The music by itself rarely stirs, but without the music - recited off the page - the Sondheim lyrics would not be half so penetrating.

It's the persona and the talent that counts, not the tantrums, "the fists, the fights, the egos," to paraphrase a Sondheim lyric.

Ms. Peters had brought the audience to its feet for two standing ovations, and my kids came out of the theater singing snatches of Sondheim lyrics.

Both shows make a macabre case for there being "no place like London" (to borrow a Sondheim lyric), with nightmarish street scenes of urban hell.

Neither of these well-known performers appears to have the stylistic adaptability for the wit, intricacy or acerbity of a Sondheim lyric.

That means, in part, lots of dialogue (Hugh Wheeler did the book), witty Sondheim lyrics, sometimes corrosive cynicism and an occasional Broadwayish cheesiness.

For sheer literacy, the Sondheim lyrics surpass all the dialogue heard in this past season's McCarter repertory, Moliere excepted.

But the composer of "Saturday Night" is already aware that "happy endings can spring a leak," as a Sondheim lyric from a later show observes.

What they discover recalls an earlier Sondheim lyric (from "Do I Hear a Waltz?")

The Sondheim lyric tells us that in show business, you gotta have a gimmick.