Cover to cast recordingBED AND SOFA

Music by Polly Pen. Lyrics by Laurence Klavan

Story

In Moscow, in 1926, a housing crisis rages. In a cramped apartment, Ludmilla, a put-upon housewife, lives in dreamy complacency with her cheerful despot of a husband, Kolya. When one day, Kolya's handsome comrade, Volodya, arrives from the country, but can find no lodgings, Kolya offers him their sofa. When Kolya returns early from a business trip, he is shocked to discover that Ludmilla and Volodya have become lovers.

Kolya moves out, but there is still nowhere to live, so he reluctantly returns, taking the sofa, leaving Ludmilla and Volodya the bed Kolya stalls the new couple's lovemaking with endless games of checkers, so that slowly, to Ludmilla's frustration, Volodya becomes more interested in the manly sport of checkers than in sex. Finally, Volodya reveals himself to be just as much a domestic despot as Kolya. So Ludmilla banishes Volodya to the sofa and takes the bed for herself. Ludmilla's "marriage" to the two men has already had its consequence as she is pregnant.

The two men bicker over who is the father and finally decree: Ludmilla must have an abortion. Acquiescing, Ludmilla waits her turn in a frighteningly efficient clinic. But seeing a living, breathing baby out the window convinces her to leave, without the procedure. She packs up and abandons her two "husbands," declaring them unworthy to be fathers, and Kolya and Volodya find themselves alone in the dose Moscow flat. They have no choice: as Ludmilla rides alone into the exciting unknown. Kolya takes the bed and Volodya the sofa.

CAST:

2 men, 1 woman

Musical Numbers

  1. Anthem [Instrumental]
  2. Train
  3. My Name
  4. Lunch/Without My Work
  5. Night
  6. War - Michael X. Martin
  7. Bed and Sofa, #1 (Volodya Moves In)
  8. 13 Meschanskaia Lane
  9. News!/Over the Moon
  10. Bed and Sofa, #2 (Ludmilla & Volodya Are Alone)
  11. Silent Movie - Terri Klausner
  12. Bed and Sofa, #3 (Ludmilla & Volodya Go to Bed)
  13. Kolya's Return/Beans
  14. Big and Complicated
  15. Do You Mean to Stay Here?/Without My Wife
  16. Night/Over the Moon (Reprise)
  17. Back and Forth
  18. Bed and Sofa, #4 (Kolya Takes the Sofa)
  19. Checkers
  20. I Am Hungry
  21. Dressing Screen
  22. Walk
  23. I Am Hungry (Reprise)
  24. U.S.S.R.
  25. Bed and Sofa, #5 (Volodya Takes the Sofa)
  26. Back and Forth (Reprise)
  27. To Have a Child
  28. Abortion
  29. Her Husband
  30. Letter
  31. Ending
  32. Anthem [Instrumental]

INSTRUMENTATION:

4 Piano/Conductor scores, Violin, Cello.

Original Cast Recording