What A Pleasant Way To Spend An Afternoon Or Evening!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                       There is no question, where I am concerned.  The greatest musical ever written about a reunion was, and always will be, Stephen Sondheim's "FOLLIES."  "Reunions" is more like Broadway's 1988 "Romance Romance," consisting of two separate stories.  Act One is entitled "The Twelve-Pound Look," and is rather humorous.  Act Two, entitled simply "A Sunny Morning," has a "Sunday In The Park With George" feel to it, and is unbearably poignant.

                                        Both stories involve couples.  "The Twelve-Pound Look" involves the funny, but rough goings of an unexpected reunion between a priggish, arrogant man about to be knighted by the Queen, and his ex-wife Kate, who left him for independence, and was employed by the current wife as a typist for invites to the husband's prospective party.  The sparring couple are wonderfully played by Bryan Fenkart and Chilina Kennedy, and they are wonderful.  The songs by Jeffrey Scharf and Jimmy Calire, are not memorable but they have a quality to them, exuding the patter of Gilbert and Sullivan in one, and the wistful poetic nature of Sondheim in the other.

                                          Outstanding mention must go out to Chip Zien and Joanna Glushak as a pair of elders who come to realize they were once young lovers, and they are so lovely and loving that when the discovery is made it is pure theater magic.  They get the more prosaic songs and make the most of them.  Maybe because their story, entitled "A Sunny Afternoon," has a romantic lyricism that the first one lacks.    The show, in terms of wit and costuming also, at times echoes "A Little Night Music."

                                              Though not on the level of some of these former shows, the audience leaving "Reunion" goes with something rarely experienced in theater anymore--delight.  My David got that from "Maybe Happy Ending," but I felt it more keenly with "Reunions."

                                                  It is here for the moment and is worth seeing.  And, aside from Ruthie, I liked it more than "The Seat Of Our Pants."

                                                  But see both before they quickly vanish!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!