REVIEW: MARRY ME A LITTLE, songs by Stephen Sondheim at Stage Door Theatre until 13 April 2024

‘Quality drama and musical in the heart of the West End’ ★★★★

Something familiar, something appealing, a new revival of a Stephen Sondheim revue opens a brand new West End venture with something of a bang. Marry Me A Little finds two forlorn New Yorkers (Shelley Rivers and Markus Sodergren) alone in their apartments on a Saturday night, aware of each other’s existence and even more aware of the life happening to other people in the big city outside their windows.

The show patches together 17 songs from nine Sondheim shows (with Company supplying a third of them) to provide, without spoken dialogue, a charmingly sad slice of life. It’s beautifully performed, and especially well choreographed as the two of them move around a small and cluttered space navigating kitchen, wine, ready meals, sofa and each other.  Interacting but always maintaining the illusion that they’re in separate spaces, knowing each other is there but never meeting or talking.

Musical director Aaron Clingham’s keyboard unobtrusively accompanies the mixture of duets and solos with Rivers’ raunchy, funny 'Can That Boy Foxtrot' and defiant 'There Won’t be Trumpets', and a plaintive 'Rainbows' the standout moments.

There’s no happy ending to be had, and if there’s a criticism of the show itself rather than this production, it may be that that it leaves us without much of a dramatic arc – Boy Doesn’t Meet Girl isn’t much of a story. Which leaves the songs themselves, which, brilliant as they are individually, can begin to feel dramatically similar as the storyline doesn’t progress.

But brilliant the songs unquestionably are, and both singers have strong and pleasing voices and move with the smoothness of stagecraft and applied rehearsal throughout as they lament their lonely, lonely night, their past lost loves and their future hopes and dreams. It’s a new venture at the Prince of Wales, and if it’s going to offer quality drama and musicals like this in the heart of the West End, then all strings to its bow.

Photos: Peter Davies

MARRY ME A LITTLE

Stage Door Theatre, Prince of Wales, Drury Lane   

28 Feb - 13 April 2024

Box Office: https://www.citizenticket.com/events/stage-door-theatre/marry-me-a-little/

Songs by Stephen Sondheim

Show conceived by Craig Lucas and Norman Rene

Directed by Robert McWhir

Starring Shelley Rivers and Markus Sodergren

Produced by Lambco

Reviewer: David Weir’s plays include Confessional (Oran Mor, Glasgow), Better Together (Jack Studio, London). Those and others performed across Scotland, Wales and England, and in Australia, Canada, South Korea, Switzerland and Belgium. Awards include Write Now Festival prize, Constance Cox award, SCDA best depiction of Scottish life, and twice Bruntwood longlisted.