Review in the Boston Globe

< Back

STAGE REVIEW

Revue makes the most of composer's songs

By Louise Kennedy, Globe Staff | August 23, 2006

HARTFORD — Rob Ruggiero, the associate artistic director of TheaterWorks, knows his way around the works of William Finn. Having directed Finn's "Falsettos" and "Elegies" for Barrington Stage Company, Ruggiero sought the composer's permission to create a new revue of songs from those and other musicals. We're lucky he did.

"Make Me a Song: The Music of William Finn" begins, logically enough, with "Make Me a Song," a sweet little ode to craft that Finn wrote for Mandy Patinkin. Ruggiero gives it a nice twist: With a glowing blue neon sketch of Finn's craggy features at the rear of the stage, singer Adam Heller flips a switch to "turn on" a recording of Finn himself growling the song.

Heller soon takes over, and for most of the two hours that follow he's more or less the Finn character in various guises from various shows. It's good casting: He has a rumpled, unassuming presence, and an effortlessly conversational way with a song that makes him a natural narrator.

That's not to say that there's a lot of narration here; Ruggiero wisely lets the songs speak for themselves. But he has arranged them with a sense of pattern and flow, balancing the quick comic bits with more heartfelt ballads. And besides such self-evident combinations as the suite of songs from "Falsettos," he's found some interesting and unexpected connections among compositions from widely disparate works.

Thus, for example, the second act builds to a four-song sequence that focuses on the love between parent and child: "That's Enough for Me," which a woman sings to her future baby; "I Went Fishing With My Dad," a new piece that tells the story from both father and son's perspectives; "When the Earth Stopped Turning," one of Finn's strongest songs, about his beloved mother's death; and the heartbreaking, heartwarming "Anytime (I Am There)," a dead mother's pledge of eternal devotion to her children.

If you can sit through those last two with dry eyes, please don't sit next to me. And if you can hear "Passover" or "Why We Like Spelling" or "Stupid Things I Won't Do" without laughing, please seek professional help.

Ruggiero has given all these songs and more to some terrific singers. In addition to Heller, there's the sweet-voiced Sally Wilfert, the wry and powerful Sandy Binion, and the lyrical Joe Cassidy. All of them, along with pianist John DiPinto, find just the right tone for Finn's songs: full of heart and warmth, but never slipping into mawkish sentimentality.

The only complaint might be the omission of a few favorite songs — "Mark's All-Male Thanksgiving," say, or "Infinite Joy." Maybe that just means that Finn and Ruggiero have an assignment for next summer: "Make Me Another Song." © Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company