Sondheim Show Closed Briefly to Make Changes

Saddleback College has briefly closed its production of “Side by Side by Sondheim” to make major revisions, responding to a New York-based theatrical firm’s threat to withdraw rights to the show unless the changes are made.

Performances tonight and Friday were canceled, with the revamped production set to resume its run on Saturday, said Myrona DeLaney, one of the four stars.

Music Theater International, which licenses the rights to the Stephen Sondheim revue, ordered director Beth Hansen to restore eight songs that she had cut from the original score and to eliminate two medleys and a third song that she had added. Virtually the entire second act of the current production is being restaged.

“We are very embarrassed that this has happened,” said Hansen, who agreed to make the changes after hearing from the licensor earlier this week. “I’ve called all my actors, and we’ve gone back into rehearsal.”

The revamping could hurt the popularity of Saddleback’s show, which has been a hit with audiences and critics alike since it opened June 30. The material that is being eliminated--medleys from “Into the Woods” and “Sweeney Todd” and the title tune from “Sunday in the Park With George”--is among Sondheim’s best.

Hansen said she had added those selections not only because of their quality but also to give a more up-to-date presentation of Sondheim’s work. The original revue is particularly heavy on tunes from “Company” and “Follies,” two of Sondheim’s lesser-known shows from the early 1970s.

Carol Edelson, a rights manager at MTI, said Wednesday from New York that the theatrical firm had learned of the production’s deviation from the original score through an anonymous phone call by someone who also had sent a copy of the play program.

“That’s often how we discover such things,” she said.

The revue, which dates from 1976, was created to present numbers from various Broadway shows for which Sondheim had written the music, lyrics or both, including “Gypsy,” “West Side Story,” “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” “Company” and “Follies.”

“Side by Side,” however, has become one of the most frequently updated shows in the Sondheim canon because the composer’s most popular and most highly regarded songs come from a half-dozen major musicals written subsequent to the revue’s creation.

“People are always adding and subtracting stuff,” said Martha McFarland, who appeared in a 1980 production of “Side by Side” at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa. “I know we changed a lot.”

Four of the eight tunes that Hansen will have to restore to the Saddleback production come from “Company” and “Follies.” The revue as currently presented at the college’s Cabaret Theatre already contains five songs from each of those shows. Also being restored are two songs from “Gypsy,” one from “West Side Story” and one from “The Mad Show.”

Edelson said MTI has “a flat rule to preserve the integrity” of the revue. She acknowledged, however, that specific requests for revisions are sometimes granted due to the revue format of the show.

Hansen made no such formal request. But even if she had, Edelson said, it probably would not have been granted because the tenor of the original had been changed so greatly.

Those holding tickets for the two canceled performances are being offered exchanges for other dates during the remainder of the run, through Aug. 12.