Community theatre take on “Side by Side by Sondheim” successfully communicates his genius

Part of the genius of Stephen Sondheim lies in the complexity of his music and lyrics. Often technically demanding, always clever and idiosyncratic, any theatre company staging Sondheim is making a real commitment.

So you wouldn’t expect to find a lot of it in the world of community theatre. But from their ambition to their venue, a lot about Long Beach Landmark Theatre Company is a little unexpected. And they generally make that work for them — including their second take on Sondheim in their last eight shows

While the original Side by Side by Sondheim was written for a cast of four (three singers plus an emcee of sorts), right off the top we see that Landmark has gone its own way, populating the stage with 26 performers ranging in age from 8 or 9 to it’s-impolite-to-guess. They’ve personalized the narrative (Long Beach- and self-referential, a few too many Dad jokes), and musical director Curtis Heard — whose piano carries the entire instrumental weight (unless you count a cute cameo by Jadzia Kopp’s trumpet in Gypsy’s “You Gotta Get a Gimmick”) — has adapted the songs to everything from solos to full ensemble numbers. Artistic director Megan O’Toole’s simple blocking and lite choreography (mincing steps, slow weaves) keeps things from getting sluggish, with occasional moments of genuine charm.

While on average the singing is solid, it never flies higher than the harmonies in a pair of duets: Malakai Howard & Cole Whiter in “We’re Gonna Be All Right” (from Do I Hear a Waltz?), and Briana Bonilla & Sia Carter in “A Boy Like That / I Have a Love” (from West Side Story). Bonilla also stands out on Company’s ridiculously tongue-twisting “Getting Married Today”.

We also get also some fine character work. The most obvious example is Brooke Wittenmeier’s performance of “Losing My Mind”, the emotionality which is so powerful that you feel like you know the backstory. George Carson and Lauren Chambers make a wonderful pair for “Barcelona” (from Company). And Emily Morgan is droll as all get-out doing “I Never Do Anything Twice” (from the film The Seven-Per-Cent Solution).

But the show-stopper belongs to third-grader Eliot Winkler, such an incongruous, tiny presence amid the ensemble for most of Act One that you kind of wonder what she’s doing there until Follies’s “Broadway Baby” just before intermission. While just giving her this song is amusing enough, it’s what she does with it that brings the house down. If she were merely a good singer, fine, but the quirkiness of her slightly Nico-esque delivery is just about worth the price of admission all by itself.

It’s clear that Heard, O’Toole, and the cast have put a helluva lotta effort into delivering these wonderfully wordy songs just so, many of which depend on especially precise rhythms, phrasing, and even pauses for their musical and verbal wit to fully come across.

On that score, this Side by Side by Sondheim is a complete success.

Side by Side by Sondheim at Long Beach Landmark Theatre Company
Times: Fri–Sat 7pm, Sun 2pm
The show runs through May 17.
Cost: $30–$40
Details: (562) 856-1999, lblandmark.org
Venue: First Congregational Church of Long Beach (241 Cedar Ave., Long Beach)