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Sunday, No Park, Lots of ‘Passion’

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

Those involved in bringing the 1994 Tony Award-winning Stephen Sondheim-James Lapine musical “Passion” to television were, in a word, passionate about the project. And they needed to be, since no network stepped forward with the money for a TV version.

The musical, says “Passion” executive producer Michael Brandman, “moved us all in unspeakable ways. People came to this project and loved it.”

“Passion” arrives Sunday on PBS’ “American Playhouse,” which previously aired Sondheim and Lapine’s award-winning collaborations “Sunday in the Park With George” in 1986 and “Into the Woods” in 1991.

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The television version of “Passion” was filmed over three days in early 1995 at the Plymouth Theatre, directly following the musical’s eight-month Broadway engagement. Lapine, who wrote the book and directed the stage production, also directed the film.

Inspired by Ettore Scola’s 1981 film “Passione D’Amore” and based on Iginio Tarchetti’s 1869 novel “Fosca,” the dark, emotionally complex musical stars Tony Award-winning Donna Murphy as the tragic Fosca. An unattractive, mysterious and sickly woman, Fosca relentlessly and obsessively loves Giorgio (Jere Shea), a handsome, sensitive army captain.

In turn, Giorgio is passionately in love with a beautiful married woman, Clara (Marin Mazzie). Though Giorgio is initially repulsed by Fosca’s demanding, unconditional love, he ends up rejecting his lover for her.

Though “Passion” is being shown on “American Playhouse,” the film was made independently of the PBS series and was only licensed to it later.

Brandman says that Lindsay Law, the former head of “American Playhouse,” always wanted to produce “Passion” but didn’t have the necessary funds. So Lapine and Sondheim went to their producing partners to obtain the nearly $1 million needed to film “Passion.”

“They somehow collectively agreed that they would underwrite the cost of the production,” says Brandman, who also was executive producer of “Sunday in the Park” and “Into the Woods.”

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“It was a courageous and bold decision and probably the one way this would ever had been made,” he says. “As the funding for public TV and the arts have dried up, it’s just made this kind of an adventure, this kind of preservation of our culture, relatively impossible.”

Lapine insisted “Passion” be filmed and not videotaped, as was the case with “Sunday in the Park.”

‘I hate those [projects] when they look like soap operas because of their lighting,” says Lapine, who enlisted the help of cinematographer John Bailey (“The Big Chill”).

“We almost didn’t get it made because [film] costs more,” Sondheim says. “But it’s certainly worth it. There is no question that film looks better than tape.”

Because of the incredibly short production time and limited budget, Bailey used four 16-millimeter cameras to capture “Passion.”

“They have 10-minute film magazines,” Lapine says, “which means every 10 minutes they ran out of film. We staggered them so there was hopefully only one camera down at a time. But it was really an organizational nightmare trying to keep track of what [footage] we had and didn’t have.”

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Unfortunately, two magazines of film were unusable. “One [assistant] didn’t screw the magazine on right and it jiggled, and the other [assistant] exposed the film,” Lapine says. “That’s sort of the miracle of it, that it turned out as well as it did, given the kind of time consideration.”

It was also determined early in the planning stages that the score wouldn’t be prerecorded, due to “the nature of the spontaneity of Donna Murphy’s performance,” Brandman says. “Her interaction with [conductor] Paul Gemignani was so profound. We opted to make it a live moment, so we could keep that measure of spontaneity, which really enhanced her performance.”

But recording the score live caused its problems. “If anything goes wrong you have to start at the top again,” Sondheim says. “You can’t edit like you can on audio. But we have a conductor who is absolutely wonderful. I have worked with him many, many times.”

Lapine acknowledges that “Passion” is not a “user-friendly musical. This is a tough sell. It’s really like an opera.”

But polarizing audiences is nothing new for Sondheim. “It started with ‘West Side Story,’ ” he says. “The only show I have ever been connected with which did not engender controversy was ‘A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.’ There were people who didn’t like it, but it never caused violent feelings.”

“Passion” did. Sondheim recalls a “so-called unnamed person in the gossip column in the New York Times who said, ‘If “Passion” wins the Tony Award, people will stop going to musicals.’ That is the New York Times; that isn’t even the New York Post.”

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Unlike Sondheim and Lapine’s “Into the Woods,” there has been no national tour of “Passion.” But it has been mounted in London, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington.

“Somebody will do it in Los Angeles,” Sondheim says. “Listen, it’s been done much more than you think. It’s very interesting. I always thought ‘West Side Story’ would never be done in summer stock because the dancing required in it was of such high order. I thought, ‘Jesus. No one will be able to master this. It’s a show that’s going to live and die on Broadway.’ I thought the same thing with ‘Sweeney Todd.’ It’s an operetta. Wrong. Schools do it all over the place.”

The reason, Sondheim says, is that “something like ‘Sweeney Todd’ offers a chance for people to hone their talents, and the same thing is true of ‘Passion.’ There was a production done in Chicago. I got the Chicago reviews saying it was absolutely wonderful. I looked at the picture of the three principals. I swear, you put their ages together and I am older. Young performers want something to cut their teeth on. So ‘Passion’ offers that. If you are into singing, it’s a good score.”

Adds Sondheim: “At the risk of being immodest, the shows that I write, if you like them at all, they tend to be better on second viewing. I know people who have been converted on the second viewing of ‘Passion.’ There are few musicals that ask for a second hearing and mine usually do.”

Sondheim is working on a new musical with John Weidman, his “Pacific Overture” and “Assassins” collaborator, about the early 20th century entrepreneurial Mizner brothers--architect-decorator Addison and writer-adventurer Wilson.

He hopes to do a workshop production in January and then have a production open next summer at the Kennedy Center.

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And then Broadway?

“Please, from your lips to God’s ears,” Sondheim says, laughing. “One step at a time. Let’s see what the workshop is like. Everybody may throw up their hands in horror and run screaming out of the room.”

Still, Sondheim says, “if it doesn’t cause arguments, then it’s not worth doing. I would rather have everybody like things, but on the other hand, I would rather have polarized, angry reactions than blandness.”

* “Passion” can be seen on “American Playhouse” at 9 p.m. Sunday on KCET-TV Channel 28.

* CRITICAL EYE: Sondheim has never struck so many false notes, critic Laurie Winer writes of “Passion.” F16

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