Side by Side revival scuttled by Sondheim’s people

While the opening of Stephen Sondheim’s Follies on Broadway generates all manner of buzz, a production of Side by Side by Sondheim at Miami’s Coconut Grove Playhouse has met with a decidedly different fate, according to The Hollywood Reporter. When the show opened March 23, there were problems with both the production and the fact that the material had been rather drastically altered without permission. Unfortunately, Harold Prince, Lauren Bacall, and Joy Abbott, widow of legendary producer George Abbott, were in the house. Music Theatre International, the agency responsible for protecting Sondheim’s work, stepped in, and by the following Sunday the show was gone.