Andrew Lloyd Webber Vs. Sondheim - Page 7
Andrew Lloyd Webber Vs. Sondheim
#150Andrew Lloyd Webber Vs. Sondheim
Posted: 3/9/13 at 3:30pm
FrontRow--I thought after Merrily he said he was going to write computer games--or was that later ('81 would be pretty early in the computer game era--I know he is a huge fan of the 1987 puzzle game The Fool's Erand, and the sequel that just comes out uses his quotes largely on any of its advertising so I assume he was a test player of it as well.)
For the record I prefer Sondheim's music over his lyrics. I guess it's hard to comment on--aside from that song set to Furth lyrics, and Fear No More from The Frogs, I can't think of any example that I remember of hearing his music set to someone else's lyrics. But I *love* his score for Stavisky (which I think would make a great dance piece if slightly re-arranged--when Sondheim published his record collection I wasn't surprised to see how much of his classical collection was dominated by ballet composers--Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev but also less well known ones like Glazunov.) I also love his incidental music from the two Arthur Laurents plays that were on the box set and Unsung Sondheim.
#151Andrew Lloyd Webber Vs. Sondheim
Posted: 3/9/13 at 4:18pm
I prefer Sondheim's music over his lyrics too. I'm not saying his lyrics are bad or anything, or that they're 'worse', it's just that for me his music would have no value without his music. When I first heard SWEENEY TODD I was shocked at how well music could tell that story (e.g. the intensity of EPIPHANY, the uneasy humour of Sweeney singing a beautifully sounding JOHANNA while slashing throats, the tension during PRETTY WOMEN). I didn't know who Sondheim was (or anything about musicals) at the time. But I found as I learned more Sondheim musicals I felt the same thing about much of his music telling a story (e.g. I READ in Passion - it is so dissonant and depressing). Perhaps his book writers can also get credit for the way the music is set up against the story, too.
Anyway, I often feel it is difficult to find other musicals that match this. When I listen to many ALW scores it feels like there is a lot of uninteresting filler similar-sounding music around some interesting 'hits' (e.g. does anyone really listen to much of SUNSET BOULEVARD outside of Norma's songs?).
"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
Updated On: 3/9/13 at 04:18 PM
#152Andrew Lloyd Webber Vs. Sondheim
Posted: 3/9/13 at 5:00pmI like them both for different reasons. And that's okay.
"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian
#153Andrew Lloyd Webber Vs. Sondheim
Posted: 3/9/13 at 5:32pm
"I like them both for different reasons. And that's okay."
What common sense filled forum are you posting on? :P
Jimbob2
Understudy Joined: 3/11/10
#154Andrew Lloyd Webber Vs. Sondheim
Posted: 3/9/13 at 5:33pmI'm the opposite Golbinau; it's often the music 'in between' that I like in ALW (particularly in Evita), and I think it's the assumption that his shows are just the hit songs that has people who don't know his work underestimating it. (I don't mean you, as you do know his work; or others who do know it and actively dislike it! ha ha). So in 'Sunset Boulevard' I'd absolutely listen to the material beyond Norma's songs: chiefly Overture, Car Chase, Salome, This Time Next Year, The Greatest Star of All, New Year return home sequence and end of Act 1, Joe's reveal of the truth to Betty, final sequence on stairs to end of Act 2. I did think about doing a show of ALW songs that had none of the hits (or the hits done v differently) and loads of the obscure stuff. Title: 'Unexpected Songs' :)
#155Andrew Lloyd Webber Vs. Sondheim
Posted: 3/9/13 at 6:29pm
Well, while my favorite songs from ALW are the hits, I do agree with you on the music "in between." I find his overtures breathtakingly beautiful. I also think the intros in As we never said goodbye and Don't cry for me Argentina are just plain beautiful.
I'd love to see that revue!!
Updated On: 3/9/13 at 06:29 PM
lupone76
Featured Actor Joined: 12/9/11
#157Andrew Lloyd Webber Vs. Sondheim
Posted: 3/10/13 at 9:29amHas anyone mentioned that they share the same birthday?? March 22
#158Andrew Lloyd Webber Vs. Sondheim
Posted: 3/10/13 at 10:06amWell, that settles it, then.
Words don't deserve that kind of malarkey. They're innocent, neutral, precise, standing for this, describing that, meaning the other, so if you look after them you can build bridges across incomprehension and chaos. But when they get their corners knocked off, they're no good anymore…I don't think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.
#159Andrew Lloyd Webber Vs. Sondheim
Posted: 3/10/13 at 10:34am
Flash (ALW) vs Substance (Sondheim)
I am a fan of both for different reasons.
One makes you think, one makes you hum the music of the night.
INTO THE WOODS is so much a part of my life, I wouldn't know what I would do without it.
My bedroom is decorated with all things PHANTOM OF THE OPERA.
There is nothing better than hearing the first strains of BEING ALIVE... or DON'T CRY FOR ME ARGENTINA... or LOSING MY MIND... or MEMORY...
SS always goes for an all-around deep, thought-provoking story, ALW seems to gravitate towards the glitz/spectacle/music that may or may not have a plot like Swiss cheese... or no plot at all.
Both are relevant to the theatre world and have a huge - and deserved- place in it's history.
Both have something to say... Sondheim says it better, but ALW says it loud.
"TO LOVE ANOTHER PERSON IS TO SEE THE FACE OF GOD"- LES MISERABLES---
"THERE'S A SPECIAL KIND OF PEOPLE KNOWN AS SHOW PEOPLE... WE'RE BORN EVERY NIGHT AT HALF HOUR CALL!"--- CURTAINS
#160Andrew Lloyd Webber Vs. Sondheim
Posted: 3/10/13 at 10:35amALW got me interested in musical theatre. Sondheim kept me interested.
"...everyone finally shut up, and the audience could enjoy the beginning of the Anatevka Pogram in peace."
#161Andrew Lloyd Webber Vs. Sondheim
Posted: 3/10/13 at 10:43amBeautifully said, EponineAmneris. Completely agree.
#162Andrew Lloyd Webber Vs. Sondheim
Posted: 3/22/13 at 11:11am
Happy Birthday to the two greatest living MT composers!!
Thought I should revive this thread given the momentous occasion.
On this day Sondheim/ALW
Updated On: 3/22/13 at 11:11 AM
#163Andrew Lloyd Webber Vs. Sondheim
Posted: 3/22/13 at 12:14pm
It seems the link for the video posted broadwayworld does not longer exist, heres the working youtube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0G_Q1poI6Bw
If you haven't seen this video you must! It's really a jewel!
#164Andrew Lloyd Webber Vs. Sondheim
Posted: 3/22/13 at 12:30pm
I'm not sure why people demand a competition between ALW and Sondheim. They're both icons and the masters of their crafts in what is frankly, an art form that the general public doesn't care about. They're both great. They're both incredibly different. They both have different results when they create. And that's fantastic. Let's face it, every new musical theater composer in the past 20 years has been influenced by one or the other.
I think it's stupid and pretentious and disingenuous to praise one and degrade the other when they are pretty much the last of their kind. It will be years before another artist in their field touches the same success that they had.
They are both satisfying to me.
Happy birthday to both today!!!
#165Andrew Lloyd Webber Vs. Sondheim
Posted: 12/14/14 at 12:45amI always wondered what they each thought of each other? Isn't Sondheim really critical over other composers? Anybody knows what he thinks of ALW music?
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#166Andrew Lloyd Webber Vs. Sondheim
Posted: 12/14/14 at 1:00am@Philly, I know that they did a dueling piano duet one time and they seem to be on gentlemanly terms with each other.
#167Andrew Lloyd Webber Vs. Sondheim
Posted: 12/14/14 at 1:28am
While I think that Sondheim is fantastic, I truly love all his shows. I think that ALW might have good shows (albeit repetitive), but ALW has such a terrible character and is so annoyingly money minded.
That's whats separates the two for me.
#168Andrew Lloyd Webber Vs. Sondheim
Posted: 12/14/14 at 1:49am"ALW has such a terrible character and is so annoyingly money minded." You know him?
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#169Andrew Lloyd Webber Vs. Sondheim
Posted: 12/14/14 at 2:01am
Philly, Sondheim only talks about composers who have passed so his words can not be used to hurt someone's career. Sondheim, on the subject of ALW, said that ALW has always been polite to him and has never said a bad word about him or his shows, and that he (Sondheim) would do the same.
Although, I do believe back in the late 80s, Sondheim said something along the lines of, "When I saw Cats I wondered why they didn't just stack up 8 million dollars on the stage."
"Sticks and stones, sister. Here, have a Valium." - Patti LuPone, a Memoir
#170Andrew Lloyd Webber Vs. Sondheim
Posted: 12/14/14 at 2:06am
I find Sondheim's music and lyrics very rich and decadent. I'm always in the mood to play one of his recordings.
ALW, on the other hand, has always bothered me. I can never tell if I love or hate his musicals.
I just saw Phantom (on tour) a couple of days ago for the first time and loved it entirely. BUT I didn't walk away feeling the need to run to the lobby and buy the cast recording for $30. ALW writes some beautiful songs and some really dreadful ones and puts them in the same musical.
Sondheim will always be my favorite, but ALW is pretty phenominal... sometimes.
#171Andrew Lloyd Webber Vs. Sondheim
Posted: 12/14/14 at 2:09amI think Andrew's last GOOD show will always be SUNSET BOULEVARD, that had a really good amount of nicely written songs with good lyrics in them. If a film adaptation were to happen, a good amount of them that don't drive the story would be cut in the end ("The Lady's Paying", and "Eternal Youth" anyone?).
#172Andrew Lloyd Webber Vs. Sondheim
Posted: 12/14/14 at 2:14amWhat does that mean? About the stacking 8 million up on the stage
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#173Andrew Lloyd Webber Vs. Sondheim
Posted: 12/14/14 at 2:31amSounds like Sondheim was saying he didn't see any of the money they spent mounting the show up on the stage.
#174Andrew Lloyd Webber Vs. Sondheim
Posted: 12/14/14 at 2:34am
^He meant that the only point of cats was to spend a lot of money on spectacle without any substance. They might as well have plopped 8 million dollars on a stage and let the audience stare at it.
Cats is literally the worst musical ever written with a beautiful and expensive set.
I'd rather watch paint dry then watch that show again.
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