Kokomo's Symphony and Civic Theatre collaborate for final concert in 50th season

May 17—Kokomo's arts scene will mesh organizations and creative works this weekend.

The Kokomo Symphony Orchestra is teaming up with the Kokomo Civic Theatre for the last concert in its 50th season.

The two organizations will perform "Sondheim on Sondheim," which is a multimedia anthology of American composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim's work.

The season finale will feature two performances in Indiana University Kokomo's Havens Auditorium. They're scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday.

If you aren't familiar with Sondheim's name, you might be familiar with his work. He created the music and lyrics for musical theater shows like "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street," "Into the Woods" and "Sunday in the Park with George." Although Sondheim did not compose the music for "West Side Story" — that was Leonard Bernstein — he is responsible for the lyrics.

Steven Hughes, executive director of the Civic Theatre, explained the show isn't really a musical. It isn't exactly a standalone concert, either. He called it a musical revue.

The show, which tells the story of Sondheim's life, will have a bit of acting, some choreography, a few solos for the vocalists and video narration from the composer.

Hughes said the Civic Theatre hasn't done a show like "Sondheim on Sondheim" before. It has worked with the orchestra in the past, though. The most recent collaboration came just before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down gatherings in 2020, when the Symphony and Civic Theatre performed a concert featuring music from Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II.

"This is harder. This is much harder than doing a Broadway show," said José Valencia, the Symphony's creative director. "These people are singing all the way through the show. There's very little downtime for the singers. That also means that the orchestra is playing a lot, which is great."

Just before the Symphony's season kicked off in October 2023, Valencia said the season's concerts didn't have an overarching theme. However, he pointed out they would be linked by the orchestra's collaboration with other organizations.

The Symphony kicked off the season with a commissioned piece and a guest appearance by Alicia Berneche, who grew up performing in the youth orchestra before going on to sing opera across the nation.

Later, it brought in a local choir to perform George Frideric Handel's "Messiah."

"We're really, hopefully, connecting with the community and providing something that they want to listen to, or that can give them some comfort or connection to each other in the community," Valencia said in October.

Hughes said he appreciated the Symphony's request to collaborate again.

"Both of our organizations draw different people and hopefully combining together, it draws a bigger crowd," Hughes said.

He added the concert could introduce Civic Theatre fans to the Symphony and vice versa.

"I think all that is just good for the arts and Kokomo," Hughes said.

He explained the two organizations initially considered performing a musical from the '70s, something from the same decade the local Symphony started. They started to kick around the idea of performing concert versions of "Follies" or "Sweeney Todd," both of which were composed by Sondheim.

However, Symphony members wound up hoping for a performance that would cover multiple shows. Hughes was aware of "Sondheim on Sondheim," but only a version with Broadway instrumentation that would have featured a scant orchestra with 18 members at most.

When he double-checked the show, he realized a symphonic version of "Sondheim on Sondheim" had recently been released. The expanded instrumentation allows the Symphony to show off roughly 50 musicians.

Valencia said there's a symphonic sensibility to Sondheim's music, adding the composer was responsible for bucking a trend toward small orchestral accompaniment in musical theater.

Hughes said he's been a fan of Sondheim for a long time. He's directed four shows that the composer worked on.

"His music has been influential in the American theater in the last half of the last century," Hughes said, later adding, "It's not something that you hear all the time in Kokomo."

He said the songs in "Sondheim on Sondheim" will likely be familiar to audience members, but it's an unusual opportunity to hear them with an orchestra.

Both Hughes and Valencia noted Sondheim's music can be difficult to perform, especially the harmonies.

"It's exciting. It's complicated," Valencia said at a Monday rehearsal. "And what I think is partly brilliant is how many issues get interwoven and parts get sung over each other."

He added the music often goes in a different harmonic direction than where audience members anticipate.

Liz Harper and Shederick Whipple, who will both sing in the show, agreed.

Going into Monday's rehearsal, they said it's been a hectic two months trying to prepare for the production.

"Sondheim as a composer, he likes to put the vocalists at odds with what's going on in the accompaniment," explained Whipple, who works for Indianapolis Opera and is new to the Civic Theatre. He added there are usually a lot of words in Sondheim's compositions.

Harper, who has worked on several Civic Theatre shows, said she's been introduced to several Sondheim songs while working on the show. Whipple explained there are compositions in "Sondheim on Sondheim" that never wound up in his shows.

"I'm hoping that people walk away with a greater appreciation of Sondheim's genius, just as a person, and his struggles," said Whipple. "He talks very candidly about his challenges in life. I think audience members will find that very intriguing."

"I think it'll be fantastic. It should be really fun," Valencia said. "I think it'll be pretty satisfying to the audience."

James Bennett III can be reached at 765-454-8580 or james.bennett@kokomotribune.com.