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[...]
On the other hand, one glory of the theater lies in its evanescence, which is why I recently took advantage of extant travel plans to catch two starry, semi-staged concert performances of the same show within a single week of one another. The first, put together with six days rehearsal, was a charity gala on Feb. 4 at the London Palladium, with an international cast headed by Maria Friedman and Philip Quast — the English and Australian performers, respectively, who co- starred in 1990 in the first London production of Sondheim's Sunday In the Park with George.
[...]
As Sally's husband Buddy, the less soigné contrast to the urban sophisticate whom she may have really loved (namely, Ben), Tim Flavin rescued the role from the more usual view of Buddy as an adulterous nebbish; his footwork paid elegant homage, too, to the role's originator, Gene Nelson. And perhaps it takes an actor with experience of the classics, which Quast possesses alongside a glorious voice, to turn Ben's first-act number, 'The Road You Didn't Take', into a piercing study in self-annihilation: a man whose success has very much come at the price of his soul.
