Saturday Night

Saturday Night, with a book by Julius J. and Philip G. Epstein, based on their play Front Porch in Flatbush, would have been Stephen Sondheim’s first Broadway show had it opened, as scheduled, during the course of the 1954–55 season. But when its producer, Lemuel Ayres, died suddenly, the project was shelved. After Sondheim achieved notoriety as the most important composer of his generation, songs from the show began to surface in compilations and tributes of all kinds, but it wasn’t until the Sondheim Society staged a concert version at the University of Birmingham that it got its first official presentation. Directed by Carol Metcalfe and Clive Paget, Saturday Night opened at the Bridewell Well Theatre on December 17, 1997, and closed the following January 24, after playing 38 performances. A New York version played at the off-Broadway Second Stage Theatre from February 17, 2000 to March 26, 2000, under the direction of Kathleen Marshall.