Sondheim's Saturday Night, With Geoff Packard, Susan Derry, Eleasha Gamble, Sings in DC

By Kenneth Jones
29 Oct 2011

Susan Derry
Susan Derry

The Tony Award-honored Signature Theatre in Arlington, VA, offers a concert presentation of the early Stephen Sondheim musical Saturday Night in four performances Oct. 29-30.

Composer-lyricist Sondheim's first musical, from 1953, has a book by Julius and Philip Epstein, and concerns a group of Brooklyn pals in the Depression. The show was not fully performed and produced until 1997.

Signature's associate artistic director Matthew Gardiner (Side by Side by Sondheim, The Hollow) and music director Jon Kalbfleisch oversee a cast that includes Geoff Packard (who played the title role in Candide at the Goodman Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre Company and Huntington Theatre Company), Eleasha Gamble, Susan Derry, Sam Ludwig, Evan Casey, Tracy Lynn Olivera, Bayla Whitten, William Diggle, Danny Yoerges, Buzz Mauro, Alan DeMont Wiggins, William Beech and Mike Barry.

Signature built its reputation with unique, intimate revivals of the musicals of Stephen Sondheim.

Here's how Signature bills Saturday Night: "The year is 1929 — on the eve of the stock market crash. A group of middle-class Brooklyn bachelors despair over their dateless Saturday nights. One of them, Gene, works in a menial position at a Wall Street brokerage, but has dreams of living the exciting Manhattan social life. While his friends remain content with life as is, Gene concocts a get-rick-quick scheme that ultimately backfires and may land him in jail."

The score includes "Saturday Night," "So Many People" and "What More Do I Need?"

Performances play the MAX Theatre in the Signature complex in Shirlington Village, in Arlington. Tickets are $41. Performance times are Oct. 29 at 2 PM and 8 PM and Oct. 30 at 2 PM and 7 PM.

For more about Signature's season and tickets, visit www.signature-theatre.org.