Stephen Sondheim has died at 91. The songwriter had a hand in enduring musicals, including ‘West Side Story’ and ‘Sweeney Todd.’ https://t.co/tTWBJI72AN
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) November 26, 2021
Stephen Sondheim, whose intricate and powerful lyrics, venturesome melodies and sweeping stage visions made him a central figure in contemporary American musical theater, died Nov. 26 at his home in Roxbury, Conn. He was 91.
Rick Miramontez, a publicist for the current Broadway production of Mr. Sondheim’s musical “Company,” confirmed his death but did not cite a cause.
In a career spanning more than five decades, Mr. Sondheim was associated with many of the most celebrated and enduring musicals of his time.
He won his initial fame as the lyricist for “West Side Story” (1957), with music by Leonard Bernstein, and followed up by writing the lyrics for Jule Styne’s “Gypsy” (1959). His primary achievement lies in the works for which he created both music and lyrics, including “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” (1962), “Company” (1970), “Follies” (1971), “A Little Night Music” (1973), “Sweeney Todd” (1979), “Sunday in the Park With George” (1984), “Into the Woods” (1987) and “Passion” (1994).
Unlike most of the earlier Broadway songwriters, including George and Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II (the last of whom was his first great mentor), Mr. Sondheim was less interested in creating stand-alone popular “hits” than in fashioning unified works that maintained a firm, near-operatic structural integrity throughout…
He won the Kennedy Center Honors for Lifetime Achievement in 1993 and was the subject of a “Sondheim Celebration” there in 2002, where six of his works were presented in repertory staging, to exhilarated reviews and sold-out houses; the Signature Theater in Arlington, Va., meanwhile, became a major staging ground for many of his works. He and James Lapine shared the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1985 for “Sunday in the Park With George.”
In addition to a 2008 Tony Award for lifetime achievement, Mr. Sondheim received eight Tonys for his music and several others for his lyrics. In 2015, President Barack Obama awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor…
Incredible that Sondheim himself gave us the very lexicon of expressions through which to grieve him
— Marc (@MarcSnetiker) November 26, 2021
Sondheim choking up earlier this year as Colbert tells him how much he means to him. pic.twitter.com/Ar4TbWRBuF
— Helen Kennedy (@HelenKennedy) November 26, 2021
Last Sunday, I went to Connecticut to interview Stephen Sondheim at his country house. It turned out to be his last major interview. https://t.co/pnL03s6hEh
— Michael Paulson (@MichaelPaulson) November 27, 2021
ROXBURY, Conn. — Stephen Sondheim stood by the gleaming piano in his study, surrounded by posters of international productions of his many famous musicals, and smiled as he inquired whether a visitor might be interested in hearing songs from a show he had been working on for years, but hadn’t finished yet.
“And now would you like to hear the score?” he asked. Of course, the answer was yes. “You got some time?” he asked, before laughing, loudly, with a sense of mischief: “It’s from a show called ‘Fat Chance’!”
That was Sunday afternoon, five days ago, when Mr. Sondheim, 91, had welcomed me to his longtime country house for a 90-minute interview with him and the theater director Marianne Elliott about a revival of “Company” that is now in previews on Broadway. It would turn out to be his final major interview.
There was little indication that Mr. Sondheim, one of the greatest songwriters in the history of musical theater, was unwell. He was engaged and lucid, with strong opinions and playfully pugnacious, as with the tease about his long-gestating, unfinished final musical. At one moment he complained that his memory wasn’t as strong as it had been, but he was also telling anecdotes from a half-century earlier with ease…
He was busy right until the end. On Nov. 14 he attended the opening of an Off Broadway revival of his musical “Assassins,” directed by John Doyle at Classic Stage Company. The next night he went to the first post-shutdown preview for the Broadway revival of “Company” — a reimagined production, opening Dec. 9, in which the protagonist, who has traditionally been played by a man, is now played by a woman. And just this week, two days before he died, he did a doubleheader, seeing a Wednesday matinee of “Is This a Room” and an evening performance of “Dana H.,” two short documentary plays on Broadway…
…[H]e was obviously delighted about the Steven Spielberg-directed film adaptation of “West Side Story,” a musical for which Mr. Sondheim wrote the lyrics, that is scheduled to be released next month. “I think it’s just great,” he said. He added, “The great thing about it is people who think they know the musical are going to have surprises.”
He was looking forward to even more in the months to come: a new production of “Into the Woods,” for which Mr. Sondheim wrote the music and lyrics, is scheduled to be staged by the Encores! program at New York City Center next May. Also, Mr. Sondheim revealed, New York Theater Workshop is hoping to stage an Off Broadway revival of “Merrily We Roll Along,” for which he wrote the music and lyrics, directed by Maria Friedman, who has previously directed well received productions in London and Boston…
The fact that THIS IS STEPHEN SONDHEIM's VOICEMAIL in #TickTickBoom makes this simply heartbreaking. @Lin_Manuel shared Sondheim had also re-rewritten and re-recorded this. #RIPStephenSondheim pic.twitter.com/3YxvohvHdI
— Jazz Tangcay (@jazzt) November 27, 2021
Among other things, Stephen Sondheim was an extraordinary teacher. pic.twitter.com/aZHmROaP0n
— Matt Zoller Seitz (@mattzollerseitz) November 27, 2021
I took on the Herculean task of choosing Stephen Sondheim's most unforgettable songs for @Variety. I'm sure many of you will disagree with my picks, and that's a testament to his unparalleled ability to make us feel so deeply and passionately. #RIPSondheim https://t.co/QrIMMyN9HN
— Katcy Stephan (@katcystephan) November 27, 2021
WaterGirl
Because I haven’t cried enough already today.
NotMax
Repeated from a much earlier thread.
Noted that Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened, a documentary covering the tale and the cast of Sondheim’s legendary misfire Merrily We Roll Along is available on Netflix.
No slam on Mr. S intended whatsoever; even the Rock of Gibraltar has its faults.
J R in WV
I’m not that big a musical theatre buff, but Sondheim is a F’ing genius of music, rhyme, rhythm, etc. I have so many friends who were huge musical lovers, I’m sure they are heartbroken at this news.
Getting to 91 is doing pretty good, tho. I’m not sure at this point if I’m that interested in going 20 more years, but we’ll see, won’t we?
Math Guy
An American cultural icon: few people achieve such high standing in their lifetime. He leaves a little of himself in all of us.
zhena gogolia
@NotMax: It’s not a misfire if you just listen to it!
zhena gogolia
The Patti LuPone “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” at the Variety link is fabulous (Jule Styne music, though).
zhena gogolia
I hope Tick Tick Boom isn’t disappointing.
Steeplejack (phone)
Suzanne
A towering talent.
Justin W
This one hurts. Into The Woods is one of the wittiest, cleverest, slyest, sharpest, and darkest musicals ever written. I saw it for the first time when I was ten and I’ve loved it ever since. Just an incredible lyricist. None better.
laura
Cause of death – A Life, well and truly lived, nothing left undone, unsaid, unresolved. We should all have such a life and times.
NotMax
@zhena gogolia
I use the term misfire rather than flop because the original production just barely managed to stagger through 16 performances after officially opening before going dark. Stories by those who were there of audience members walking out partway through abound.
SiubhanDuinne
Sondheim’s death just gutted me. Yes, I know he was 91, but there was something about him that seemed immortal. Man was a fucking brilliant genius — in his music, his lyrics, his wordplay, his wit, and his humanity. I am really devastated to know I live in a world without him in it. Thank god for the recordings and films and bootleg videos.
Justin W
Careful the things you say,
Children will listen.
Careful the things you do,
Children will see.
And learn.
Children may not obey
But children will listen.
Children will look to you
For which way to turn,
To learn what to be.
Careful before you say,
“Listen to me.”
Children will listen.
—Into The Woods
(Too bad Trumpers don’t heed this lesson….)
zhena gogolia
@NotMax: I have this strange quality — I can’t stand theater. But I love to listen to musicals on CD. So I can quite imagine that despite the brilliant music and the fascinating plot, it was boring in the theater. Most things are.
NotMax
@zhena gogolia
Groucho: “is this a barn or a stable?”
Chico: “If you look at it, it’s a barn; if you smell it, it’s a stable.”
Groucho: “Let’s just look at it.”
:)
sab
He also is about the only person who was enthusiastic when Lin Manuel Miranda told him that he was thinking about doing a musical based on Chernow’s Hamilton biography.
Dan B
Sondheim is survived by his husband of three years, and partner for about twelve years total. His husband is in his early forties. It’s saddening that no mention is made of him. Sondheim lived in LA for a few years. He had a relationship with Anthony Perkins for about two years. He lived quite the life.
I’m not a fan of musical theater but his songs are very appealing and the lyrics are spare in the most beautiful way.
NotMax
@zhena gogolia
Clinically diagnosed, I believe, as Chess Syndrome.
;)
zhena gogolia
@NotMax:
All that said, I would have loved to have seen this production (Mark Umbers swoon)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATAJlK-lUxk
opiejeanne
I love Sondheim’s work, what I know of it. I was really annoyed when someone lumped him with Andrew Lloyd Weber, as if they were equals. Sondheim towers over Weber, and I’ve enjoyed some of Weber’s work. They also classed Sondheim with Rodgers and Hammerstein, and several other greats, and I agree with that.
debbie
West Side Story has been my favorite since forever.
zhena gogolia
@Dan B: His husband is mentioned in all the obits I’ve seen.
opiejeanne
@NotMax: Ha!
One night in Bangkok, indeed.
zhena gogolia
@opiejeanne: Well, I wouldn’t lump him with Andrew Lloyd Webber, but ALW’s achievement is quite considerable, nevertheless.
debbie
@opiejeanne:
Hammerstein was his mentor.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story” comes out on December 9th. It includes Rita Moreno. The cinematography is spectacular and the narrative (updated by famed Tony Kushner) has a sharper edge (video)
lowtechcyclist
I confess I’ve never understood the Sondheim adulation, and Katcy Stephan’s selection of her seven best Sondheim songs reaffirms that for me. Three of them I’ve never heard, but three I must have, because I’ve seen the movie version of West Side Story, and I’ve seen stage productions of Sweeney Todd and Company.
I remember a few of the more famous songs from West Side Story, but not the one Stephan chose. I don’t remember a single song from Sweeney Todd or Company. The first two of these at least were good stories. I thought Company was a waste of time, just a mishmash going nowhere in particular. (And no, I can’t tell you why I felt that. It was forgettable, and I’ve forgotten it.)
The seventh song, “Send In the Clowns” – well of course we’ve all heard snatches of it. Fortunately, that’s all of it that I’ve heard, because those are presumably the memorable parts, and I’m not keen on them.
Nothing wrong with y’all liking his stuff; we all have different tastes. I’m not saying his stuff is bad; I’m just saying that what I’ve heard of his work has just not stayed with me. I’m sure I enjoyed it at the time, in the case of West Side Story, Sweeney Todd, and A Funny Thing Happened On the Way To the Forum. (Three outa four ain’t bad.) I’d just classify it as pleasant but transitory, forgettable entertainment.
zhena gogolia
Not to diminish Sondheim, but I think it should be noted that Leonard Bernstein wrote the music for West Side Story.
NotMax
Seeing the original production of Sweeney Todd was an electrifying evening in the theater.
Except our seats were uncomfortably near the fershlugginer steam whistle.
Miss Bianca
I was just having a conversation with some of my acting colleagues at the theater where we were talking about the upcoming season. Someone mentioned doing a musical, noting the great success we’d had with Into the Woods a few years back, altho’ it was an insane amount of work. I, the contrarian, mentioned that the musical I always wanted to do was Assassins (pretty sure that won’t happen at my little theater, alas). Had forgotten completely that they were both Sondheim works!
zhena gogolia
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch: Looks good, but where’s Russ Tamblyn?
debbie
@lowtechcyclist:
Somewhere is the center of the heart of the musical. Pedestrian or not, I weep every time.
Sure Lurkalot
I am horribly unobservant…I didn’t know Mr. Sondheim wrote Into the Woods. Everyone I knew who watched it hated it but I loved it!
My recently departed sister was 8 years older, we lived in NY when she was a teenager so she went to many musicals, bought the albums, brought home the playbill, etc. West Side Story was absolutely her favorite and mine too. When it comes on TV, I still know mostly all of the lyrics and I’m still amazed by the music (ETA, learned on this top education blog that it was Leonard Bernstein’s)
What an accomplished human, what an incredible life.
CaseyL
A life very well lived indeed. More talent in his little finger than many others have in their whole body.
I can’t pick a favorite, but Sunday in the Park with George might be it, because the subject matter (what it means to create, to be an artist) was daring for any stage treatment, much less a musical. Plus the music itself is gorgeous.
He wasn’t afraid to take on gargantuan challenges.
zhena gogolia
@NotMax: Len Cariou and Angela Lansbury?
prostratedragon
Boy, boy, crazy boy,
Get cool, boy!
Got a rocket in your pocket,
Keep coolly cool, boy!
Don’t get hot,
‘Cause, man, you got
Some high times ahead.
Take it slow and Daddy-o,
You can live it up and die in bed!
Boy, boy, crazy boy,
Stay loose, boy!
Breeze it, buzz it, easy does it.
Turn off the juice, boy!
Go, man, go,
But not like a yo-yo
Schoolboy
Just play it cool, boy,
Real cool!
— “Cool,” West Side Story
Mousebumples
Tick, Tick, Boom (granted not about Sondheim, but Whitford plays Sondheim) is probably on tonight’s watch list.
I may not love all his songs and musicals, but I cannot deny the huge impact he had on the world of musical theater.
May his memory (and his works) be a blessing in the years to come.
NotMax
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
Speaking of Rita Moreno, one has to be exceptionally talented to pull off being as mediocre as Googie Gomez.
;)
NotMax
@zhena gogolia
You betcha.
Dan B
@zhena gogolia: That’s good to know. I haven’t noticed it in the ones I’ve read. They looked like a great pair that would be fantastic to have to dinner.
zhena gogolia
@NotMax: Wow.
rikyrah
He lived a long life and people gave him.his roses before he died.
RIP??
rikyrah
My favorite song of his ..favorite version
https://youtu.be/yE3dLzIYKs8
rikyrah
I took a Musical Theater course in college to fulfill the music requirement for graduation. The professor concentrated on those who changed the game in American Musical Theater.
This was the first time that I learned about Sondheim and his background. He was , what, 25 when he got together with Laurents and Bernstein and Robbins and Prince.
Damn!???
prostratedragon
@NotMax: My god, how have I not seen that?! Hard to hide those pipes to be sure, but the ending note clinches it. And the choreographic send-up of every work of classical female sculpture from the Statue of LIberty to the Pietà — mwah!
Raven
Thrice in Thrace!!!!
JPL
Not quite fifty years ago, I saw Company. He was truly a master.
NotMax
A … different take … on a Sondheim number.
And another – may well be the most tongue tripping of Sondheim’s lyrics to get through.
;)
jl
Thanks for the post, and picking those very wise lyrics about adults and children.
JPL
@rikyrah: Judi Dench is so good.
WaterGirl
@prostratedragon: West Side Story was a huge part of our lives growing up. Three sisters. We lived about our parents tavern and we had a flat rooftop where we sang and danced and acted out West Side Story.
I see those words and I can hear that song in my head, every pause, every intonation.
I have mixed feelings about watching the new West Side Story.
rikyrah
60 Minutes segment
https://youtu.be/_XPfnubkFD8
rikyrah
His next door neighbor was Hammerstein? growing up.
debbie
@rikyrah:
I’d never heard her version. Thanks
ETA: Stand aside, Judy Collins!
JPL
What a lovely post and I thank you Anne for the quotes.
@WaterGirl: I have a lot of respect for Spielberg, but it just seems wrong. Maybe he is trying to appeal to a younger audience than I.
Betty
@rikyrah: Thank you, Rikyah. My favorite too. And Judi Dench is so good.
scav
Little Night Music person here. Now / Later / Soon I always enjoy for all its intricacies, but The sun won’t set is my guaranteed earworm a few evenings in summer. A weekend in the country also has its points (in a sort of Iago manner) . . .
debbie
@WaterGirl:
I do, too. Plus, Spielberg. ??♀️
prostratedragon
@WaterGirl: Oh that rooftop sounds perfect for acting out that story! It must have been much fun. In the tributes to Mr. Sondheim, one of the actors in the upcoming WSS said that one of his later plays, Into the Woods I think, was her first understanding as a child of what a musical is. For me, being older, it actually was The King and I. But West Side Story , the movie being released when I was about 8, was the first one I knew that seemed to be sort of about me, or about young people I could see myself soon being. And the lyrics were as important to that as the music.
Immigrants goes to America.
Many hellos in America.
Nobody knows in American,
Puerto Rico’s in America!
phdesmond
@NotMax:
found the lyrics to the latter:
link
jl
@debbie: The old school West Side story was imprinted into my brainstem as a tyke watching it on TV. I have no clue what production it was, but it was awesome. I fell in love with the music, so West Side Story, along with a vinyl sampler of baroque music that I found on a shelf, was what got me into music.
I didn’t know there was a new West Side story. I just watched the trailer and looks OK, except for the music. WTF is with the mushy loose ass big orchestra music? If that’s the music, no way I can watch it. I’ll puke after a while.
And I suppose Spielberg will put in a Disney thrill ride thinly disguised as a movie scene. Since. That. Is. What. He. Does.
Thresherk
@NotMax:
Heh. How few recordings of Chess are too few? I only have three.
On Sondheim: In HS our town library had a fair number of Original Cast Recording LPs, and that’s where I first heard Sweeney Todd. It was quite different from the musical comedy classics I’d binge watched on TV, but it really hit me.
And there the die was cast.
WaterGirl
@prostratedragon: It really was magical! One of these days I should dig out an old photo album and put up the photo of us dancing to West Side Story on the roof.
Ruckus
@J R in WV:
I think we owe it to ourselves to go as long as we can and enjoy it as long as we can. But when we can’t, we can’t.
PST
@NotMax:
It was for me too. It was my first Broadway experience. As much as I loved it, though, I found the 2005 revival even more memorable. This was the production in which all the instruments were played by whatever actors weren’t in the scene. The stripped down orchestration made the intricacies of Sondheim’s harmonies and countermelodies clearer. Nothing got lost in a fog of strings. Sondheim is really the proof, if one is needed, of how cruddy the music is in so many “musicals” that are reworkings of other material. Anything by Sondheim is worlds better than any music in Spamalot or The Book of Mormon or anything else of that ilk. Sondheim was a giant, but I can’t say that his death, or the death of other greats who reach their nineties, fills me with sadness. It kills me when a David Foster Wallace or Phillip Seymour Hoffman dies, but for someone like Sondheim it feels like an appropriate time for celebration.
debbie
@jl:
I know exactly what you mean. He lost me when he turned Celie and Mister’s home into a House Beautiful layout! ?
zhena gogolia
@prostratedragon: I have to point out again that Bernstein wrote the music.
JPL
@WaterGirl: Please do.
debbie
@zhena gogolia:
And the lyrics were incidental?
Z. Mulls
I dislike the list of “most memorable” Sondheim songs, as two of them have music by other people, and they are pretty much all ballads. His ballads were achingly beautiful but he wrote so many other types of songs.
I think I’d like to see a list of “Sondheim songs that totally gutted you” — and that would be hard to pare down.
Of course there will be those on the thread who shrug and say “Meh, whatever” or talk about misfires. “Merrily” has never quite worked, but not because of the music, because the book never got it right.
Every time you listen to one of his songs again, you plunge deeper. And hearing them at different ages has been a revelation.
I was just the right age — 8 when COMPANY came out and by the time SWEENEY was produced I was 18. I remember racing to get the LP and following along in the lyrics booklet. I remember not quite liking some songs at first listen but them growing on me over time until they became indispensible.
I don’t have anything profound to add to the thread. I’m just here, like everyone else, thinking something just broke. I wanted that last show to be finished. I am forever grateful for everything he did, everything that’s past, everything that’s over too fast.
And loved seeing Bradley Whitford play Sondheim in tick tick BOOM.
Sure Lurkalot
@JPL: Yes, WaterGirl, please post that picture!
zhena gogolia
@debbie: No, not at all, it’s just that people in this thread are exclaiming about the music. Why not talk about all the musicals for which he wrote both lyrics and music? The Variety list of a few best songs included one with music by Bernstein and one with music by Styne. I find it strange — he wrote tons of great songs, why pick the ones he didn’t write the music for?
lowtechcyclist
I didn’t say the song is pedestrian – I can’t, because I literally have no memory of it.
debbie
@zhena gogolia:
Understood, but can you imagine what the music in West Side Story would have been without his lyrics? Schmaltz.
Z. Mulls
@debbie: Do I hear a schmaltz?
zhena gogolia
@debbie: Oh, no, I disagree totally.
phdesmond
@scav:
thanks for sharing those — new to me.
raven
FOOD FIGHT!
Wyatt Salamanca
RIP to a bona fide genius Stephen Sondheim!
Informative, insightful obituary of Sondheim from Playbill
https://www.playbill.com/article/legendary-composer-stephen-sondheim-dead-at-91
I recall a thread posted here while fans awaited the start of this Sondheim birthday tribute which was delayed by technical glitches. Thankfully, the technical issues were fixed and this event became one of the most joyous, uplifting events for me during our pandemic nightmare
Take Me to the World: A Sondheim 90th Birthday Celebration
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A92wZIvEUAw
zhena gogolia
@Wyatt Salamanca: Yes, that is really wonderful. So many great songs I had never heard.
prostratedragon
@WaterGirl: Love to see them.
Wyatt Salamanca
@WaterGirl:
As Capt. Jean Luc Picard would say “Make it so!”
prostratedragon
@zhena gogolia: Oh of course—and as great as anything he did in my estimation. But Sondheim’s lyrics were a big part of what I, or actually we, because the show was hugely popular with us kids, really liked about it. Lots of rhyming patterns, yet natural, and just colloquial enough.
zhena gogolia
@prostratedragon: Yes, they’re great. And they work beautifully with Bernstein’s music.
dnfree
@J R in WV: my grandmother, who lived to be 98, had said at an earlier point “No one wants to live to be 90, except a person who’s 89.”
dnfree
@NotMax: my daughter appeared in a production of “Merrily We Roll Along” in Chicago some years back. It’s an interesting musical with some clever and some touching music, as with all his work.
sdhays
My first encounter with Sondheim’s music was in high school. In the spring of my senior year, I had the opportunity to join the pit orchestra for the local college’s performance of Into the Woods. Over the course of a couple months, I learned and practiced and rehearsed all of the music countless times, and fortunately for me, it’s really good so I didn’t grow to hate it (even though my part wasn’t particularly interesting or challenging). I still remember at an early rehearsal one of the college student orchestra members told me how when the baker’s wife is singing about the prince “kissing her”, actually a lot more is suggested to have gone on (I had yet to actually see the whole thing) – I was mildly scandalized.
I still love that performance. I’ve seen the Disney movie, and I still think the witch in that small production at the little midwestern liberal arts college was as good or better than Merrill Streep’s witch. What was really amazing about Into the Woods was how deep and intricate it is. Even though I saw many rehearsals and performances, it always seemed fresh because there was something new to notice or appreciate.
Several years ago, my wife and I got to see A Little Night Music on Broadway (with the Clintons, no less – well, they were reportedly in the audience that night). We’ve both always loved Send in the Clowns in particular, and getting to see it performed by Bernadette Peters was a real treat.
I haven’t had the opportunity to see performances of his other work, but I hope to someday. He was a truly an artistic giant, and it seems he was a good guy too. I can’t mourn the passing of someone who lived to 91 and was still going until the day he died – I hope we’re all that lucky. But we have lost a very unique talent.
Lapassionara
@Raven: I think that must be from “A Funny Thing . . ..” I loved that musical. Its quirkiness appealed to me. Saw it more than once, both in live productions and the movie. I did not know that he wrote both lyrics and music until today. What a genius.
dnfree
@Sure Lurkalot: “Into the Woods” is a musical that done well is unforgettable, and done mediocrely isn’t. We have friends who are huge theater lovers (husband also acts and directs community theater), and it’s their favorite musical, but they say they’ve seen a number of productions that fall flat.
dnfree
@WaterGirl: I love that story of you and your sisters singing and dancing, on a roof no less. We have three daughters, all of whom can sing and dance and used to put on plays and shows in our garage. The youngest is a professional singer. Last time I saw them singing together was preparing food in the kitchen on thanksgiving. I bet your parents loved seeing you all together too.
Villago Delenda Est
Sondheim: totally deserving of the Presidential Medal.
Limbaugh: the medal is forever debased by his presence. One of TFG’s many crimes he has yet to answer for.
zhena gogolia
@Villago Delenda Est: Will he EVER answer for ANY of them?
J R in WV
I could no more pick a best Sondheim work than I can pick the best flower in spring.
I had no idea he did some of the shows folks have listed here tonight. What a gifted person! And so many, for so many years. With so many other greats. like Lenny Bernstein… another great musician. I’ll work to see those productions you all have recommended, thanks for the long list! Several of my cousins were in the local outdoor theater in summers, something for the tourists to do after it got dark. I was way, way too shy.
randy khan
I get why “Somewhere” is on the list – it’s probably a top 100 Broadway song – but I wouldn’t have it there since he didn’t write the music.
My list starts with Sunday, the Act I finale of Sunday in the Park with George, simply one of the most moving things I’ve ever seen in the theater, and it hits me just as hard every time I see it.
And, of course, Send in the Clowns from A Little Night Music. (I was lucky enough to see Bernadette Peters in both Sunday and Night Music on Broadway, and her interpretation of Send in the Clowns was breathtaking.)
This one is a bit quirky, but A Little Priest from Sweeney Todd is such a twisted, funny song that it’s irresistible. I’ve seen Sweeney a couple of times, but the original version (which I’ve only heard), with Angela Lansbury and Len Cariou, is incredible.
The Ladies Who Lunch from Company is a classic, funny and then not. (And I’m also partial to the 11 o’clock number from that show – Another Hundred People.)
It’s hard to stop, but I’d better not keep going.
I said this at LGM, but the thing I keep coming back to with Sondheim is how many risks he took, starting with his choices of subjects. (I mean, if Sweeney Todd wasn’t bad enough, he then went on to do Passion, with an even less sympathetic protagonist, and when that wasn’t enough he did Assassins.) But he also took all sorts of musical risks, like the way the music in Sunday mirrors the way Seurat painted.
And if you get the chance, watch the 90th birthday celebration. So much wonderful music and so much love from the performers, ending of course with Bernadette Peters, who was kind of like his muse.
Wyatt Salamanca
Just found something that I never knew existed –
Carol Burnett singing Send in the Clowns
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TFML6UPiFI
randy khan
@sdhays:
I saw that production, too – possibly the best ever replacement cast in any Broadway show (and a revival to boot), with Peters and Elaine Stritch. That rendition of Send in the Clowns was a revelation, which is saying something when you consider how many times it’s been recorded. And it’s really a great show all around.
randy khan
By the way, the Kennedy Center did a Sondheim celebration in 2002, six shows over the summer, of which I saw 5. If you really wanted to understand his work, it was a great way to do it – Company, A Little Night Music, Merrily We Roll Along (which still doesn’t work, but has some great songs), Sweeney Todd, Sunday, and Passion. I saw all of them except Passion. It was a great experience.
rikyrah
@Wyatt Salamanca:
I found that tonight too. Never knew
NotMax
@Z. Mulls
Did not bring up the misfire because it was a misfire but rather because of the availability of the interesting documentary about it. Which, if you’d bothered to glance at the trailer linked, includes Sondheim talking about the whole experience.
NotMax
@Wyatt Salamanca
Wouldn’t Shatner’s really be the definitive rendition?
//
phdesmond
@NotMax:
it would be shat-tering.
randy khan
@NotMax:
Merrily is interesting in part because it was a misfire and because the people who made it had every reason to think it wouldn’t work, but did it anyway. It’s based on a 1930s play that flopped, basically for the same reasons that people have trouble with the Sondheim version – you start off with angry, not terribly sympathetic characters and learn how they got that way as the show moves backwards in time. It’s a testament to how good Sondheim’s music was that the show gets produced at all.
NotMax
FYI, the Angela Lansbury/George Hearn Sweeney Todd, broadcast in 1982, is available for rent on both Prime and on Apple+.
meander
I’m usually anti-compilation, anti-medley, but there’s something magical about the 1976 recording of “Side by Side by Sondheim”. I love the stripped-down arrangements — just two pianos and a few voices — that let the lyrics and composition stand out. Favorites include “I Remember,” “The Little Things You Do Together,” “Barcelona”, “Everybody Says Don’t”, and “Anyone Can Whistle.”
Fun fact: original cast member Millicent Martin played Daphne Moon’s mother Gertrude on Frasier (and was hilarious!)
NotMax
@NotMax
A sample.
Wonderful on TV, although very slightly truncated from the full stage version.