For every dozen songs that make it into a Broadway musical, there are probably two or three—if not more—that got cut between the first workshop and opening night. Most of these songs are destined to remain in obscurity on the cutting room floor, that is unless the composer in question is Stephen Sondheim. Sondheim’s genius is such that even “deleted songs” are worthy of attention, or in the case of Marry Me A Little, a show of their own.

Conceived and developed in 1980 by Craig Lucas and Norman Rene, Marry Me A Little follows two characters, known only as Man and Woman, over the course of a single day during which they go from being single to coupled and then back to being single again.  There is no dialog in this song cycle.  The lyrics (and staging) merely outline the “story,” leaving it to the audience to fill in the blanks.

Jules Aaron’s inventively directed and beautifully performed production at East West Players places both Man (Mike Dalager) and Woman (Jennifer Hubilla) side by side on John H. Binkley’s upper Westside apartment set, but we realize almost immediately that each is occupying a different space as they go about their daily activities oblivious of the other.

Some of Marry Me A Little’s songs will be familiar to those who collect Sondheim CDs. The title song has closed the first act of every production of Company since the 1990s, yet did not make it into the 1970 Broadway original.  “There Won’t Be Trumpets” is found on the original cast recording of Anyone Can Whistle, but it was cut before the show’s nine performances on Broadway. The words “Someone to hold you too close.  Someone to touch you too deep” are familiar from Company’s iconic “Being Alive” but they also open “Happily Ever After” (which “Being Alive” replaced before the show’s opening) with a completely different tune and rhythm.  The melody for “All Things Bright And Beautiful” underscores several scenes in Follies, but the lyrics were not heard until Marry Me A Little. Finally, the three songs included from 1955’s Saturday Night are part of that show, but Saturday Night itself didn’t get staged until forty plus years after it was written, a decade and a half after Marry Me A Little’s first staging.

Other songs in the show’s 65 minutes will be pleasant discoveries, though easily recognizable as Sondheim creations.

“Two Fairy Tales” (cut from A Little Night Music) introduces us to our leads as they unpack groceries, their voices overlapping in their overlapping apartments:  “She: Once upon a time. He: Once upon a time.  She: There lived a princess.  He: There lived a knight. She: Who was exceedingly beloved.  He: Was devout.” As these lyrics suggest, if these two strangers are to find a connection, it will be because opposites attract.

Cut from Follies, “Can That Boy Foxtrot” has Hubilla unpacking vegetables, singing into a cucumber mike, a carrot boa wrapped around her shoulder, later donning a pair of oven mitts which she uses as boy/girl puppets. (This is all Aaron’s inspiration, as the libretto contains few stage directions.)

An “Aha!” moment comes when Dalager accompanies himself by beating on a wastebasket with a toilet plunger in “Bang,” the racket causing Hubilla to look up in irritation.  Aha!  He and She are upstairs-downstairs neighbors!

“The Girls Of Summer” (from an unproduced show of the same name) and “Uptown Downtown” (cut from Follies) have our hero and heroine executing a sexy jazz ballet (snappy additional choreography by Allison Bibicoff), He holding the plunger double entendre style, She donning a lampshade as a hat, though each remains in his or her own space.

Dinner by candlelight and the exquisite “So Many People” (from Saturday night) finally bring the couple together. “A Moment With You” (also from Saturday Night) has Dalager and Hubilla dancing a la Fred and Ginger, and “Marry Me A Little” (sung by Bobby in Company) here becomes a woman’s declaration, gloriously performed by Hubilla.

Sadly, there is no “Happily Ever After” for our couple; Dalager sings “Someone to need you too much. Someone to read you too well.  That’s happily ever after.  Ever ever ever after … in hell.” Not quite the happy ending we read about in fairy tales, is it?  But that’s life.

Dalager and Hubilla perform Sondheim to perfection, dance with grace and flair, and convey entirely through song Man and Woman’s hopes and dreams, as well as the realities of their separate lives.  Tall, lanky Dalager’s leading man charisma makes one hope to see much more of his work, and Hubilla is a charmer in her own right.  They are accompanied flawlessly by musical director Marc Macalintal on piano and by guitarist Chris Spilsbury. (Keita Matsuno and Kazui Nakazawa are alternate guitarists.)

Binkley’s finely detailed set is dazzlingly lit by Jeremy Pivnick, moving from reality to Technicolor fantasy in many of the song sequences.  Ivy Y. Chou’s costumes are a nice fit for each character and Dalager and Hubilla look great in them.

Sondheim fans will delight in hearing sixteen little known tunes with their clever, insightful lyrics, and just about any musical theater fan can take pleasure in seeing them brought to life by an ingenious director and his stellar cast. Marry Me A Little entertains … A Lot!

Note: Marry Me A Little is the first act of a two-musical program, completed by Jason Robert Brown’s The Last Five Years.
East West Players, David Henry Hwang Theatre, 120 Judge John Aiso St., Los Angeles. Through June 21. Wednesdays through Saturdays at 8:00.  Sundays at 2:00. Reservations:  213 625-7000  www.eastwestplayers.org

--Steven Stanley
May 12, 2009
                                                                   Photos: Michael Lamont