The Sondheim Museum

As it is packaged for the bloodless and dangerously wealthy geriatrics who get bused into downtown West Palm Beach for the shows at Palm Beach Dramaworks, Side by Side is a calculated exercise in nostalgia. These audiences saw Company and West Side Story when they were new, and whatever inherent artistic value those shows once possessed has now surely been eclipsed by their value as nostalgia, as reminders of a time when these audiences were bright and vibrant people with busy social lives and a real emotional investment in the goings-on of the theater world. Who knows how these folks would respond if their local pro theater company were to stun them with, say, the goatier permutations of Edward Albee or some late-period Mamet. But it´s damned depressing that nobody´s willing to find out.