Send in the Songs

Sing along to something familiar at Broward Stage Door

Details

Through September 26. Broward Stage Door Theatre, 8036 W Sample Rd, Coral Springs; 954-344-7765.

Directed by Dan Kelley.
Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and music by Leonard Bernstein, Mary Rodgers, Richard Rodgers, Jule Styne.
With Dee Bunn, John Fionte, Dan Kelley, and Connie Salutos.

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More About

• Stephen Sondheim
• John Fionte
• Dee Bunn
• Connie Salutos
• Musicals

Sondheim magic aside, what makes this production work is the chemistry and the fine vocal blending among the cast. Kelley and Salutos, the taller couple, are paired as dancing partners, while medium-heighters Fionte and Bunn dance with each other. Fionte sings with Salutos, however, in the comedy number "You Must Meet My Wife," in which a deluded new husband explains his partner's charms to his mistress. (Salutos, a nimble comedienne, has the final word on marriage, though, in her role as the manic bride in "Getting Married Today.")

Kelley and Bunn get their own comic energy going in "Little Things," the salute to the survival strategies of the long-married from Company. Fionte joins Salutos and Bunn in "You Could Drive a Person Crazy," the Andrews Sisters-inspired boogie-woogie song from the same show. All four voices create a lovely mix for "Send in the Clowns," Sondheim's one pop hit, written for A Little Night Music and reinterpreted by many. Even this 1975 Grammy-winning song, played on the radio ad nauseam in the '70s, can withstand one more drive around the block, providing it's as thoughtful as the one here.