On Sondheim....

[Sondheimman132]

Posted: 12/20/04 at 4:33pm

I recently heard the news that Sondheim might be working on a new musical; Supposedly adapted from the movie "Groundhogs Day". If anyone has heard any news, what have you heard?

Also, what are your views on his new show "Bounce"?

Updated On: 12/20/04 at 04:33 PM

[bronxboundexpress]

Posted: 12/20/04 at 4:35pm

I do not like Sondheim so I will not post anything.

oops

lol

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 12/20/04 at 4:38pm

While I am not the biggest Sondheim fan (I will leave that title for Priest and Gov), I would love to see how he does GROUNDHOG DAY. I love that movie and if done right, I think it would be amazing.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 12/20/04 at 4:44pm

He mentioned "Groundhog Day" a couple of years ago during an interview at the Kennedy Center at the time of their Sondheim Festival:

"As for the future, he still gets attracted to stories or "ways of telling stories." With the recent trend of musicals based on movies, are there any movies he had been interested in musicalizing? Groundhog Day was the surprising answer. It's the Bill Murray comedy in which the main character relives a day over and over, making different choices. It would be a great musical, Sondheim said, and would lend itself to the idea of "theme and variation," a method that he has not tried before. There are "so many wonderful stories to tell, I'd like to find some that would lead me to music you haven't heard before."

No word on whether he has actually begun work on it or not.

http://www.sondheimreview.com/v9n1.htm

Updated On: 12/20/04 at 04:44 PM

[maybethistime]

Posted: 12/20/04 at 4:59pm

i think its an awesome idea... especially when i read the word "variation". i think it will be REALLY cool for the guy to be living the same day over & over again with different sounding songs each day. there are a lot of cool ways he could go with this!

Posted: 12/21/04 at 5:39am

He's mentioned Groundhog Game again in the past few months and some opera on a Norse myth? (I have no clue...)

E

[SamIAm]

Posted: 12/21/04 at 11:00am

During the previews of The Frogs Sondheim mentioned on 'Bloomberg' news that he was revitalized by Frogs and was working on a new project but he didn't say what.

I thought he referred to it as a new concept but I'm doing this from memory...so I can't be sure. Would have to look up the interview/article and see exactly what he said.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 12/21/04 at 11:04am

I really didn't like GROUNDHOG DAY to begin with - it was painful to get through - but I would look forward to any new material from Sondheim.

And my opinion of BOUNCE? I didn't see the show, unfortunately, but just judging the music it doesn't do much for me. It's too "traditional" sounding - things like that tend to bore me.

[Bloodhound_of_Broadway]

Posted: 12/21/04 at 12:40pm

I agree with you, the music from "Bounce" didn't do much for me, with two exceptions: the song "Where Have You Been All My Life" and the "Florida land boom" number (which I think is called "Boca Raton").

The title tune was, well, sort of a throw-back for me. I have read about (and heard, years later) "Love Is In the Air", the original opening number to "Forum". A sweet, lovely soft-shoe that told you *nothing* about what was going to follow (as Jerome Robbins was quick to point out). "Bounce", as done on the cast album, starts out slow, but (IMHO) should pick up as it continues. This just started out slow and *stayed* slow -- a song about recovering from loss kept at the same low level from start to finish.

Then again, I thought (after hearing the entire album twice) that Addison should have shot Wilson long before, and/or left Mama Mizner to live and die alone, and/or bitch-slapped that Bessemer jerk boyfriend. But hey, I'm a sucker for a happy ending...