More info on the new Sondheim and David Ives musical (UPDATE, 2018)- Page 2
More info on the new Sondheim and David Ives musical (UPDATE, 2018)
#25More info on the new Sondheim and David Ives musical
Posted: 10/11/14 at 7:35pm
I agree with Fantod. Usually when writers get old, their work simply isn't as good anymore. Look at what happened with Andrew Webber's last shows 
. Sondheim was definitely as his peek in the 70s. This is really exciting though so I'm rooting for this show :)
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Updated On: 10/11/14 at 07:35 PM
#26More info on the new Sondheim and David Ives musical
Posted: 10/11/14 at 7:47pmI still consider Passion to be Sondheim's masterpiece.
"Sticks and stones, sister. Here, have a Valium." - Patti LuPone, a Memoir
#27More info on the new Sondheim and David Ives musical
Posted: 10/11/14 at 7:49pm
Yes, his writing did change - Sondheim says LaPine allowed him to change and his writing became "warm". Sondheim said that with Sunday, Into the Woods, and Passion, he was allowed to find the Hammerstein in himself - and he was the better for it.
"Sticks and stones, sister. Here, have a Valium." - Patti LuPone, a Memoir
Updated On: 10/11/14 at 07:49 PM
#28More info on the new Sondheim and David Ives musical
Posted: 10/11/14 at 8:01pmI certainly agree with Sally that PASSION is "one of" Sondheim's masterpieces. There's plenty of room in the theater for FOLLIES and PASSION. We don't have to choose.
#29More info on the new Sondheim and David Ives musical
Posted: 10/11/14 at 8:13pmGav, the only reason I called Passion his masterpiece is because I think it is exactly what Sondgeim and LaPine wanted to be and can work with a variety of casts. Follies, while brilliant, works only under very specific circumstances and even then it doesn't really work. I consider Follies to be my favorite show, but it seems that everything after 1971 has been underwhelming. But yes, he does have many masterpieces and we never have to choose :)
"Sticks and stones, sister. Here, have a Valium." - Patti LuPone, a Memoir
#30More info on the new Sondheim and David Ives musical
Posted: 10/11/14 at 8:20pmDidn't somebody mention one time that at a performance of Passion, the audience was so bored that they actually started applauding when Fosca died?
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#31More info on the new Sondheim and David Ives musical
Posted: 10/11/14 at 8:24pmNo, they apparently applauded because they hated her character. And that somebody was Sondheim himself.
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000
#32More info on the new Sondheim and David Ives musical
Posted: 10/11/14 at 8:26pmNo, during previews, audience members were so repelled at Fosca that they started laughing when she had an attack and during one, a member of the audience yelled "Die, Fosca, Die!"
"Sticks and stones, sister. Here, have a Valium." - Patti LuPone, a Memoir
#33More info on the new Sondheim and David Ives musical
Posted: 10/11/14 at 9:02pm
The night I saw it, when the doctor came out and announced Fosca had died, the audience did indeed applaud. And when, earlier in the show, she had thrown herself on her knees, grabbed Giorgio and asked what she could do to prove how much she loved him, someone shouted "Let go of his legs!" to much laughter.
ETA Now that I think about it, I believe I posted about that evening awhile back on another thread, which may be where Phillypinto read about it. And we weren't applauding because we were bored. I've never been in a theater before or since where the audience so actively detested both the show and the leading character. Justifiably so, I will add. But to each their own.
Updated On: 10/11/14 at 09:02 PM
#34More info on the new Sondheim and David Ives musical
Posted: 10/11/14 at 10:30pmI watched Passion again recently and I just don't buy the ending. I don't believe that an apparently very attractive man who has tasted the flesh of Marin Mazzie would fall for a sickly, ugly, obsessive, awful, dying woman. Did it ever look like he enjoyed her company once throughout the show?
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000
Fantod
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/3/14
#35More info on the new Sondheim and David Ives musical
Posted: 10/11/14 at 10:43pmI'm not really sure why anybody would consider Passion Sondheim's masterpiece, as it contains his least attractive music along with Road Show and is very alienating to audience members and is cold and lifeless in general (unless seeing it in the theatre was a hundred thousand times better than the live broadcast, which is all that I've seen)
Fantod
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/3/14
#36More info on the new Sondheim and David Ives musical
Posted: 10/11/14 at 10:45pmOf course my opinion isn't definitive and there are plenty of people who love everything he does, including somehow Passion
#37More info on the new Sondheim and David Ives musical
Posted: 10/11/14 at 10:46pmI still think Company is his best show. It's his best score in my opinion.
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Consistency
Understudy Joined: 7/2/13
#38More info on the new Sondheim and David Ives musical
Posted: 10/11/14 at 11:24pm
Hmm... Well this is unexpected news. I don't remember much about "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie" - it has been years and years since I last saw it - but "The Exterminating Angel" is one of my favorite movies and I watch it every few years. It's not a connection I had thought about before reading this news, but I think Sondheim and Bunuel's senses of humor should actually mesh fairly well.
Of course, I don't think Sondheim has made a great show since "Assassins," but I can't help but be excited by the thought of a new project from him.
As for "Passion" - I certainly wouldn't call it "cold and lifeless." And I do think it has one of Sondheim's most traditionally beautiful scores - but it is a deeply problematic show, in my opinion. I can empathize with both those who hate it and those who love it - even though I fall somewhere in between.
#39More info on the new Sondheim and David Ives musical
Posted: 10/12/14 at 12:21am
More information from The Times.
The Public Theater and the film and theater producer Scott Rudin are producing the work; the Public’s artistic director, Oskar Eustis, said on Saturday that the Public planned to mount the show at some point in the future.
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/10/11/stephen-sondheim-plans-a-new-musical-based-on-bunuel-film/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0
madlibrarian
Broadway Star Joined: 8/15/06
#40More info on the new Sondheim and David Ives musical
Posted: 10/12/14 at 7:10pmEverybody loves Luis!
#41More info on the new Sondheim and David Ives musical
Posted: 10/12/14 at 7:34pm
I think it takes a unique person to appreciate Passion.
The reason I live it so much is that I was in a really low place when I first say it and instantly connected to Fosca - and I found the entire thing to be one of the most beautiful shows I'd ever seen. I'm still so glad they recorded it.
That being said, I understand the reservations most people have regarding the show. A very good friend of mine hated it for 6 years, then watched it on a whim one day and sobbed over it. He believes it requires the audience to be in a certain state of mind.
"Sticks and stones, sister. Here, have a Valium." - Patti LuPone, a Memoir
#42More info on the new Sondheim and David Ives musical
Posted: 10/13/14 at 6:49amROAD SHOW and PASSION are too way differnet shows and for some of you to lump them in together for either better or worse SONDHEIM show is ridiculous...PASSION while beautfully sung is cold and not an easy show to warm up to...while ROAD SHOW is very livley and has some really melodic songs about two men who may have been not so important in real life...PASSION to me seems more like a "drawing room musical"...whle ROAD SHOW seems more like a review type of musical..."The Best Thing That Ever Happened"...is a very very good SONDHEIM song...PASSION belongs more in the line with another more drawing room type musical...A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC...but many many steps below that masterly charming piece for sure...
#43More info on the new Sondheim and David Ives musical
Posted: 10/13/14 at 8:31am
While I think Passion, as a show, is flawed, I do think that its music is gorgeous and some of Sondheim's absolute best. I don't find it cold in the least. But as has been said, to each his own.
I'm hopeful, but not optimistic about this news.
Art has a double face, of expression and illusion.
#44More info on the new Sondheim and David Ives musical
Posted: 4/20/15 at 12:54pm
Does this have a timeframe at the Public? Maybe next season??
#45More info on the new Sondheim and David Ives musical
Posted: 4/20/15 at 1:05pm
Would it open Off-Broadway first? I would think that a new Sondheim musical would maybe do an out of town tryout and then move straight to broadway. Especially if some Sondheim favorites are invloved.
#46More info on the new Sondheim and David Ives musical
Posted: 4/20/15 at 1:12pm
I think there was an article recently about the show, which briefly mentioned that the show would play at the Public, but I couldn't find any additional sources online that say that.
#47More info on the new Sondheim and David Ives musical
Posted: 4/20/15 at 10:11pm
PASSION isn't "cold", it just isn't ingratiating. If anything audience laughed and squirmed uncomfortably because the show is so unrelentingly intense.
I loved it when I saw it because I thought it was the most uncompromising musical I had ever seen. With repeated listening, I fell in love with the beautiful score.
My husband hates the entire endeavor so intently I have agreed to listen to it only when wearing headphones.
As for a new Sondheim musical, how could we NOT be excited?
#48More info on the new Sondheim and David Ives musical
Posted: 4/20/15 at 10:51pm
"As for a new Sondheim musical, how could we NOT be excited?"
That statement will surely invoke a response from our own favorite Dirgucal.
"Sticks and stones, sister. Here, have a Valium." - Patti LuPone, a Memoir
#49More info on the new Sondheim and David Ives musical
Posted: 4/20/15 at 11:53pm
I don't understand why everyone finds the ending of Passion so unbelievable. He learns to love Fosca because her love is so powerful that he realizes that love is more than just beauty. The moral of Passion is that true love isn't physical, it's emotional.
And why is Fosca so horrible? She's a poor, sick woman who doesn't have much time. She finds true love and is relentless because she could die at any time. She's a flawed person, yes, but a horrible one? I don't think so. I find her sweet, but damaged, and pessimistic. Her soul is beautiful and romantic.
