Gil Hates Everything

This was Sondheim’s first music-and-lyrics show that was intended to be performed (as opposed to the four assignments he got from his mentor Oscar Hammerstein). But unfortunately, 1954 was a bad year for producers dying, and so this show only came to life over forty years later in concert performances.

It often sounds old. In fact it sounds older than it is. It comes across as a 50s version of a 20s show, with plenty of references to the high life and the desire to live it.

It’s not at all bad, but you could easily say it isn’t “yet” actual Sondheim. It does show up the difference between a typical musical and a “proper” Sondheim piece, mind you. Some of these songs could have been written by plenty of other people, but then that’s what happens when you’re 24 and still working through your influences. Some of it sounds like Porter or Gershwin – admittedly with post-Hays Code updates, such as in “Exhibit A”, a song about seduction technique – but there are also moments where it sounds disconcertingly like William Finn, with Sondheim already having fun bouncing his lyrics around and squeezing extra syllables onto the end of a line to make his rhymes more interesting.

Many of the songs could be sung outside of context – which is a polite way of saying that I haven’t got a fucking clue what the story is from listening to the soundtrack – but not all of them are strong enough, fifty-five years later, to be worth singing. “Class” is an interesting period piece; “Love’s A Bond” isn’t. “Exhibit A” is a little creepy but is well-constructed. “Montana Chem” caught my ear for some reason. “So Many People” is okay, although I wish it hadn’t become a duet/reprise. “One Wonderful Day” is the standout ensemble number, discussing weddings and their consequences (“uxorious!” “Uxorious?”). “I Remember That” is Sondheim’s take on “I Remember It Well”. Near the end there’s another ensemble number, “What More Do I Need”, which is a strange combination of interesting, gruesome (he rhymes “-eed” words on long notes, leading to “I’ll pay the dirt no heeeeeeeeeeeeeed”, which sounds musically old-fashioned and ridiculous) – and, randomly, it also includes the main tune of Avenue Q’s “Everyone’s A Little Bit Racist”, which is kinda funny ;-)

Unsurprisingly, this is more a historical artifact than a show I would bustle along to see… but then, you could say the same about Gershwin’s “Oh, Kay!” from thirty years earlier. But Gershwin’s music is super-accessible and often still tolerable, and – because of those influences and its resulting harmlessly-melodic nature – this show is easy on the ears without being patronising or overly showy. Lyrically: let’s call it “amusing”; there’s nothing so painful it’s funny or vice versa, but also there aren’t really any standout characters whose attitudes and style would make their songs truly memorable, nor, by the sounds of it, any situations leading to stunning or insightful moments. It’s just a show… but it’s “just a show” done perfectly well by the standards of the day, and given that Sondheim was 24 at the time, you have to admit the boy done well, etc etc. So it gets the following score because it’s now out of time but not timeless, rather than because it’s noticeably awful (“Passion” ;-)

Random Panda awards “Saturday Night” five out of ten pieces of bamboo, and suggests you give it a listen if you’re a Sondheim fan (or, for that matter, a Porter or Gershwin fan) but don’t sweat it too much, as it’s one of those shows that your life will not be incomplete without.

Next week, talk about diversity: “Saturday Night Fever”, “Seussical”, “She Loves Me”, “Shenandoah”, and “Sherlock Holmes”. See you then, avids.

(originally posted 2010)