If you were to write a letter to your hero, what would you say?

That was the conceit Meredith Lustig pondered as she developed her musical program, “To Sondheim, With Love.” The musician and actress, who most recently played the title role in “Kiss Me, Kate” at the Mac-Haydn Theatre in Chatham, will be performing her program devoted to Sondheim’s music at the Mac-Haydn September 14 and 16.

Since Sondheim’s death last November, letters from the composer/lyricist to friends, colleagues and fans have come to light. In fact, there’s an Instagram page in which recipients of those letters share screenshots of the precious correspondences. The replies to the posts are instructive as well, amplifying, putting into context, or simply marveling at Sondheim’s greatness. What the letters show, more than anything, is Sondheim’s kindness, thoughtfulness, and gentleness. In short, as one person noted, he was a mensch.

“I was fascinated that these letters existed,” Lustig says. “He wrote to composers, performers, fans. Sometimes they were about mundane things, like puzzles and games. He seemed to have an endless amount of glee for letter writing.”

Lustig had met her hero twice: the first, in 2007, as an undergraduate at Juilliard, she was Sondheim’s handler for the day when he was there to receive an honorary doctorate. Years later, she sang Sondheim’s music at Carnegie Hall — in his presence.

But still, she said, “I didn’t know he was this passionate pen pal. I wish I’d written my own letter to this man.” She set out to craft a show around the letters.   

“The show explores the idea that if I’d written to Sondheim, what would I have said? I’ve been exploring the letters he wrote, and at the same time exploring the effect his music has had on my life,” Lustig says. “The show takes you on a journey between those two meetings — how those experiences changed me and the way I see the world.”

Lustig, whose bio is a robust listing of appearances in with major opera companies and musical theater, admits this is her first attempt at writing her own script. In “To Sondheim, With Love,” she treats his songs as correspondence, positing a question and letting his songs inform the answer. During the program, she also recounts her actual interactions with Sondheim. She quotes a line from “Into the Woods:” "Any moment big or small, is a moment, after all.” Sondheim fans are going to want to hear about hers.

Aside from the theme, she says, it’s a great excuse to sing some really great music. She and Jillian Zack, the pianist, came up with a playlist that includes some of Sondheim’s major hits as well as some less familiar tunes, an opportunity to introduce people to some of the composer’s music they haven’t heard before. Lusting’s husband, Michael Axtell (he played opposite Lustig in “Kiss Me, Kate”) will join her in a few of them.

Lustig gives credit to the Mac-Haydn Theatre for the show’s evolution. In the summer of 2019, when she was appearing in its production of “Oklahoma!” the theater’s artistic director, John Saunders, was looking for ideas for programs to augment its lineup of musicals. The outcome this summer: “A Call to Places,” a solo show by a Mac-Haydn regular, Gabe Belyeu (running August 24-September 10) as well as Lustig’s ode to Sondheim.  

“It’s wonderful that the Mac-Haydn has provided this platform for its artists,” she says. “Trusting artists enough to have creative license is rare and should be applauded.”

At the first performance of “To Sondheim, With Love” on August 10, Lustig found audiences wanting to share how Sondheim songs crystalized a memory of their own.

“I’m not alone in this,” she says. “It shows up in different ways, but we’re all connected by how deeply we feel for Sondheim and his music. How lovely that a composer who’s already left us can still leave gifts for us to discover.”

Share this post

Written by
Editor