More than two decades ago, New York Magazine had a cover page with a picture and the caption "Is Stephen Sondheim God?"

Nobody has ever been quite able to answer that question, but over the last six plus decades, the 85-year-old Sondheim has certainly come about as close as any other American composer has to that exalted title.

"Sondheim on Sondheim," a revue of sorts, opened at the Tenth Street Theatre Thursday night under the umbrella of John Baiocchi and James Padovano, who produced it.

I can only call this a revue of sorts because it’s hard to put a label on this show. It’s got over 30 Sondheim songs. But the major grab is the taped interviews with Sondheim that are projected on two giant screens.

The production, which ran on Broadway in a limited run five years ago, follows a strict formula. The singers stand still while Sondheim talks about his work and about his life and about the song we are about to hear, and then we hear and see the song.

It’s a fascinating two-hour look into the life of a genius who is self-deprecating and modest but who also knows full well his place in the history of American music. He has a face that shows every mile he has walked, every note he has heard and every word he has written. He is a man tormented by, as he said, "a mother who didn’t even want me on this earth."

But he is also a man at peace with himself and the world around him.

The production has eight singers, four men and four women. And like any production like this, there are high points and some points that aren’t quite so high.

Let’s get the misses out of the way first, before we get to this string of hits.

One problem in casting a show like this is that comparisons between singers are inevitable. The audience is going to like some and not like others, and finding a cast that is reliably even is a difficult challenge.

This cast has really only one weak spot, and it’s probably a function of youth. I’m not going to embarrass anyone with this review, but there is one singer who is way too practiced. It’s as if the singer spent hours in front of a mirror saying, "When I sing, here's what I do with my hands, and here’s what I do with my face." Best that singer had taken the time to watch some of the real pros prove that words have meanings and that great singing on a musical theater stage involves knowing what each word means and how important they all are.

Sondheim himself talked about the importance of the words.

"There are a lot of things competing for the attention of the audience," he said. "The costumes, the lighting, the music, the dancing. The words have to be simple. They have to mean something. Nobody can go back and read the lyrics again."

Liz Norton, who is a Milwaukee treasure, and Parker Cristan are both veterans of the musical theater stage, and they lead the pack in this show.

The two of them combine for the final three numbers that combine the kind of gravitas and emotional punch that makes Sondheim such a spectacular treasure.

It starts when Cristan walks quietly onto the darkened stage and begins to sing the haunting "Children Will Listen," the song spawned by a letter Sondheim got from his mother late in life in which she says her only regret in life was giving birth to him. Cristan has a emotion laden baritone that reaches deep into your soul.

That’s followed by Norton, sitting quietly and giving a tender and smart treatment to "Send In the Clowns," the only hit song that Sondheim has written. In lesser hands, this song often spawns and overwrought kind of performance with sorrow-filled emotion spilling over into the stage lights. Norton is such a good singer that she lets the words do the talking. She plays it calm and cool, and the impact is so much more powerful that way.

And then the final number comes when Cristan again starts us off with the very hum-able "Anyone Can Whistle."

Sondheim may demand that songs be simple, but the musical construction of his work is anything but. The flow of music is complex and difficult to perform. The orchestra under the direction of Donna Kummer created a very special feel all night long. This is not easy music to play or sing, but the performance was worthy of a beautiful start to a summer of theater.

"Sondheim on Sondheim" runs through June 28 and information on showtimes and tickets is available here.