This show is a compilation of favorite Stephen Sondheim songs that was created in 1976 in London, where it was staged with three singers and a commentator. It cannot really be called theatre, but for Sondheim's sake that is where it is reviewed here. The CanStage production has four singers, all of whom have the dubious pleasure of acting as commentator at one time or another.

All of the people involved in this production—singers, director, musical director, choreographer, and script consultant—are all too young to have seen the original versions of most of the Sondheim shows from which the songs were chosen. They all worked hard to create this show, but what is so evident is that they all have been influenced too much by shows created by Andrew Lloyd Webber, or by shows like Les Misérable, and Miss Saigon to truly understand what the singing and staging of true musicals is all about. I say this because perhaps a younger generation might be quite happy with the musical end of this CanStage show, though they might find fault with the staging.

Only one of the four singers, Mary Ann McDonald, came close to what the old troupers that made Gypsy, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Company, Little Night Music, West Side Story, and Follies such engaging musicals. She can belt it and might deserve the title of "hoofer". Dan Chameroy also had something of what it takes to bring life to the songs from these shows. Julain Molnar and Jay Turvey, sadly, lacked the gutsiness, and the volume of voice to bring the music alive.

Of course, one cannot blame the performers alone. They seemed to give it their all with what they were given. Much of the fault for this failed venture lies with the direction, the lighting, the script consultant, the choreography, and the costume design. The opening number, a medley of A Comedy Tonight and Love is in the Air from a Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and performed by all, was coyly staged with two feather boas floating down on them.

There was something of the poseur about the performers, whose interpretation of these two songs lacked any real feeling, and no gaiety (in the old sense of the meaning of the word), and what stayed throughout the production, a lack of sex-appeal that the performers should have been able to project. While things settled down a bit musically after that, one began to hope but, alas . . . And speaking of those boas, which the director perhaps tried to use as a linking device, they soon became a bore, or let's be honest, an annoyance.

Chameroy shone in I Remember, a song from Evening Primrose, a show that never really made it for Sondheim, but this song is worth hearing. Most of the remaining numbers of Act I came from Follies, and most were passably performed, though one wondered why in a small theatre the cast needed to be miked. Can singers no longer project their voices? I saw Follies in 1971 or '72, and not a single performer was miked. I saw it in Berlin in 1991, a show in which Eartha Kitt played Carlotta Campion. McDonald almost matched her I'm still here, but not quite. The one time that no fault could be found at all was when she sang I Never Do anything Twice. This song from the film, The Seven Percent Solution, was the undisputed highlight of the whole show.

It may seem unfair to judge a musical review when one has the original shows in mind from which the songs were compiled, or one remembers great artists such as Len Cariou, Hermione Gingold and Glynis Johns in A Little Night Music, or such great singers as Cleo Laine and Judy Collins singing the most famous song from that show, Send In the Clowns. McDonald almost caught it, but if the singer can't make the back of your neck tingle with this song, then something is wrong.

Then there was the pathetic attempt by the cast to imitate the Andrew Sisters with You Could Drive a Person Crazy from Sondheim's Company. One wonders if anyone in the production has every seen or heard the Sisters. They sure didn't manage to catch their tone, not even as a parody.

In the second act things went steadily downhill. As mentioned, McDonald almost captured the nature of Send In the Clowns, but nothing else jelled. A Boy Like That paired with I Have A Love from West Side Story should have sizzled, but instead fizzled. I don't recall who all starred in the London production, which I saw in 1960, except that George Chakiris played Riff. But, whoever sang the two songs knew how to project, something that was absent from this production. And, please, hire language coaches if you don't know how to imitate a Cockney or any other British accent. McDonald, Molnar and Turvey drifted in and out, but mostly out of it when they sang Pretty Lady from Pacific Overtures, in which two Jack Tars (that's English for sailors) try to court a Japanese lady at the time when the first Westerners entered Japan after Commander Perry forced the country open for trade.

Let me talk a bit about the lighting. Andrea Lundy has produced some very good work in plays that I have seen with her as lighting designer. In Side By Side something went amiss. Why were the performers' faces often hidden in shadows, giving them a ghoulish expression? Why the snowflakes falling when McDonald sings Send in the Clowns? One could go on, but no.

More Questions. Why did Morwyn Brebner, a playwright by profession, find it necessary to advise the production to include silly references to the Iraq war, and to Sarah Jessica Parker? I had to think twice before I realized who she is or why I should know the Sex and the City actress. Was that to make up for the surfeit wholesomeness in this show and the lack of sexual excitement? Why did Brebner, or the director decide, the cast should carry the commentary, which brought in an artificial tone? And lastly, why the ghastly male attire? What did designer John Thompson have in mind? True, just an hour before the show I walked through the Eaton's Centre and came across a store where ties in neon colors were featured gift items for Christmas. If that is the latest male fashion, why match them with shirts that clash and make you want to avert your eyes from the guys? As for the set, the less said the better.