Side By Side By Sondheim

Circa Theatre’s flagship musical offering for late summer is a celebration of Sondheim’s musicals, with songs from many of his shows. We thought we’d give it a whirl.

First, however, we decided to try the phoenix that has risen from the ashes that were Zibibbo – a new restaurant on the same site called Pico Bar And Eatery. It was supposed to open on Wednesday, but they’d been delayed a day, so they informed us. As we crossed their threshold they told us that we were, in fact, their very first diners! We’d been pretty much the last out of Zibibbo, too, thanks to winning a competition to dine there on Christmas day, before it finally shut its doors on 31^st December. So what’s changed? Well, it’s now a more casual eatery, with the so-last-year “sharing plates” concept. We ordered four plates from the available selection of six. Two of them involve potatoes, so you really only want one of those, which somewhat limits the rest of your choices. The food was good, and we went on to have desserts as well, but my feeling is that they’re going to have to change up the menu pretty regularly if they want us to keep going there. We’ll see how it evolves (as I’m sure it must), and also what they offer during WOAP, but my first impression isn’t 100% favourable.

Then we crossed the road to Sondheim, in what appeared to a sell-out night. Many’s the night been when we’ve sat in one section of the seats in Circa with only the first few rows occupied, but this appeared to be a popular choice.

The set was pretty bare, apart from two pianos, with just some incidental seating and furniture to lounge on. There were three singers – one man and two women. They talked us through the songs they were singing, giving biographical and historical details about the show they were from, and generally filling in the gaps with chat. The singing was excellent, and included some songs that had been cut from the original shows, as well as popular crowd-pleasers like Send In The Clowns. Follies and Company dominated the schedule, with smatterings from other shows including A Little Night Music and Gypsy: A Musical Fable.