Fresh Loaf

Earlier this year, the Alliance Theatre had to backtrack a little when it rescheduled its intriguing-sounding world premiere musical, Ghost Brothers of Darkland County by Stephen King and John Mellencamp. The Alliance has found a high profile replacement for the horror novelist and rock ‘n’ roller, however in acclaimed musical writer-director James Lapine, who will develop a world premiere musical dedicated to the 79 year-old Stephen Sondheim, one of the greatest talents in American theater.

From April 15-May 10, the Tony-winning playhouse will present iSondheim: aMusical Revue. The funky punctuation signals that, according to the press release:

Unlike other previous Sondheim revues, this spectacular multi-media production will feature original and archival commentary from the legendary composer.

Lapine last visited the Alliance to direct The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee to launch its 2006 national tour. Lapine is a longtime collaborator with Sondheim, having directed and wrote the books for the acclaimed Sunday in the Park with George and Into the Woods. Young filmgoers may know Sondheim best as the originator of Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (pictured). For a handy recap of Sonheim’s career and importance, check out this “Primer” from The Onion A.V. Club.

Incidentally, I suspect that Alliance Theatre Associate Artistic Director Kent Gash is particularly excited. He directed the Alliance’s lovely 2003 revival of Sondheim’s Pacific Overtures, and is a Sondheim fan from way back.

(Photo courtesy Paramount Pictures)

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Which is worth more, a bucket of nails or a multimillion-dollar development project? Watch the two plays of the Alliance Theatre’s August Wilson Full Circle, a theatrical event more than 20 years in the making, and you’ll discover they have equal value: Each may be precisely worth the life of an African-American man.

Full Circle stages the Atlanta debuts of the final two plays in playwright August Wilson’s “Century Cycle” of heavyweight dramas. Also called “the Pittsburgh Cycle,” Wilson’s landmark project consists of 10 plays, mostly set in Pittsburgh’s African-American Hill District, with each script representing a different decade of the 20th century.

The Gem of the Ocean, set in 1904, takes place in a house on Pittsburgh’s Wylie Street, and involves two men whose fates hinge on a seemingly trivial theft from an oppressive mill. In Radio Golf, ambitious developer Harmond Wilks sets his fortune on a 1997 land deal that will launch his mayoral campaign and revitalize the Hill District, unless questions over that same Wylie Street house demolish his plans.

The Gem of the Ocean/Radio Golf twofer, playing on alternate nights and featuring the same actors doubling up, would be must-see theater based on the strength of the shows alone. August Wilson Full Circle proves even bigger than the sum of its parts. It marks the beginning of the Alliance Theatre’s 40th anniversary season, caps off the late playwright’s epic decalogue of American theater, and provides a kind of personal culmination and homecoming for director Kenny Leon, former artistic director of the Alliance.

Read the rest of this article here.

(Photo by Greg Mooney)

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