Favorite Sondheim Scores- Page 2

[Michael Kras]

Posted: 11/28/14 at 7:14pm

I'll rank them all from favourite to least favourite.

1. Company
2. Assassins
3. Merrily We Roll Along
4. Into the Woods
5. Sunday in the Park with George
6. Sweeney Todd
7. Follies
8. A Little Night Music
9. Passion

Haven't heard The Frogs, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Road Show, Pacific Overtures, Saturday Night, Anyone Can Whistle, Do I Hear a Waltz.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 11/28/14 at 7:23pm

And for the record, You Could Drive a Person Crazy is the song from Company that I like, and I still think it sounds like Jeepers Creppers.

With all due respect, Fantod, I can't find the similarity you hear. The only similarity to my ear is that the intervals of "Jeepers" and "Creepers" are the same or similar to the interval on the word "Crazy". But there are only 12 notes in the scale; it's impossible to find a combination of two notes that has never been used before.

(Perhaps the two songs are harmonically similar as well. I don't have a copy of "Jeepers, Creepers" to compare.)

But "Jeepers, Creepers" is from the 1930s; the Sondheim song is a swing number reminiscent of the 1940s.
Updated On: 11/28/14 at 07:23 PM

[inception]

Posted: 11/28/14 at 7:42pm

1)A Little Night Music
2)Company
3)Into The Woods
4)Follies
5)Anyone Can Whistle

I like bit's a pieces from other shows, but he just doesn't stack up against Kander and Ebb or Cy Coleman or Jerry Herman.

[Fantod]

Posted: 11/28/14 at 8:14pm

I think it might have to do with the singer on the recording of the song that I own. I'm not saying that it is a problem, just a casual observation.

[Consistency]

Posted: 11/28/14 at 8:31pm

TOP TIER: Sweeney Todd, A Little Night Music, Merrily We Roll Along, Assassins, Pacific Overtures

TIER 2: Follies, Anyone Can Whistle, Company, Sunday in the Park with George

TIER 3: Into the Woods, Passion, Saturday Night, A Funny Thing Happened...

BOTTOM TIER: Road Show, The Frogs

I think they're all pretty great (to varying degrees,) with the exception of the shows in the "Bottom Tier."

Incidentally, "Merrily We Roll Along," as a show, wouldn't even rank among my top ten favorite Sondheim plays (even in its revised versions.) However, that score - particularly in its original incarnation - is as vibrant and bright and energetic as any I know of, and it never fails to cheer me up.

Updated On: 11/28/14 at 08:31 PM

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 11/28/14 at 8:49pm

I think it might have to do with the singer on the recording of the song that I own. I'm not saying that it is a problem, just a casual observation.

If we're still talking "You Could Drive a Person Crazy", the original is sung by three women (Bobby's girlfriends) as an Andrews Sisters pastiche. You really need to hear it to "know" the song.

[ekline1]

Posted: 11/28/14 at 8:49pm

Let's not forget his lyric work on "West Side Story" and "Gypsy"!

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 11/28/14 at 8:52pm

^^^ Not to mention, "We're Gonna Be Alright", written for DO I HEAR A WALTZ?, but watered down--castrated even--at Rodgers' demand. I will argue it is Sondheim's wittiest (and most intricately rhymed) lyric with the possible exception of "Ladies Who Lunch".

I decided to exclude the "lyrics only" shows because I don't know how to compare lyrics alone to music and lyrics.

[Fantod]

Posted: 11/28/14 at 9:10pm

I was referring to the singer on my version of Jeepers Creepers.

[perfectlymarvelous]

Posted: 11/28/14 at 10:42pm

Sweeney Todd is absolutely his magnum opus. There is nothing else like it in the musical theater canon.

That said, his work on Evening Primrose is really stunning and I wish there were more of it (I'm not sure if we're counting that here since it's not technically a theatrical score but I adore it).

[ekline1]

Posted: 11/28/14 at 10:47pm

For me, Sondheim is basically just my favorite composer/lyricist of the latter 20th Century! So I usually have stints of obsession over different shows. When my high school did "Sweeney Todd", it was the OBC album. When I was in "Into the Woods", it was Bernadette and Chip and Joanna and just all of them LOVE!
Right now I've been in an "Assassins" mood, particularly the "Ballad" songs and "Unworthy of Your Love". Trying to find a ballad to sing of his next semester!

[JoseLee_]

Posted: 11/28/14 at 10:56pm

I don't like any of his scores completely. I just like certain songs. I love 'unworthy of your love' from Assassins; I think it's one of my all time favorite songs from him.


Side note: I LOVE his lyric work for West Side Story & Gypsy.

[After Eight]

Posted: 11/28/14 at 11:16pm

Curdledcream,

Thanks for spoiling our holiday weekend.

I knew it was too good to last.

[jv92]

Posted: 11/28/14 at 11:38pm

After Eight, Thanks for spoiling the conversation. I knew it was too good to last.

I'm partial to SUNDAY IN THE PARK..., MERRILY, and PACIFIC OVERTURES, but let's not forget COMPANY or FOLLIES, or...

Forget it! I could pick a favorite song, though. Or could I?

[ekline1]

Posted: 11/28/14 at 11:41pm

JoseLee_
His lyricist work is just as genius as his composer/lyricist work!

[Fantod]

Posted: 11/29/14 at 12:01am

Who is Curdledcream?

[icecreambenjamin]

Posted: 11/29/14 at 1:45am

After Eight
You didn't have to open this form.
Please refrain from being incredibly unpleasant. I'm pretty sure that you are probably just some lonely old troll with nothing better do then ruin perfectly good discussions. Please stay away from this form!! You have made your opinion clear!!!!

[Fantod]

Posted: 11/29/14 at 1:56am

Well that's just a nasty thing to say, no matter to whom you say it. Updated On: 11/29/14 at 01:56 AM

[icecreambenjamin]

Posted: 11/29/14 at 2:11am

After Eight seems to have a bad habit of posting rude remarks on Sondheim threads.

[After Eight]

Posted: 11/29/14 at 6:12am

Curdledcream,

Yes, I didn't have to open this thread, and no, I didn't read any of the posts in it prior to mine.

The problem is having his name shoved in our faces in the title of threads, like, what, fifty times a day?

If you had used the search feature, you would have found the subject of your thread discussed here something like 50,000 times already. In other words, there was not the slightest need for you to start yet another one.

But you and your other tireless worker ants get antsy if we don't have him as the primary focus of our attention, and of course, reverence, 24/7.

Heaven forbid we should be accorded even a momentary respite.

No rest for the weary.

Updated On: 11/29/14 at 06:12 AM

[icecreambenjamin]

Posted: 11/29/14 at 7:07am

^I really can't tell if you are a joke or not. You come off as utterly ridiculous in every way possible. I don't care for ALW's musicals, but I wouldn't open a thread about him to insult the person who started it. so why is it OK for you to do the opposite for sondheim?
Who DO you like After Eight?

[ShakinBaconGirl]

Posted: 11/29/14 at 8:27am

Company and Into the Woods. The Sweeney Todd score has never attracted me.

[After Eight]

Posted: 11/29/14 at 8:32am

^

Please use the search feature so as not to replicate unnecessary (and most unwelcome) threads.

As for your second question, I like the good and the greats.

[icecreambenjamin]

Posted: 11/29/14 at 8:39am

^I'm sorry, do you determine what's welcome and what isn't?
I was unaware that you were message board god.
If you don't enjoy this thread, please feel free to not take part in it.

[The Other One]

Posted: 11/29/14 at 8:54am

The order in which you rank his scores can be very different from the order in which you'd rank his shows.

1) Follies
2) Company
3) Merrily We Roll Along
4) Sunday In The Park With George
5) A Little Night Music
6) Sweeney Todd
7) Anyone Can Whistle
Into The Woods
Pacific Overtures
10) A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum
11) Assassins

I don't know Passion or Road Show/Bounce well enough to include them.