Davron Monroe on 'Sondheim on Sondheim'

Boston's musical theater scene is vibrant and evergreen, from the big ticket offerings of lavish touring productions ("Beauty and the Beast" was recently at the Boston Opera House; "Pippin" will be there soon) to the American Repertory Theater's tuneful hits ("Waitress" kicked off the current season; "Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812" drew well-earned accolades) to tiny companies putting on shows in acoustically-challenged black box spaces. This is a town that likes its theater served up with the sauce of showtunes.

Among the city's midsize theaters that put musicals on the menu each and every season is the Lyric Stage Company. Among this season's line-up is the much anticipated production of "Sondheim on Sondheim," which opened Jan. 15 and will continue through Feb. 21. The show stars Monroe together with Leigh Barrett, Aimee Doherty, Christopher Chew, Mala Bhattacharya, Maritza Bostic, Sam Simahk, and Patrick Varner.

"Sondheim on Sondheim" draws from Stephen Sondheim's body of work, a catalogue that spans six decades and includes a number of hit shows and well-known songs. The show itself is more than a greatest hits collection, though; it contains autobiographical musings from Sondheim, whose recorded voice and image are part of the show -- as are at least one song from the composer's school days, "I'll Meet You at the Donut."

A few of the songs showcase Sondheim's talents as a lyricist, and feature music by other composers: Leonard Bernstein composed the tunes for "Something's Coming" and "Like Everyone Else," both of which are from the musical "West Side Story"; Richard Rogers wrote the music for "Do I Hear A Waltz?," the title song from which is also included in "Sondheim on Sondheim." But most of the selections that comprise the show boast Sondheim's dual talents as composer and wordsmith.

The Lyric Stage Company of Boston has produced a number of Sondheim's musicals in the past; Davron S. Monroe, a stalwart on the Boston musical theater scene, has been part of a number of those, and many other, productions. Monroe's credits at the Lyric include "My Fair Lady," "City of Angels," "One Man, Two Guvnors," "The Mikado," "Avenue Q," "Ain't Misbehavin'," and Sondheim's own "Sweeney Todd."

Monroe's bio details other musical productions the actor has appeared in around the Boston area, a long list that includes "Hairspray," "Dreamgirls," "Jesus Christ Superstar," and "Children of Eden," as well as "Smokey Joe's Caf�," "Cinderella," "Sweet Charity," "Brigadoon," and "Show Boat."

And that's not all -- not by a long shot. In addition to his status as a veteran in musical theater, Monroe is also an accomplished opera singer. His bio notes that he has appeared in "fully staged or concert/scene productions of 'Carmen,' 'Treemonisha,' 'Porgy and Bess,' 'La finta giardiniera,' 'Rigoletto,' 'Lucia di Lammermoor,' 'La fille du r�giment,' 'L'�lisir d'amore,' 'Cos� fan tutte,' 'Die Fledermaus,' 'The Tailor of Gloucester,' 'The Gondoliers,' 'Aida,' and 'Die Zauberfl�te.' Moreover, "Mr. Monroe premiered the role of Thomas Edison in Juventas's New Music Group production of 'Light and Power.' " Then there's his work with "many orchestral and vocal organizations." Suffice to say, an inclusion of Monroe's full list of credits would go on for paragraph after paragraph.

EDGE caught up with Davron S. Monroe recently for a phone chat about his work and the songs he'll be performing in "Sondheim On Sondheim." Monroe's non-Boston area phone prefix piqued the first question of the interview.

"I'm from Jacksonville, Florida," Monroe laughed. "I've been up here for about 10 years. I just never changed my number."

Given the numerous roles Monroe has performed at the Lyric, EDGE wondered whether he had any favorites he might name.

"I did Gary Coleman in 'Avenue Q'; I did 'Ain't Misbehavin' there; 'Ain't Misbehavin' was actually my first show at the Lyric," Monroe recalled. "I did 'One Man, Two Guv'nors' there, and was just in 'My Fair Lady.'"

EDGE couldn't help recalling that "Avenue Q" took the IRNE Award for Best Musical the year it was produced at the Lyric and recalling last fall's production of 'My Fair Lady' with pleasure.

"It was a grand production on the intimate Lyric stage," Monroe said. "I loved doing that show -- it was just an amazing experience. Every show that I do at the Lyric is an amazing production for me, because I am living the dream, doing the things that I love to do that bring me joy, and giving back in an artistic way. It's always thrilling for me to able to give back, because that's the gift that I've been given. 'My Fair Lady' was right at the top of things that I have done at the Lyric."

Though one might think the inclusion of material from "Sweeney Todd" might offer Monroe the chance to revisit his role of Pirelli, it was not to be. "Chris Chew, he will be revisiting 'Epiphany' from 'Sweeney Todd,'" Monroe said. "I will not be singing anything from 'Sweeney Todd' in this production."

Monroe added that director Spiro Veloudos assigned numbers to different actors according to the needs of the production, rather than sticking to any predetermined match between songs and performers.

"There are specific tracks, if you will, that the original cast did, and we follow that just a little," Monroe noted, "but Spiro has chosen to reassign some songs for our production at the Lyric just to make it special for us. I will be doing 'Being Alive,' from 'Company.' "

Monroe is also slated for a cpouple of duets. One of them is with Leigh Barrett -- " 'This What You Call Love,' and that's from 'Passion.' " Monroe disclosed to EDGE, "and the I also have a duet from one of Sondheim's early shows, 'Saturday Night' -- Aimee Doherty and myself will be singing a song called 'So Many People.' "

The idea of Monroe and Doherty on a duet created a frisson on the spot.

"Aimee Doherty is a great jewel to work with," Monroe said. "This whole cast is! Great people, super-talented, super-gracious and giving. We have all worked together at some point; it's just an amazing amount of talent on the stage all one time."

"Sondheim on Sondheim" is different from another celebrated revue made up of Sondheim songs, "Marry Me A Little," in that the latter is made up of so-called trunk songs -- that is, material that might have been written for specific productions over the years, but ended up being cut. Those songs were gathered into a revue by Craig Lucas and Norman Ren�, and a production a the New Repertory Theater a couple of years ago co-starred Doherty. That production suggested some loose overall story threads to gently, generally bind the songs.

There is no over-arcing device to tie the songs into any sort of new storyline, aside from Sondheim's own commentary and the knowledge that these are songs that reflect -- and arguably define -- a career.

Still, Monroe said, "Some of the songs are contextualized, basically meaning that they've been taken directly from the show they were [originally] in, and we're presenting it in that way. And then other songs are left to our interpretations, so to speak, so it's not necessarily from the show, the way that we're presenting it; it's the way the songs emote from the actor, and the way it's directed."

One possible exception: The duet with Doherty. Explained Monroe, "The duet from 'Passion' is basically like a triptych, so there's three songs that we're performing from 'Passion,' and the way we are presenting them is basically lifted right out of the show. So that will not be interpreted."

By contrast, "'Staying Alive,' the solo that I'm doing, is lifted right out of 'Company,' because it has lines that go in between the verses of the song which different actors are saying to [the character] to encourage him -- to think about things differently."

EDGE wondered whether there had been songs Monroe had particularly wanted but didn't get.

"Not necessarily...no. It's not that kind of thing," the singer responded. "I'm just grateful to be a working actor and to have gotten the call that said, 'Hey, would you like to do the show?' 'Of course I would, and I would sing whatever you give me.'"

A working actor for sure, and with no signs of his busy schedule showing down.

Yeah, I do keep pretty busy," Monroe laughed, going on address the breadth of his skill set, an attribute that helps him stay so in demand. "I have a master's degree in opera, so I started out doing classical things. And then I made the crossover into musical comedy, musical theater type things. So now I go back and forth between the two."

It's not a matter of theater, though. "I do oratorio work. I sing for a church in the greater Boston area, and we do a lot of classical type things. Actually, we just sang the 'Magnificat' in December at this church in Belmont.

"I used to go down with the South Shore Symphony and do scene work with them," Monroe continued. "Basically we'd sing snippets of opera. We would lift things out of operas and do them with orchestra. I've done a lot of things like that. I used to sing with the former Opera Boston and do a lot of their mainstage ensemble work, and I was part of their education outreach team as well."

Monroe recounted how he first became interested in opera, which was his starting point.

"I met my first voice teacher when I was still living in Florida. I think I was a junior in high school," he recollected. "I was preparing for a vocal competition that my chorus teacher had signed me up for, and she suggested I go and sing for this professor at the university of North Florida, so he could give me some tips. I went, and I sang for him, and he recognized something in me that I did not know that I had.

"He was an African American opera singer, and it was interesting for me because he looked like me. A lot of times you don't see African American opera singers -- even though there are a lot of us out there, you don't see it in the mainstream that much. It's becoming a little more popular now, but you didn't see it a lot. But, you know, when I was in high school he showed me something that intrigued me: I saw him singing opera, singing classical music. It seemed exciting. That's kind of where I got my draw to classical music.

"I moved to the Boston area to study classical music," Monroe went on. "I actually moved here for graduate school ten years ago -- I went to the Longy School of Music in Harvard Square, and studied music there. I finished with my degree in opera and started auditioning for things, and started auditioning for musical and saw that was a good fit for me and here I am!"

Musical theater and opera are both musical forms of performance, but Monroe addressed the ways in which they are fundamentally distinct from each other.

"They are different in the way that they're presented," he specified. "For me, the reason why I like both of them, there's something thrilling about standing in front of an orchestra with fifty pieces playing away, and you're singing -- excuse the expression -- balls to the wall. There's something thrilling about being on the stage with all of that live music behind you.

"On the other side of the fence, with the musical theater that I do, it's thrilling to be free to dance. In a lot of opera you don't have that element of it -- the super-duper acting part of it, or the freedom to dance, because opera is more about the voice than and the music, versus the acting and the joy that musical theater brings. They do vary, but they both appeal to me in different ways. I do enjoy doing both -- and I don't think I can be a performer without doing both."

Knowing how booked Monroe tends to be, EDGE asked what his next project would be.

"After 'Sondheim on Sondheim?' I'm already booked," Monroe revealed. "I'll be doing 'The Wild Party' with Moonbox Productions."

Another of Boston's top acting companies.

"Actually," Monroe pointed out, "I was Jesus in Moonbox's very first show: 'Godspell.'"

"Sondheim on Sondheim" plays from January 15 - February 21 at the Lyric Stage Company in Boston. For tickets and more information, please go to http://www.lyricstage.com