STAGE REVIEW : ‘Marry Me a Little’: Sondheim Tunes for Strangers in the Night

When this production of Stephen Sondheim’s “Marry Me a Little” opened in San Francisco (to a healthy run at the Zephyr Theatre), the Chronicle’s Gerald Nachman called it “more than a revue and not quite a musical.”

It can be one or the other.

“Marry Me” concerns two lonely people in separate but adjacent Brooklyn apartments, spending a forlorn summer Saturday evening bemoaning their singularity. They never meet, except in their fantasies. The only plot line is the intermingling of those fantasies and the realization that they probably will never say hello to one another even as they pass in the hall.

What makes it almost a musical is the couple’s byplay as they hear each other moving about in their reveries to Sondheim’s bright, clever songs, all rejects from other Sondheim scores. What makes it almost a revue is lack of linear connection between the songs.

Directorial concept is all in “Marry Me a Little,” and Art Manke leans heavily toward the revue format at the Coronet. His couple (Cynthia Gates and Kevin McMahon) actually see one another and are constantly aware of each other’s presence. The only time the sense of their never meeting occurs is at the opening, as they arrive home from shopping, at the generic apartment that serves them both (Manke also designed the clever setting), and near the end of the show’s 75 minutes, when she hears his shoes drop above and he hears her anger below as she slaughters roaches in her sink--an ongoing New York battle.

Otherwise, they watch each other move around the apartment and, when the songs dictate, face front like the troupers they are--Sondheim in revue.

As revuers, Gates and McMahon are charming and handle with enthusiasm the ins and outs of Sondheim’s melodies. Lem Jay Ignacio’s keyboard accompaniment is a little plonky (Barry Lloyd is musical director) and sometimes overpowers the vocalists, but they manage to hold their own most of the time, particularly in Gates’ bawdy “Can That Boy Foxtrot” and McMahon’s “Uptown, Downtown” and a couple of the more rousing duets.

Without the effect of the Man and Woman never seeing one another, dancing together without touching and without acknowledging each other’s presence, the sum of this “Marry Me,” is less than its parts, those wonderful Sondheim tunes saved from oblivion by Craig Lucas and Norman Rene (who created the original production). This staging is for Sondheim fans only, who want to relish the sound of his genius, even in outtakes.

At 366 N. La Cienega Blvd.; Wednesdays through Sundays, 8 p.m.; Sunday matinees, 3 p.m.; runs indefinitely. Tickets: $17.50-$20; (213) 659-2400.