Stephen Sondheim lovers craving something less frequently revived than Into The Woods, Sweeney Todd, Company, Sunday In The Park With George, or Assassins will find it this month in International City Theatre’s Marry Me A Little, sixty minutes of Sondheim gems that you just might be discovering for the very first time.

Conceived and developed in 1980 by Craig Lucas and Norman Rene, Marry Me A Little follows a man and a woman, billed simply as Man and Woman, over the course of a single day during which they go from being single, to coupled in each other’s imagination, and then back to being single again.

Minus even a single line of spoken dialog, Marry Me A Little leaves it to the audience to fill in the blanks between songs, and if you haven’t heard a considerable number of them, it’s for good reason. The 1980 song cycle is made up almost entirely of material left on the cutting-room floor.

Fortunately, even cutting-room-floor Sondheim is well worth a listen, just one reason why the latest from ICT proves such a tuneful, tangy treat.

We first see Man (Nick Tubbs) and Woman (Katy Tang) side by side on scenic designer JR Norman Luker’s upper Westside apartment set, though it soon (or eventually, depending on how sharp you are) becomes clear that each is occupying a different space as they go about their daily activities oblivious of each other’s upstairs (or downstairs) neighbor.

Some of Marry Me A Little’s songs will likely be familiar to cast recording aficionados, including the title song and “There Won’t Be Trumpets,” but both were cut from their show’s original productions, and though Company lovers will recognize some of the lyrics in “Happily Ever After,” they’ll probably not know the melody.

Other musical numbers will be pleasant discoveries, though easily recognizable as distinctively Sondheim, among them “Can That Boy F…oxtrot” (a sexy hoot cut from Follies), “Marry Me A Little” (a Bobby showstopper in Company given a woman’s POV here), “Two Fairy Tales” and “Multitude Of Amys” (the former cut from A Little Night Music, the latter from Company), and quite a few more.

All of this adds up to an hour of Sondheim magic made even more magical thanks to Kari Hayter’s as always inspired direction, and Tubbs’ and Tang’s matching star turns.

Having aced such diverse leading roles as the titular Hunchback Of Notre Dame and the titular Gentleman in The Gentleman’s Guide To Love And Murder, SoCal favorite Tubbs now gets to play a contemporary Everyman, a part he brings to vocally gifted life with added dollops of charm.

Tang’s glorious soprano has already dazzled audiences in such Sondheim classics as A Little Night Music and Sweeney Todd, making her the perfect choice to hit bell-clear sky-high notes while adding sass to “Can That Boy Foxtrot” and earnest yearning to “Marry Me A Little.”

Throughout it all, director Hayter finds ever more ingenious ways for these two characters to share separate spaces together, as music director Diane King Van provides impeccable accompaniment as the pianist next door.

It’s hard to imagine a more gorgeously designed and appointed New York flat (and adjoining terrace/fire escape) than the one Luker has designed for ICT, with Donna Ruzika once again demonstrating her lighting design finesse and Dave Mickey (sound design), Kim DeShazo (costume design), Patty and Gordon Briles (properties design), and Anthony Gagliardi (hair design) doing the same in their individual fields.

Marry Me A Little is produced by ICT artistic director caryn desai. Nicole Bernardini is associate scenic designer. John Freeland, Jr. is production stage manager and Sarah Dawn Lowry is assistant stage manager. Casting is by Michael Donovan, CSA, and Richie Ferris, CSA.

Giving Sondheim fans the chance to delight in sixteen little-known tunes and their clever, insightful lyrics, and offering just about any musical theater fan the pleasure in seeing them brought to life by an inspired director and a couple of L.A.’s most talented musical theater stars, Marry Me A Little makes for the most enchanting of 2022 ICT season openers.

International City Theatre, Long Beach Performing Arts Center, 300 E. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach.
www.InternationalCityTheatre.org

–Steven Stanley
February 13, 2022
Photos: Kayte Deioma Creative

Tags: Craig Lucas, International City Theatre, Los Angeles Theater Review, Norman Rene, Stephen Sondheim