It’s Stephen Sondheim heaven at the Odyssey as 3 Faces Of Steve: Sondheim In Concert treats musical theater lovers to over two dozen of the Broadway legend’s greatest hits, with some lesser-known ditties thrown in to spice up the mix.

Not that there haven’t been Sondheim-sampling revues before, most notably 1976’s Side By Side By Sondheim, 1993’s Putting It Together, and 2010’s Sondheim On Sondheim.

This time round, however, it’s a trio of opera stars—soprano Angelina Réaux (who also directs), baritone Michael Sokol, and baritenor Bernado Bermudez—who have complied their own set of Sondheim favorites interspersed with anecdotes recounting each performer’s personal connection with Steve. (Réaux, for example, got to originate the role of Beggar Woman in the first national tour of Sweeney Todd when barely in her twenties before an onstage mishap early in the show’s run sidelined her Broadway career and she opted for a future in opera.)

Accompanied to perfection by music director William Ah Sing on the grand piano, Réaux, Sokol, and Bermudez join voices in Merrily We Roll Along’s “Old Friends,” Gypsy’s “Together Wherever We Go,” and “Not Getting Married Today” as performed by a gay male couple in the recent Company revival, with Sokol breaking speed records as he recounts all the reasons he and Bermudez won’t be tying the knot today.

Duets allow Sokol’s Wolf to set about seducing Réaux’s Little Red Riding Hood in Into The Wood’s “Hello Little Girl,” Sokol and Bermudez to repeatedly drop the F word (no, not that one) in “Can That Boy Foxtrot” (cut from Follies), and Réaux and Sokol to bring tears to audience eyes with Follies’ “Too Many Mornings,” with more duets in Act Two.

And then there are the solos.

Bermudez’s baritenor soars to the music of Leonard Bernstein in West Side Story’s “Something’s Coming” and to Sondheim’s in the Company show-stopper that is “Being Alive.”

Réaux’s legit soprano pipes are on stunning display in the touching “In Buddy’s Eye” and her throaty Broadway belt brings down the house in “I’m Still Here,” both from Follies.

Sokol gives Follies Bergère chanteuses a run for their money with Follies’ “Ah Paree” and gender-swaps once again with a searing “Could I Leave You,” originally sung by a fed-up Phyllis in the same show. (Yes, there is a lot of Follies in 3 Faces Of Steve.)

And these are just half of the songs that give three superb singers the chance to perform something other than their usual Puccini, Verdi, and Mozart.

Leigh Allen lights each song to striking effect while scenic artist Chris Bell bookends the productions simple but elegant set with matching face-to-face portraits of Steve, though like an audience member seating near me wondered aloud, shouldn’t there be 3 Faces Of Steve?

3 Faces Of Steve: Sondheim In Concert is produced for the Odyssey Theatre by Beth Hogan. Katie Chabot is stage manager.

Whether it’s a song that even those unfamiliar with the Sondheim oeuvre might recognize (the much covered “Send In The Clowns” for one) or one that only the most die-hard devotee will have heard before (e.g., The Mad Show’s devilishly clever “The Boy From”), 3 Face Of Steve: Sondheim In Concert adds up to the tastiest of late-summer treats.

Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, 2055 South Sepulveda Boulevard, Los Angeles.
www.odysseytheatre.com

–Steven Stanley
September 22, 2024
Photos: Cooper Bates

Tags: Los Angeles Theater Review, Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, Stephen Sondehim