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I honestly think the best Sondheim score ever is — Page 2

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#26

re: I honestly think the best Sondheim score ever is

Posted: 7/14/08 at 12:38am

My favorite is Sweeney but Id say his best is probably Sunday in the Park with George.
<------ Me and my friends with patti Lupone at my friends afterparty for her concert with audra mcdonald during the summer of 2007.
"I am sorry but it is an unjust world and virtue is only triumphant in theatricle performances" The Mikado
#27

re: I honestly think the best Sondheim score ever is

Posted: 7/14/08 at 12:49am

It's a 3 way tie for me. Sunday in the Park with George, Sweeney Todd, and A Little Night Music. All amazing in very different ways.
"I'm a bagel on a plate full of onion rolls!"-Funny Girl
#30

re: I honestly think the best Sondheim score ever is

Posted: 7/14/08 at 1:30am

BOUNCE is definitely his worst score...can't argue with that.

IMO his best score is Sweeney with Sunday coming in a VERY close second.

But I do love me some FOLLIES, some Assassins, and some Merrily...who doesn't love "Not A Day Goes By"?
"Somethin's comin', I don't know what it is but it is gonna be great!"
#31

re: I honestly think the best Sondheim score ever is

Posted: 7/14/08 at 1:35am

I think FOLLIES is his best score along with PASSION.
SWEENEY is perfection, but I don't feel it the way I feel FOLLIES and PASSION.
SUNDAY is just brilliant, but I think it could do without a song or two in Act I.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
#34

re: I honestly think the best Sondheim score ever is

Posted: 7/14/08 at 3:07am

BEST: Either A Little Night Music or Follies

FAVORITE: Pacific Overtures

WORST: Well, none of them are his worst but Bounce would be his weakest
Everybody's Playing The Game But Nobody's Rules Are The Same Nobody's On Nobody's Side
#35

re: I honestly think the best Sondheim score ever is

Posted: 7/14/08 at 3:07am

Follies is so breathtakingly beautiful. One of the most haunting scores of all time.

But I have a soft spot for SUNDAY. "Lesson #8" brings a tear to my eye every time I hear it.
"I'm afraid that the children that the two of you would spawn would come out in costume, off book and belting Merman."
#36

re: I honestly think the best Sondheim score ever is

Posted: 7/14/08 at 4:11am

We're going with "best" rather than "favourite", right?

'Sweeney Todd', hands down. That and 'West Side Story' are the two most wonderful musicals ever written. In a race though, 'Sweeney' might just pip WSS to the post because it doesn't have all the ridiculous faux-gang slang. XD

I do love 'Sunday In The Park With George' a great deal, especially act 2, but there's moments in act 1 (the dogs in 'The Day Off'? Either Sondheim or George was smoking something that day, and either way, it's a horrific thing XD) that... don't bring it down, as such, but certainly let other shows with no such moments rise above.
Notes from the Earlham Street Gutter
#37

re: I honestly think the best Sondheim score ever is

Posted: 7/14/08 at 10:44am

I'm with the "toss-up between Sweeney and Sunday" group.

I like the "book" songs in Follies, such as "Too Many Mornings", but i find the "pastiche" numbers, such as "Broadway Baby" and "Buddy's Blues" a bit second-rate.
#38

re: I honestly think the best Sondheim score ever is

Posted: 7/14/08 at 10:50am

I think some of the thoughts above show why the Sondheim revues have been so well received. He has so many truly wonderful songs, but some scores leave some "holes". Putting the best Sondheim numbers together in one revue seems to work better than with any other composer. And that's why there have been a number of them. No?
#41

re: I honestly think the best Sondheim score ever is

Posted: 7/14/08 at 11:06am

For me it would have to be SWEENEY TODD, no question, with FOLLIES, NIGHT MUSIC and ASSASSINS and INTO THE WOODS following up. I've never really warmed to PASSION, the story just never interested me. SUNDAY IN THE PARK has some glorious music, but it has some of his weakest moments (I absolutely agree about the scene of George and the dogs, easily the lowest point in Sondheim's career).
"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers." Thomas Pynchon, GRAVITY'S RAINBOW "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." Philip K. Dick My blog: http://www.roscoewrites.blogspot.com/
#42

re: I honestly think the best Sondheim score ever is

Posted: 7/14/08 at 11:13am

SWEENEY TODD, because it is perfectly written.

Runners up: A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC and INTO THE WOODS.

Flawed but immensely fascinating: FOLLIES, PACIFIC OVERTURES and SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE.

#44

re: I honestly think the best Sondheim score ever is

Posted: 7/14/08 at 11:58am

Depends on the day for me, it could be any of Company, Follies, ALNM, Sweeney, Merrily, or SITPWG.

Follies definitely is my favorite though, the show as a whole is just so special to me.
#45

re: I honestly think the best Sondheim score ever is

Posted: 7/14/08 at 12:26pm

The Sondheim score that's drawn me in over and over again over the years has been Sunday in the Park With George. Follies runs a close second.

The one I never listen to is A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, but I can recognize the potential it shows in parts. Bounce hasn't held up well for me.
#46

re: I honestly think the best Sondheim score ever is

Posted: 7/14/08 at 1:02pm

I have a special fondness for Company because that was the first Sondheim show I ever saw.

But musically, I think the best score is Sweeney. The only reason I liked the movie as much as I did was because of the magnificence of hearing that music played by a full-size symphony orchestra. It is one of the most stunningly beautiful things I've ever heard.
Sarcasm is an allergic reaction to stupid people.
#47

re: I honestly think the best Sondheim score ever is

Posted: 7/14/08 at 1:40pm

Its all about Night Music for me. I was just in the show, and I think the fact that most of the songs are so simple for but so perfect and emotional makes it my favorite of his. And granted the story line is Ingmar Bergman's Sondheim executes it flawlessly.

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