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London 1997 Saturday Night (1955/1997)
Book: Julius J. Epstein en Philip G. Epstein, with later additions by Stephen Sondheim
Off-Broadway 2000 Quickly to:
In short: Saturday Night offers a glimpse of Sondheim’s earliest work as a composer-lyricist at just 23 years old.
It’s amazing what that fellow put together so young. It may be a bit naive;
harold prince (theater producer and director, winner of 21 Tony awards)
he may have learned how to do things better, technically, but he’ll never have learned to be any more unabashedly open than he was then.
And so it’s a very emotional and heartfelt show.
San Francisco, 2018 (photo: San Francisco Chronicle) Overview Saturday Night - background and excerpts
Laura Benanti, “So many people” (2010) Love’s a bond that’s pure.
Its dividends are sure.Kelli O’Hara, “What more do I need?” (2020) [Lyrics] Group discussion with Michael Weber, Porchlight Roundtable (2020) Saturday Night, based on the play Front Porch in Flatbush by the famous Epstein brothers, was supposed to be the first show on Broadway for which Sondheim would write both music and lyrics, back in 1955. However, plans changed due to the untimely death of producer Lemuel Ayers at the age of 40. In 1960, there was renewed interest in staging it, but by then it no longer met Sondheim’s own standards. It wasn’t until 1997 that the show, with a few adjustments, was finally produced with his approval. Since then, it has been staged several times with modest success in the U.S., London, and Australia.
Saturday Night is a comedy in the traditional 1950s musical style, following a group of friends in their twenties in 1929 New York who, lacking dates, end up stuck at home on several Saturday nights. At the center is Gene, an ambitious and romantic young man who longs for glamour and success. He meets Helen, a young woman who pretends to be from the upper class, and they fall in love (“So many people”) To impress her, Gene becomes involved in shady financial schemes, and the group finds themselves in trouble with the law. In the end, Helen tells him that money isn’t necessary for her to stay with him (“What more do I need?”).
Stephen Sondheim about Saturday Night
“It’s not bad stuff for a 23-year old. There are some things that embarrass me so much in the lyrics – the missed accents, the obvious jokes. But I decided, leave it. It’s my baby pictures. You don’t touch up a baby picture – you’re a baby! “
Stephen Sondheim, Finishing the hat/Look, I made a hat. The Collected Lyrics (New York 2011) More Saturday Night: audio and video
Go to More Sondheim for our Sondheim Archives.
Reviews of Saturday Night
Chicago production (1999)
“Blessedly, though, the show is no mere peek at messy, fraying pages from Mr. Sondheim’s discard pile. Saturday Night is a musical comedy of beguiling innocence that hints at a composer’s promise in every downy-smooth and stylish number. […] Has it been worth the new attention? Yes, absolutely. Though the book remains a bit static and the direction by Gary Griffin is stodgy, Saturday Night is a cold engine that turns over miraculously whenever the band begins to play. With its treatment of the amorous mishaps of a group of average Joes and Janes, and the clean, character-defining songs that playfully introduce us to a landscape more familiar to devotees of kitchen-sink drama than musical comedy, Saturday Night has the unmistakable stamp of shrewd imagination and originality. And for fans of Mr. Sondheim, it packs something extra: the heart-stopping sensation of a curtain going up on genius.” – Peter Marks, The New York Times (1999)
Off-Broadway production (2000)
“More than just a theatrical curio, Saturday Night is also less than a major discovery. Its peppy score, which brims with the lyrical ingenuity that would soon establish Sondheim as the foremost musical wordsmith of his generation, can now take a proud if minor place in the composer’s canon. But the book, by Julius J. Epstein, does not have the age-defying mettle of art.” – Charles Isherwood, Variety (2000)
New York 2014 (photo: Jenny Anderson) Your Saturday Night
