THEATER REVIEW

No one does romantic disappointment and regret better than Stephen Sondheim. (He does the upside of passion pretty well too, but in that area he has more competition.) Sondheim’s legacy is all about emotional complexity, the way he taught the modern musical to recognize loss, both the threat and the actuality, as an indissoluble part of love. And no one seems to have taken this lesson as much to heart as Jason Robert Brown, one of the newer generation’s brightest theatrical songwriters.

In “Marry Me a Little” (1980) and “The Last Five Years” (2001), which opened Wednesday at the David Henry Hwang Theater at the Union Center for the Arts, East West Players brings these two artists together in a double bill of musical one-acts. Moonily introspective, occasionally somber, often spry, reliably witty and ultimately exhausting, these song-cycle sketches may test the patience of even the most devoted fans when presented in tandem, but they provide an opportunity for four talented performers to travel between the ecstasy of hope and the ache of reality.

“Marry Me,” conceived and developed by Craig Lucas and Norman Rene, strings together Sondheim numbers that for one reason or another didn’t make it to opening night. Some were cut, others were re-purposed, and, yes, even a genius as numinous as Sondheim has had the odd abortive musical effort.

The dramatic context for this rescue mission is a lonely studio apartment. One set stands in for the parallel worlds of two New York City neighbors, who spend a Saturday night at home alone, pining for romantic fulfillment that ironically might be just one floor away.

Mike Dalager (an East West Players Sondheim alum) and Jennifer Hubilla assume the roles of Man and Woman as they crisscross each other in their solitary routines. Both possess amiable stage presences and robust voices, but they’re playing figures rather than characters. And as generalized types, the actors tend to sing with lots of distracting hand gestures and comic-erotic business. But then, sinking into Sondheim’s storied subtext isn’t really possible in this kind of loose amalgamation.

Directed by Jules Aaron with musical direction by Marc Macalintal, who accompanies on an out-of-sight piano, the production lacks the dramatic build of a book musical and the interpretive intimacy of a cabaret. Still, there are lyrical gems to be savored. (My favorite from “Can That Boy Foxtrot!” a nixed novelty number from “Follies”: “As dumbbells go,/ he’s rather slow,/ And as for being saintly,/ Even faintly, no./ But who needs Albert Schweitzer/ When the lights are low?”). And for hard-core Sondheim addicts, the show offers the chance to peer into the workings of his imagination’s trial-and-error process.

Granted, Dalager and Hubilla can do only so much with the format. But they nonetheless manage to infuse the evening with a winsomeness.

“The Last Five Years” is more dramatically grounded -- the setup is a failed marriage between a rising young Jewish novelist and his “shiksa goddess” wife. Brown sets this autopsy to ravishing melodies that reveal the genuineness of his composing gifts and his clever way with urban-neurotic sentiments. But this sung-through two-character piece, in which the husband journeys forward in time (from infatuation to breakup) while his wife travels in the opposite direction, is better at capturing emotional conflicts than establishing characters or sustaining narrative drive.

As Jamie, the wunderkind who bears a striking similarity to Brown, who won a Tony for his score of “Parade” while still in his 20s, Michael K. Lee reveals his own prodigious gifts -- namely, a rousing leading-man presence and a full and flexible voice.

Ethnically, the casting may require some suspension of disbelief, but Lee nails his character’s obsession, ambition and narcissism -- in short, the essentials.

As Cathy, Jennifer Paz is equally adroit with a soliloquizing song, but the role is a bit of a cipher. Brown has a way of flattering Jamie’s weaknesses while Cathy, a domestic dreamer ready to give up her professional aspirations as an actress, comes across as a sexy lost cause.

Directed by Jon Lawrence Rivera, the production unfolds in a quasi-concert setting (John H. Binkley did the set design and projections for both one-acts). The staging -- which features musical director Macalintal in view on piano, with a guitarist beside him -- has a lusher sound than “Marry Me.” But in both works, the numbers impress more individually than cumulatively.

A musical’s glory lies in the synergy between story and song. This double bill gets half the equation right.

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charles.mcnulty@latimes.com

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‘Marry Me a Little’ and ‘The Last Five Years’

Where: David Henry Hwang Theater at the Union Center for the Arts, 120 Judge John Aiso St., Los Angeles

When: 8 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays. Ends June 21.

Price: $45 to $50

Contact: (213) 625-7000 or www.eastwestplayers.org

Running time: 2 hours, 45 minutes