Favorite Sondheim Score(or Scores?)

Mine is personally A Little Night Music- Such a beautiful operatic like score! Sweeney Todd is amazing, although perhaps not a score you want to just listen to in the background(it warrants a full, attentive listening of the majority of the album). Into The Woods is wonderful, though it gets a little old. Company is fantastic, filled with great songs(probably my 2nd favorite right behind my 1st A Little Night Music). Sunday In The Park With George is fantastic, but not his best musical work IMO. I like Assassins quite a bit. I need to listen to all of Passion, but from what I've heard it's impressive, though not as chock full of depth/material as some of his other scores. Follies is a brilliant score, but it's overrated IMO. I haven't really listened to Merrily We Roll Along or some of his more contemporary work. Should I look into MWRA?

And yes, you absolutely must look into MWRA. And see the incredible recent documentary, "Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened." The Roundabout is doing it this winter at the Laura Pels Theater!

JBroadway said: "I think Sunday has moments of dullness. I've never been too enamored with "No Life", "Everybody Loves Louis" or "The Day Off". But I think when it's good, it's REALLY good. "Sunday," "We Do Not Belong Together," "Move On," "Beautiful," "Lesson #8," "Finishing the Hat," "Children and Art" and the climactic part of "Color and Light" are all just staggeringly beautiful. But it's not the most consistent score for sure.

Sweeney also has a few less-than-brilliant moments, but they are few and far between. All in all it's probably his magnum opus. It's one brilliant number after another, and it all coheres together extremely well.

I also think Pacific Overtures is an underrated one. It's not my favorite in terms of lyrics and storytelling. But musically it is among his most beautiful IMO. It took me a few listens to get into it, but now I love it.

Recently I've been on a bit of a Passion kick. It's definitely not as melodic as his other work, but it is extremely beautiful and full of nuance. "I Wish I could Forget You" is one of Sondheim's most hauntingly beautiful melodies, and also among his most psychologically complex.

Merrily We Roll Along is definitely worth a listen. Like Sunday in the Park, it's inconsistent but it has high highs."

I forgot all about Pacific Overtures! I've listened to several songs from it and it is quite beautiful/dynamic! I think Sweeney is fantastic, but the plot is serious/disturbing enough to not want to listen to all the songs all the time.

Sweeney Todd, Follies, A Little Night Music and Merrily We Roll Along are the ones I return to over and over again.

I think MWRA is underrated. Franklin Shephard Inc. is definitely one of the greatest songs he's ever written.

While it might not be my favorite, I do find myself casually listening to Merrily the most out of all of them. It's not the deepest, but it's full of energy, with some amazing extended music/dialogue sequences ( I think I find myself quoting a little bit form That Frank and The Blob once a week.)

For those getting a first listen, look for the Encores cast recording -- Betsy Wolfe singing Not A Day Goes By will break your heart in two.

Updated On: 6/14/18 at 08:14 AM

There's definitely no way to just pick one, they're all diamonds. Even ("even" his early work is great:

Funny Thing Happened is, just to start with, awesomely hysterical, and I know Sondheim complained about the numbers not being plot-based but frankly I think it's nice to have a break from dying of laughter. Every song has at least one great moment that any other musical by almost any other composer would beg for.

Anyone Can Whistle might be overstuffed (three acts? really?) and kind of politically nonsensical, but Simple is like a bomb detonating onstage and then there's all the other classic numbers, strung together with that slight mockery of what was then commercial music, which I think is an element that kind of gets forgotten. I'm dying to see a proper revival of this.

Evening Primrose is only a handful of songs, but again they're all pretty great. "I remember sky, it was blue as ink - or at least I think...I remember sky" is such an odd musical motif but it works and it hammers home the Twilight Zone vibe. I'm surprised this hasn't been made into a one-act yet, it seems ideal for high schools.

And then you arrive at the run from Company to Assassins, which is gold from front to back. I wish I liked Road Show more, though both cast albums are so polished and close that it sounds like the actors are vacuum-sealed.

A Little Night Music

Sunday in the Park

Sweeney Todd

A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC is my favorite Sondheim show, and ergo, my favorite show ever written.

But PACIFIC OVERTURES holds the place in my heart for greatest score. It has one-- count it, one-- lousy song, "Welcome to Kanagawa". Even Sondheim has virtually admitted as much. For me, every other composition finds the right words to connect with the right music, every time. The passage musically from 1851 to 1976 (or perhaps today) is seamless and moving. And I believe he has never written 2 more beautiful songs than the 2 gems here: "Pretty Lady" and of course "Someone in a Tree".

Updated On: 6/14/18 at 11:05 AM

Sweeney Todd

Follies

Pacific Overtures

Sunday in the Park With George

A Little Night Music

Into the Woods

Merrily We Roll Along

Company

Anyone Can Whistle

Assassins

Evening Primrose

This is my top 10 but I've included EP because it's terrific and I'd rate it even higher if it was longer. All of these are excellent.

1) Sweeney Todd. Multi-layered, at times awe-inspiring, other times hilarious. It always works in tiny productions to huge ones.

2) Follies. Another one that's always rewarding (and in some sense never totally works onstage). Between the "modern" songs and the pastiches, so much depth and so many layers. And so many songs that were dropped and added makes for an interesting search.

3) A Little Night Music. - Simply a delight. Literate wordplay at his best.

4) Company. So many great songs.

5) Sunday in the Park with George. While I don't quite listen to this one as much as those listed previously, nothing can reduce me to tears more quickly. My mind wanders a bit near Lesson #8 and Children and Art, but at other times it's just SO RICH.

6) Merrily We Roll Along. One of my favorite listens. The overture never fails to get me hopping.

7) Assassins. Not a perfect musical, but I love listening to it.

8] Into the Woods. So damn clever. I may find it less inspiring than when I first encountered it in the middle of the plague years, but it's still a rewarding listen

9) Pacific Overtures. The beauty of this one somewhat snuck up on me. If I ever need calming when driving, I put this one on. While the recent Doyle revival was problematic, and overly-bare, I was reduced to tears multiple times by the beauty of its score.

10) Road Show/Bounce. Sorry. I like this one(s). Not one of his greats, but I find it consistently hits the mark (prefer RS).

11) The Frogs. Like the previous one, it doesn't hit the dizzying heights of his best, but I enjoy it. Ariadne is a great song

12) Anyone Can Whistle. Yeah. No surprise why this one flopped hard. But some great numbers (I love the Kay Thompson-esque "Me and My Town"

13) Do I Hear a Waltz? Again, some gems amidst the rest. (which is still pretty damn good)

...and I Passion is my broccoli. I simply do not like it.

Updated On: 6/15/18 at 12:01 PM

I'm bumping this because I'm revisiting Sondheim right now and I've been thinking a lot about his music. A Little Night Music is still my favorite but Sweeney Todd is incredible. The score has become more accessible to me in terms of enjoying it as just easy listening but the piece is a bit too disturbing for me to constantly listen to though. I'm still not all gaga over Follies the way some people are and I've never been a fan of Sunday's libretto nor of Mandy Patinkin but it has some gorgeous moments.