My Setlist for EVERYBODY RISE!

Very little about this weekend’s concert celebrating Stephen Sondheim at the Hollywood Bowl has been made public outside of the cast. From what I’m hearing, they want the setlist to be a surprise and selections will only be announced as they are about to be performed at Everybody Rise! A Sondheim Celebration on Sunday.

Before I offer up my setlist, a reminder of the participants at Everybody Rise!: Skylar Astin, Sierra Boggess, Sutton Foster, Norm Lewis, Patti LuPone and Brian Stokes Mitchell.

Given the title of the show and Ms. LuPone being part of the concert, it’s safe to assume that The Ladies Who Lunch from Company will be performed. A very bold move would be to open the show with that song, but my guess is it will happen much later in the concert.

What roles might each of these actors be perfect for in Sondheim’s musicals? Astin could no doubt sing the role of George in Sunday in the Park with George as he could Bobby in Company, Addison Mizner in Road Show, Toby in Sweeney Todd and more.

Sierra Boggess would make a great Squeaky Fromme in Assassins, Petra in A Little Night Music (though she has played Charlotte in the show); Dot in Sunday in the Park and more.

Foster told Stephen Colbert her dream role is Mama Rose in Gypsy (which only has lyrics by Sondheim), but since LuPone won a Tony Award for that role, I’d be surprised to see Foster tackle anything from that show. Foster has played Nurse Fay Apple in Anyone Can Whistle and The Baker’s Wife in Into the Woods, so those two shows register as distinct possibilities.

Norm Lewis has played the demon barber in Sweeney Todd, Bobby in Company, Protean in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and appeared in Sondheim on Sondheim.

LuPone has appeared in the most Sondheim shows: Sweeney Todd, A Little Night Music, Passion, Sunday in the Park with George, Anyone Can Whistle, Gypsy and Company. But I’d love to see her in Follies.

Brian Stokes Mitchell has a great voice for Sweeney Todd, which he performed at the Kennedy Center in 2002. He could also make a great Giorgio in Passion, Ben in Follies and Fredrik in A Little Night Music.

So here’s my setlist for Everybody Rise! I know this presupposes everyone will want to work as hard as it would take to learn all these songs and that re-arrangements would be required to fit voice types, but this is a show I’d like to see.

ACT ONE:

Opening would be an overture of themes from a multitude of Sondheim’s shows. (I know that’s been done before, as in the clip below, but it never ceases to impress.)

Skylar Astin would follow the overture with Take Me to the World from Evening Primrose.

Boggess would join Astin to perform I am Unworthy of Your Love from Assassins. She would stay on stage to sing Last Midnight from Into the Woods

Immediately afterwards Lewis and Mitchell would sing The Best Thing That Ever Happened from Road Show.

Lewis would perform Epiphany from Sweeney Todd. He would then be joined again by Mitchell and they would do Agony from Into the Woods.

Mitchell would stay on stage to perform Marry Me a Little from Company.

Foster would be next with On the Steps of the Palace from Into the Woods and Could I Leave You? from Follies.

Boggess would sing The Miller’s Son from A Little Night Music.

The first act finale would be Patti and Norm Lewis doing A Little Priest from Sweeney Todd.

ACT TWO of Everybody Rise!

Foster, Astin and Boggess to open Act 2 with Getting Married Today from Company. 

Boggess stays on stage to sing Send in the Clowns from A Little Night Music.

LuPone sings Loving You from Passion and I Remember from Evening Primrose.

Lewis sings The Road You Didn’t Take from Follies and Pretty Little Picture from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.

Astin is next with Finishing the Hat from Sunday in the Park with George and is joined by Sutton Foster for Move On from the same show.

Foster stays on stage to perform Sooner or Later from Dick Tracy.

Mitchell takes to the stage to sing Fear No More from The Frogs followed by Being Alive from Company.

Boggess returns with Not a Day Goes By from Merrily We Roll Along.

The act would close with, what else, The Ladies Who Lunch from Company performed by LuPone.

The encore would find the ensemble doing two songs: Old Friends from Merrily We Roll Along and Sunday from Sunday in the Park with George.

What would you like to hear at Everybody Rise! this weekend?

Main Photo: Stephen Sondheim at opening night party at Sardi’s for the stage production West Side Story (Photo by Friedman-Abeles/Courtesy New York Public Library Archives)