MARRY ME A LITTLE (Barn Theatre)****

 

 

By Emma

Link: https://barntheatre.org.uk/all-venues £13.50

Available until: Further livestreams on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 7.30pm. The stream is available for 24 hours.

Stephen Sondheim wrote a lot of songs for his musicals but not all of them made the final cut. Marry Me a Little is a collection of cut songs from several of his musicals including Company, A Little Night Music and Follies, plus a couple of songs which I think did make the final cut for their musicals but they were reused here, probably to make the story clearer.

There’s no dialogue in this musical and there are only two characters. The original story is two single people who live next door to each other and they like each other but they never actually do anything about it. The impression I get from this production is that they do something about it but the relationship turns out to be a mistake. I think maybe they’re both looking back on the relationship and the good times and I think the girl cancels a date with another guy because she’s still thinking about the first one. If I’ve got that wrong I’m sure it’s my fault not the production’s fault

It’s a lot better than I thought it would be. I knew the music would be good because it’s Stephen Sondheim but what surprised me is how well the story works. This production does help the story along a little bit by using text messages and photos which are displayed on a screen behind the set but it’s mostly just about the songs and the two performers.

The music is so beautiful. I don’t know why these songs were cut, maybe there wasn’t enough time for all the songs or they weren’t right for the story (there’s one song from Company with similar lyrics to Being Alive so I think maybe that was a replacement song?) but it wasn’t because the songs aren’t good enough for a Broadway musical.

The lyrics are amazing too, they actually rhyme properly and the rhymes are clever and they really mean something.

It probably isn’t an easy musical to put on though. All musicals need good performers who can cope with the music but maybe with this one it’s even more important for the singers to be exceptional. The music was written for several different characters so you need actors who are capable of singing all the characters and some of the music sounds really really hard and it’s quite operatic in parts which not all musical theatre singers can do because why should they, it’s not what they’re trained in.

You also need really good actors who can create a character out of songs which weren’t written for just one character and also tell a story without using any words that were actually written for that story. I hope that makes sense.

I don’t know if it would be better with dialogue. It is difficult because the characters are on their own so they’d be talking to themselves but I think you could still make it work or maybe even include other characters who could be non singing characters or give them some of the songs. But at the same time I really liked working out the story myself from what I saw and heard and maybe everyone who watches it will have their own slightly different story and that’s a really nice idea.

Rob Houchen and Celinde Schoenmaker are unbelievably good. They have really beautiful voices and they are so versatile. The first musical I saw in lockdown was Eugenius and I’m fairly sure Rob was in that too and I think that was a rock musical, this was a lot more classical. They both show their characters’ feelings really well in their voices and in their acting, they’re both likeable characters and I really wanted them to get together and stay together. But it wasn’t unrealistic that they didn’t because some relationships either don’t work out or never get started.

It is a sad musical but it’s a good story and the music is amazing.