The Villagers stage Neil Simon’s musical about a reluctant love affair set in the songwriting world.
By: Stuart Duncan
In 1971, while Neil Simon was writing and preparing The Gingerbread Lady for Broadway, he became aware of another story that kept popping into his head with annoying frequency a romantic tale of an established composer and a zany, free-spirited, undisciplined lyricist. The story would be honed for eight years and finally make its appearance as They’re Playing Our Song.
Simon asked Marvin Hamlisch to write the music and Carol Bayer Sager to handle the lyrics. This suggested an autobiographical base for the musical and, being Neil Simon, he filled the on-stage relationship with witty one-liners: "Talking with you is like sending out your laundry you never know what’s coming back."
The main characters, composer Vernon Gersch and lyricist Sonia Walsk, each come with what Simon calls "the voices," three alter-egos who wander in from time to time, mainly to harmonize. But, for the most part, this is a two-character evening with snide asides, the normal baggage of early relationship building and a few cute songs.
They’re Playing Our Song is getting a delicious airing on the main stage at The Villagers. Director Sharon Schapow has real talents in Marla Endick, who has stopped in at theaters throughout the area, and Paul Zeller, best known as a director, who is making his on-stage debut at The Villagers. The pairing is inspired: Ms. Endick is zaniness personified; Mr. Zeller is patience on the edge of insanity. Together they make Simon’s transparent script believable, even poignant. And both can sing with real authority. In fact, they are so charming together that you are tempted to resent the "voices" as intrusions.
Kenneth Guell’s set is a unit piece, with levels and steps, an ingenious way of quickly adapting to 14 scenes in nine separate locations, thus avoiding the sometimes tedious waits between scenes. There’s nothing startling about the plot, nor, for that matter, the lesson therein. As Vernon explains: "You can’t sit in a dentist’s chair without hearing one of your songs." But in the hands of Endick and Zeller, you won’t mind. The Villagers have a winner.
They’re Playing Our Song continues at the Villagers Theatre, 475 DeMott Lane, Somerset, through Jan. 31. Performances: Fri.-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. Tickets cost $18, $16 seniors/students. For information, call (732) 873-2710. On the Web: www.villagerstheatre.com