Sondheim's Best Musical??- Page 2

[lowwriter]

Posted: 4/2/11 at 2:40am

Follies is probably his best, though I know others might choose Sweeney Todd. Besides Follies I personally love Merrily We Roll Along despite its clumsy book.

I used to think A Little Night Music was perfection but having seen not great productions over the past few years, I'm beginning to wonder if this show was only great in its original Broadway production which I saw when I was very young, and less critical of what I was watching. I enjoyed the recent revival but found it deeply flawed in execution.

I wasn't that familiar with Assassins but I thought the Roundabout production was brilliant. Same goes for Sunday in the Park with George which I'm beginning to love more and more with time.

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 4/2/11 at 3:37am

Assassins, I think, is the best musical with which he has been involved. I wouldn't consider any of the songs to be his best when singled out. It is not his most accessible score, nor is it his most complex score. But with the book, it adds up to such an amazing, deeply felt, important work. I know it's the one musical that Sondheim cites as the show he has no regret with or ideas for when he sees it now.

[hyperbole_and_a_half]

Posted: 4/2/11 at 4:37am

I find Sunday in the Park with George to be Sondheim's most literate work. It may sound odd, but the way he builds anticipation and tension in "Sunday" (the finale for both acts) by writing in quasi-second inversion without resolving to root position until the very last chord before curtain is like edging, and is kind of sensual and erotic ... er, at least it can be for theory nerds! *nervous laugh; tugs at collar*

[quizking101]

Posted: 4/2/11 at 7:23am

COMPANY, then ASSASSINS in a distant second, for me...

[chewy5000]

Posted: 4/2/11 at 7:53am

It depends on the weather. However I really am loving Gypsy at the moment.

[ClapYo'Hands]

Posted: 4/2/11 at 8:44am

Out of his music and lyrics shows, SWEENEY TODD.

[wickedfan]

Posted: 4/2/11 at 8:44am

I think his best score is Sweeney Todd, but I find A Little Night Music to be the strongest musical overall. If the current revival showed me anything, it's that ALNM joins the ranks of Guys and Dolls and Gypsy as being director-proof. You can still have a pleasant evening at a bad production because the material is SO good.

[sondheimfan2]

Posted: 4/2/11 at 10:22am

For me it's:

1. SWEENEY
2. FOLLIES
3. SUNDAY
4. MERRILY

[On_Avenue_Payt]

Posted: 4/2/11 at 10:28am

This is like asking me to pick Coen Brother's movie.

I mean, I think I would go with Sweeney Todd... but it might be for sentimental reasons: the recorded Hearn/Lansbury production was my first taste to musical theatre six or seven years ago. It's kind of what made me love musicals. But, that doesn't mean it's not musical theatre story telling at its very finest. Song after song after song just so perfectly driving the characters and plot... never a dull moment in that book or score.

But I digress, I could easily make a case for Sunday in the Park (my #2 of all time), Company (#6 all time) and Follies (#11).

But I'm going with the standard answer (which I guess is a standard for a reason), Sweeney Todd.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 4/2/11 at 2:05pm

If I had to rank his scores (not taking into account books or productions), because I'm very divided on what I consider his "best":

1. Sweeney Todd
2. Pacific Overtures
3. Company
4. A Little Night Music
5. Into the Woods
6. Passion
7. Follies
8. Sunday in the Park With George
9. Merrily We Roll Along
10. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
11. Assassins
12. Saturday Night
13. Gold/Bounce/Road Show
14. Evening Primrose
15. The Frogs

[PalJoey]

Posted: 4/2/11 at 2:25pm

Follies, because of the original production.

But no other production can ever hope to be be as powerful as that original was, which is not the case with his other shows, so others shows may come to eclipse Follies in seeming to be his "best musical."

[NeoNormal]

Posted: 4/2/11 at 7:17pm

Sweeney Todd is #1
Company is #2
Sunday in the Park #3
Follies #4
(I love love love Anyone Can Whistle's score, so that's my number 5)

[walkedthroughmany]

Posted: 4/2/11 at 7:38pm

Sunday in the Park with George.

Followed by either Merrily We Roll Along or Anyone Can Whistle.

It excites me to no end that this question produces such varied responses.

[inlovewithjerryherman]

Posted: 4/2/11 at 10:12pm

I think that "Follies" is his best score.

Either "Sweeney Todd" or "A Little Night Music" are probably his best all-around show.

I completely agree with best12bars - I think "Follies" has such a flawed book. "I'm so happy we came?" Why? Because you had the same fights every unhappy married couple does, kind of cheated and then end up back together to continue the same process of slowly destroying each other? I don't think the book of "Follies" goes anywhere and I don't think any of the main characters really have a large arc - sure, they have flashy, "sink your teeth into" roles that actors love to play, because they get to throw their tremendous emotional turmoil all over the stage, but what do the characters learn? What do we learn from watching them break down?

I'm sure the stars in the original production brought their A-game, and they brought a catharsis to the audience - but is it like "The Producers" - a book that was tailored to the talents of its original cast and doesn't work so well otherwise? (Not that "The Producers" touches "Follies" in any way, but it's a way to compare)

[uncageg]

Posted: 4/2/11 at 10:28pm

My favorite score was Sweeney. I would have to say that Sweeney and merrily are tied for my favorites now and as far as an all around show, it has to be Sweeney.

[EponineAmneris]

Posted: 4/2/11 at 10:54pm

INTO THE WOODS and SWEENEY TODD, in the order of your choice

There are songs and moments from his other shows that will blow you away, but as a whole, those two are his masterworks.

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 4/3/11 at 1:27am

SWEENEY TODD

An outstanding score and a book that is effecetive no matter how it is performed. Community groups can make it work but so can opera companies. I saw SWEENEY in new York several times... once was the "Teeny Todd" done at Circle-in-the-Square in 1989 and a few years earlier a full production by New York City Opera. Whether doen small and intimate or large and grand it always works.

SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGHE is my favourtite based on seeing the original production. It is hard to do well without the original set design.

FORUM seems the most indestructable show, although reports on teh current PMP production seem to contradict that.

[peerrjb]

Posted: 4/3/11 at 4:31am

Some interesting responses. Hard to say a "best show", when you're really discussing the music and lyrics (or just lyrics).
Based on seeing the original productions of so many of SS's works, though, I have to say that while "Company" and "Follies" were stunning, the original "Pacific Overtures" knocked me across the theatre. The score AND the show. It has since been rewritten, and the new book is creepy...and you can't really get the scope of the concept in the "teenyTodd" stagings most places have to do. But just as "Follies" original production was mind-blowing, the majesty and depth of the staging of "PO" was incredible. And, for me, emotionally involving and quite moving.
And gee.... I've had the original hardcover "book" of "Follies" since it was published.
Didn't know it was so hard to find!!! (I have my original Program, too.) I guess age has its amusing privileges. !!

Posted: 4/13/11 at 4:14am

I actually had no idea that Pacific Overtures' book had been revised the way Follies, Company, and Merrily had... What were the changes?

[Urban]

Posted: 4/13/11 at 5:08am

"Sweeney Todd" is by far my favourite, though "Into the Woods" which was my Sondhiem gateway musical is always going to my sentimental-fav.

I have a real tenderness for "Follies" and see past some of the flaws in the book. In my mind I tend to see the show almost in a David Lynch like way (especially when it gets to the Loveland segment), in that take it in a somewhat surreal way really adds to the enjoyment. It maybe just me though, I'll grant you that, but hey, it works! :)

[ChiChi]

Posted: 4/13/11 at 6:43am

I've always greatly admired "Passion" wonderful rhapsody of music. I've just acquired the italian recording.

Posted: 4/13/11 at 7:15am

Wow had no idea it had been recorded in Italian--would love to hear that. I'm a massive Passion fanatic--a show that often doesn't even get much love from Sondheim fans.

[madbrian]

Posted: 4/13/11 at 8:03am

For me:

Follies
Company
A Light Night Music
Sweeney Todd
Sunday In The Park With George
Into The Woods

[mamaleh]

Posted: 4/13/11 at 9:13am

FOLLIES, the original production, of course, first and foremost (like I REMEMBER MAMA). To date it remains my favorite musical ever, not just Sondheim musical. The book songs convey each character's angst, regret and intermittent happiness perfectly. Each pastiche number is brilliant and thrilling. I got chills when the pasty, ghostlike younger versions of the Follies girls, dressed in sparkling black and white, tapped alongside their older selves in "Mirror, Mirror"; and especially when the two couples' turmoil brought them into that surreal "Loveland." I had never seen such a gorgeous stage before, and the song perfectly complemented the picture.

After that, COMPANY and A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC. But FOLLIES stands alone.

[peerrjb]

Posted: 4/13/11 at 9:13am

to EricMontreal.... The "Pacific Overtures" book changes were most clear in the second act... the "Reciter" character as Mako played him in the original had a very long sequence where he traversed the later historical points... with a particularly wonderful movement where he was a Texan who invented the rikshaw and sent it to Japan, seein' as how's they'd understan' people as horses... I knew a few guys in the original, and in talking with them, they'd always indicated the production-talent's frustration that their vision didn't "land" because there was "no main character", and so many of the tweaks were trying to decide which of the lead men should become so. MY reaction to the show was that the situation was the villain against which all the characters fought. It worked for me... But a lotta lotta "stuff" was altered in its integrity, and the now-available published version (which I've actually seen performed) isn't as compelling. This show was altered far more than "Follies" or "Merrily", in truth. But the SCORE stands, to me, as the most intricate, delicate-vs-bombastic, and psychologically driven work Mr.S has done. (And I'm NOT "downing" the others... well...maybe some of 'em.) LOVE "Company" "Follies" and "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik"....but this is the score I go back to [also cuz of the phenomenal orchestrations] just to sink into the music and soar from it.