Design by Alisdair Kitchen.

Jonathan Musgrave and James Harrison (Piano Accompaniment)

Musical Theatre Review:

"Merrill is highly entertaining to watch"

"It’s impossible to not be glued to Schmalzle"

LondonTheatre1:

"A charming and convincing production"

The Sondheim Society:

"Alisdair Kitchen's production is sensitively and intelligently realised"