Wednesday, July 27, 2005

Maybe I'm not a Sondheim fan

I was starting to prep for auditions for Sondheim's Company, being done by two local companies this fall in overlapping runs. I had read through a couple of synopses on line and wasn't all that taken by the show but ordered a CD of the music. Finally got a chance to listen to it the other night and decided that I won't be auditioning after all. It's bad enough that I didn't particularly like any of the characters, but I wasn't all that crazy about the music, either. I'm not so theater-addicted that I'm going to give up three months of my life rehearsing and performing something I probably won't like.

I haven't seen a lot of Sondheim - Gypsy, West Side Story, A Funny Thing Happened..., and Into the Woods. Except for Forum, they're all downers, and a lot of the characters are decidedly not sympathetic. That seems particularly true of Company (bear in mind that I've read synopses and listened to the CD; I haven't seen it performed). I figure if I want to see rape, murder, adultery and people just plain being mean and manipulative, all I have to do is turn on the TV or pick up a newspaper. It's not something I really want to sign up for.

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