Saturday Night tells the story of a group young of Brooklynites in the midst of the Roaring '20s. Based on the play Front Porch in Flatbush by Julius and Philip Epstein with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, this work presents the clever and delightful story of several middle class twenty-somethings gallivanting about during an era with a booming economy. Sondheim initially began the public portion of his career by composing the lyrics for the 1957 Leonard Bernstein masterpiece West Side Story. However, in 1954 Sondheim created the music for Saturday Night. The musical's planned Broadway opening was canceled due to the death of the producer, and consequently Saturday Night did not premiere until the late 1990s.

The actors of the Brandeis Theater Company effortlessly portrayed the playful dynamic of a group of young friends looking to get lucky in life, love and the stock market. Overly ambitious Gene, played by Robert St. Laurence '11, continually spends outside his means but behaves with an instinctual charm that draws everyone to him, especially Helen Fogel, a fellow Brooklynite with a pragmatic view on life who eventually brings Gene back down to earth.

The greatest ambition of Gene's bawdy, rowdy and strapped-for-cash buddies (played by Justin Becker '09, Ethan Prizant '12, Robert Orzalli '11 and Austin Auh '10) other than winning big on the stock market is to find a date for Saturday night. Hank, Celeste and Mildred (played by Ross Brown '10, Ashley Sauerhof '09 and Gabrielle Young '09, respectively) round out an excellent cast. This production was directed by Professor Eric Hill (THA) and Katie Nadworny '09, with musical direction provided by Brandeis class of 2008 alumnus Matthew Stern.

Swimming through a soup of Brooklyn accents are songs dealing with such contemporary 1920s issues as the movies ("In the Movies"), the stock market ("Montana Chemical") and making out with a broad ("Exhibit A"). In typical Sondheim style, puns and innuendos abound. The jokes about the booming 1920s stock market and the audience's knowledge of the impending crash must have been powerful in the postwar time of 1954, but today these jokes take on a different resonance in the context of our current economy. The overt theme of the dangers of living outside your means and going into debt take on a new weight and significance. But the overall lightheartedness of the show transcends these worries with themes of community and love in "It's that Kind Of A Neighborhood." The joys and pitfalls of romantic love carry the show through to its somewhat hasty happy ending.

Yes, Saturday Night tells us, Brooklyn's OK if you're in love.

Saturday Night runs from Oct. 16 through Oct. 26 in the Laurie Theater of Spingold.