This is not a love story, but it is a story about love.
We are all tormented by love and elated by love. Love can devastate us or make us blissful. Love is confusing, empowering, consuming, awe-inspiring, and even ridiculous at times. Love is one of the most universal aspects of being human. When I started working on this show, months before casting, it became clear to me that the appeal of this show was its central thesis on love. With that thought, it seemed obvious that this production could and should subvert the typical gender-normative casting of most musical theatre. The premise of Marry Me a Little is that of two strangers, living in New York City, in the same apartment building, one floor apart. The story is about love lost and love yet to be found. It seemed a perfect opportunity to be more inclusive and rethink the casting of the lovelorn duo. I decided to cast three separate duos (one male/female, one male/male, and one female/female) because I believed that the distinctly different interpretations of the same piece of art would create a unique musical theatre experience. The resulting production of Marry Me a Little, with three different casts and three variations of the story is everything I had hoped it would be.
The rehearsal process with the six actors exceeded all of my expectations about collaborative theatre-making. The actors were generous, loyal, and fiercely dedicated to their craft. Without their commitment to the unique rehearsal process, this show would not have been possible. I am deeply grateful for everything that I learned while sharing the room with them.
About the Production:
This show is performed by three rotating casts: one male/female duo, one male/male duo, and one female/female duo. In the script the characters are named “Woman” and “Man.” Our cross gender casting made those names difficult to use in rehearsals and so the cast affectionately renamed the characters with unisex names that referenced other Sondheim shows. Thus the “Woman” was called “Lee” and the “Man” was called “Bobby.” We have listed the characters as such in the program to avoid confusion amid our non-traditional casting.
The original version of Marry Me a Little was produced off-Broadway in 1981. In 2012, The Keen Company produced a version of the show with a revised song list. The work of Jonathan Silverstein (the show’s director and the artistic director of Keen) greatly improved the dramaturgical arc of Marry Me a Little. With permission from Music Theatre International and Sondheim’s representatives, we are performing a version of the show that bridges the two pre-existing versions.
