Though the British theatre has virtually adopted Stephen Sondheim – a self-confessed Anglophile anyway – as a native son, to the extent that nowadays coals are taken to Newcastle with a Newbury production of Sweeney Todd now wowing them on Broadway – we have mostly missed out, so far, on the current generation of leading lights of the New York stage.
The late Bridewell tried to champion the cause, particularly of Michael John LaChiusa, Jason Robert Brown and Adam Guettel (where their shows Hello Again, Songs for a New World and Floyd Collins respectively received their UK premieres), and a Sunday evening concert series, Notes from New York, tried to do showcase revues of some of their work and some of the others, including Ricky Ian Gordon, William Finn and Andrew Lippa, but there’s still no co-ordinated way of seeing (and hearing) their work, apart from visiting Dress Circle and buying the CDs instead.
But at least there’s now a chance to engage directly and in person with Jason Robert Brown, an accomplished performer in his own right and an ideal exponent of his own work, who brings his cabaret to the New Players from tonight to Saturday only, in a return run of a series he did there last September. On that occasion, I wrote in The Stage: “For an American composer who has only had one musical produced professionally in London so far – his Songs for a New World song cycle that was seen at the Bridewell three years ago – Jason Robert Brown already has a formidable following over here from people in the know, who packed out the opening night of a four performance late-night run at the New Players.”
What’s disheartening, however, is that for producer David Dolman it continues to be an uphill struggle for him to get any press interest in it at all.
As he said to me in an e-mail, “After writing over 150 letters, the only press or sponsorship I received was the article in The Stage and a cheque from Cameron. We are accomplishing so many valuable educational exercises this time, it’s a real shame that no one takes notice. I feel that his work should be shared with more than the people in the know, but it seems impossible to achieve. For someone who makes such an impact on so many, sells out shows with no publicity, you’d think someone would take an interest in such a cult following….” Ruefully, he added, “Perhaps I should get someone from The X Factor to do Stars and the Moon? Just kidding!!”
Joke though we may, that is probably exactly the way to get Brown’s work out there. The trouble with the narrow coterie of the cabaret world is that it merely preaches to the already converted. Perhaps the only way to reach out further is to take it there.
