Well into the realm of Stephen Sondheim marginalia, it sounds as if the original
1974 version of
The Frogs was never even meant as a full musical. Sondheim
and Burt Shevelove took Aristophanes' comedy and built a short revue out of it, not
very well-received and soon becoming an obscurity. Nathan Lane then took that revue
and expanded it into a full-length show in 2004, Sondheim bulking it up with seven
new songs. This, too, was poorly received and went back to being a footnote, but the
Jermyn Street Theatre now gives it another try, inspired by the bleak state of
current affairs that mirrors the premise of Aristophanes' original: Dionysus
(Michael Matus,) god of theatre and wine among other things, despairs at the state
of the world and decides people need a great mind like Bernard Shaw to boost their
spirits while showing them the error of their ways.
