Passion Play

SPOTLIGHT

it's them again. Passion, the new musical from Stephen Sondheim (music, lyrics) and James Lapine (book, direction), opens on Broadway this month. That's cause for fanfare. The pair's previous collaborations were Into the Woods and Sunday in the Park with George. And Sondheim's work has ranged from the elegant A Little Night Music to the dark masterpiece Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

"I would describe Passion as rhapsodic, not light or' dark," Sondheim says. "The music is closer in style to the romantic music in Sweeney Todd and Sunday in the Park with George, as opposed to A Little Night Music."

Passion, a love triangle set in 19th-century Italy, has roots in an 1869 novel (Fosca) by Iginio Tarchetti and a 1981 film (Passione d'Amore) directed by Ettore Scola. It stars Jere Shea, Marin Mazzie, and, in what is said to be a Tony-worthy performance, Donna Murphy, lately seen in Hello Again.

"Steve saw the Scola film and came to me with the idea of adapting it into a musical," says Lapine. "But we're basing the show more on Tarchetti's novel."

"The big song is 'I Wish I Could Forget You,"' says Sondheim, who supplies its opening lines:

I wish I could forget you,

Erase you from my mind.

But ever since I met you,

I find

I cannot leave the thought of you behind.

For the moment, we must be content with just this taste of Passion.

GEORGE KALOGERAKIS

LYRICS 1994 BY RILTING MUSIC, INC. ALL RIGHTS ADMINISTRATED BY WB MUSIC CORP.; ALL RIGHT RESERVED;USED BY PERMISSION