Did the ruling come from on high? It's fun to think so. When Theatre Rhino's John Fisher first asked for permission to stage Marry Me a Little with two men rather than the man-woman scenario of the published script, he was greeted with silence. He wrote a second letter, citing the precedence of a 1999 two-man production in Los Angeles that Sondheim had approved. Six months of more silence before the licensing agent acknowledged that the request was in the pipeline – a pipeline perhaps to Sondheim's own ears.
"I think they had to ask Sondheim himself, and it just took that long to get a response out of him," Fisher said. With permission secured for a two-man cast, Fisher went back with a second request. Could he change the pronouns to match the change in gender? "Of course," said the agent with dispatch. "It wouldn't make sense if you didn't."
While Sondheim wrote all the songs that tell the story in Marry Me a Little, opening this week at the Eureka Theatre, each of the songs was intended to be part of a different story. Cut for various reasons before opening night, the songs were created for Company, Follies, Anyone Can Whistle, A Little Night Music, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and several unproduced musicals. They were woven together in 1980 by Craig Lucas and Norman Rene, who crafted a tale of a lonely man and woman looking for love.
Fisher felt his production could be tweaked in a way that it would also comment on same-sex marriage. "I've been very dedicated to what Lucas and Rene came up with, and I've been very loyal in terms of lyrics and music and the accompaniment, but you're going to see things on stage that don't seem ruthlessly dedicated."
Video and other visuals have the two men playing out their budding relationship against the backdrop of the Prop 8 debate. "We have to tell our story through the material we're given," Fisher said, "but I see that as a challenge rather than an annoyance."
And he points out that the original text either had to be modeled around the songs or the songs chosen that would best fit the story. "It's like a modern production of a Wagner opera that you utilize for a story you want to tell. It's a collection of songs, and I think that the story we tell with it is as appropriate as the original premise."
Bill Fahrner and Caleb Draper, both 42nd Street Moon veterans, are playing the two men looking for a place together in the romantic firmament. Dave Dobrusky, often seen at the piano in Moon productions, will be providing the accompaniment for Marry Me a Little.
"The actors have been totally with me on this as we dig into the material," Fisher said. "We don't come to this with any preconceived notions of how it should be done. That's what makes me happy as a director, being scared of something, creating my own roadmap, and having people join me on the journey. I feel like we've entered into a marriage on this project."
More info and tickets to Marry Me a Little are available at (800) 838-3006 or www.therhino.org.
V is for –
Victory, Valentine's Day, and vaginas. And then there's violence, violence against women in particular, and V-Day is about ending that. ACT actors, students, and staff will be part of the national 2011 V-Day observances with benefit performances of The Vagina Monologues on Feb. 13 (5:30 p.m.) and Feb. 14 (9:30 p.m.) in ACT's fifth-floor Garrett Room.
Among the large cast, to be divided between the two performances, are ACT Conservatory Director Melissa Smith, frequent ACT actors Domenique Lozano and Omoze Idehenre, and local performers Sharon Lockwood and Delia MacDougall. Proceeds from the performances will benefit Spotlight on Women, Girls of Haiti, and SF's La Casa de las Madres. Go to www.act-sf.org for more info.
The author of The Vagina Monologues and the founder of V-Day is herself headed to San Francisco. An Evening with Eve Ensler will take place March 2 at the Jewish Community Center as part of the center's Arts and Idea series. Tickets are available at www.jccsf.org.
Richard Dodds can be reached at [email protected].