Musical players roll out Sondheim classic

Author: Colin Foss


Audio produced by Radio Arts Middlebury

This weekend, the Middlebury College Musical Players (MCMP) will be performing Stephen Sondheim's "Merrily We Roll Along" on the McCullough stage. This production marks for the Players an era of new-found enthusiasm for musical theatre on campus. MCMP, despite their daunting mission of independently producing high-energy and high-cost musicals, has been gaining popularity and recognition in the past years because of the quality of their productions. And it's been a long time in the making.

The Players just recently reviewed their constitution for the first time, which means they have been present on campus for over a decade. To tackle a Sondheim classic is as much an acceptance of this nascent recognition as it is a commitment to it. Laura Budzyna '08, co-administrator of the Players, sees the group's recent emergence as a result of their willingness to tackle more serious musical theatre.

"Up untilÖ the year I got here or the year after that," said Budzyna, "[MCMP] had sort of been a smaller group on campus. But as we started to do more difficult, complicated and involved shows, we got a little bit more notice."

Musicals, in general, are much more technically complicated productions than straight dialogue theatre but garner a broader fan base. The color and choreography of "Merrily" might be a testament to the flashy character of Middlebury's own Broadway-style production company, but, just like the sold out shows on the New York strip, MCMP enjoys an ardent audience base.

"This semester we're using McCullough," says Budzyna, "which does have the feel of a high school gym, but, it's a bigger venue. We've had a problem in the [Hepburn] Zoo shows because, if you have twenty performers onstage, there's only room for about thirty audience members."

As the only independent theatre production company on campus, MCMP has a number of hurdles to overcome - the worst of which are not even where to stage the production. The essential element of any musical - the music - is sometimes the hardest element to orchestrate. According to Budzyna, the Music Department at Middlebury has been bounteous enough to supply their pit band with ample musicians, but the pool of good pit players is small. The overlap can sometimes cause problems.

"An issue this semester with the pit band," Budzyna said, "was that there is an orchestra concert the same night as one of our shows. And so, all of our horns, who would have otherwise played in the pit, could not."

Actors, too, seem to be in high demand. Many schedules had to be worked around Theatre Department productions, considering many actors are Theatre majors and are required to participate in a certain number of department shows. Therefore, for a lot of theatre students, academics must come first - and that means department shows. But negotiations are not uncommon, says Budzyna, and actors can sometimes participate in department shows, and still contribute to MCMP productions.

"We make a big effort to accommodate people who are involved in two shows. A lot of the stars in [Merrily We Roll Along are Theatre majors or have been in callbacks for other productions."

Perhaps due to the demanding nature of musical theatre, the membership of MCMP is constantly changing and welcoming new faces.

"I was abroad last year and when I came back I didn't know more than one or two people in a 20-person cast," said Budzyna.

Open auditions and a populist theory of theatre allows MCMP to deal with the debutantes of the Middlebury theatre community. You do not need to be a major, you are not competing with a handful of students who are required to audition and - since no one is getting credit - you know that everyone else you'll be working with is in it purely for the musical. The turnover rate may be high, but there are always long-time members like Budzyna, now in her fourth year of her MCMP career, who get hooked.

"Merrily We Roll Along" opened on Broadway in 1981, saw sixteen performances, and was cancelled. Its script has seen considerable success, however, since its first unnaturally short run. The Players' decision to revive the musical is in line with their commitment to more serious productions - and Sondheim is the epitomic writer of serious musicals. The Music Department's production of the more operatic "Sweeny Todd" this January demonstrates Sondheim's pervasiveness. Also, MCMP performed his 1987 fairy-tale musical "Into the Woods" two years ago.

"Sondheim is one of the most complex composers in musical theatre. You hear people refer to 'Sondheim snobs,'" said Budzyna. "There are people who like 'Oklahoma,' people who like 'Phantom of the Opera,' and then there are the Sondheim people."

MCMP' production of "Merrily We Roll Along," written by Stephen Sondheim and directed by Kevin Tierney '08, is playing this weekend in the McCullough Social Space: Thursday Nov. 8th, Friday Nov. 9th, and Saturday Nov. 10th, all at 8 p.m.

Radio Arts Middlebury took a peek into the production before its performance. Listen to the audio online at www.middleburycampus.com. For more radio news, listen to Radio Arts Middlebury, Wednesdays at 4:30 PM on 91.1 FM WRMC.