Jason Robert Brown on How (Not) to Insult Sondheim

A very valuable lesson some of us have learned the hard way.
Jason Robert Brown: HOW I INSULTED SONDHEIM (AND THE WISDOM RECEIVED THEREBY)

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In other words, bow and scrape 100% of the time.

I'm guessing.

...What an... odd anecdote to share. I get where he's coming from, I suppose, in regards to how to respond to someone's work (...be polite). But it makes Sondheim sound emotionally fragile and makes Brown look like a name-dropper.

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I just can't work up any interest in anything a shamelessly self-promoting D-list talent like Brown has to say - about Sondheim, theatre, what to say to an artist, or even food.

I LOVED IT

Exactly, broadwaybabe. In the end kindness, it all comes down to whether you choose to put a value on kindness or not.

The inability of some people in this thread to see that lesson here ultimately speaks more of them than it does of either of the Messrs. Brown or Sondheim.

Someone very wise once said that those who feel the need to be right all the time never seem to realize that, in doing so, they relentlessly make all others wrong. And that is done at great cost to the vitality of one's relationships.

Shorter version: Your opinions of other people are never as important as you think they are.

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The Tony-winning composer/lyricist of PARADE, SONGS FOR A NEW WORLD, and THE LAST FIVE YEARS is a D-list talent?

Do I dare ask who, besides Sondheim I assume, is deserving of the A-list title? ALW? LOLZ

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I wonder what Sondheim thinks of this whole thing and what Sondheim actually said.

I would have a slightly different take on Brown's main faux pas, which is looking a gift horse in the mouth. Someone whom he has never met has gotten him tickets to a show and is taking him out to dinner. (Brown says the tickets were Sondheim's "treat" rather than saying that Sondheim got him tickets, implying that Sondheim actually paid for the tickets for a complete stranger, not that it matters all that much.) Sondheim is doing a nice thing for Brown. The polite thing to do is to say when you sit down to dinner, "Thank you so much for the tickets! That was so nice of you!" Because it WAS a nice thing for Sondheim to do, and it should be acknowledged. Add a little bit more genuine gushing about how nice it was and what an honor it is to meet Sondheim, and Sondheim probably wouldn't have cared that Brown hasn't actually said anything about the show itself.

If your favorite aunt gets you an ugly sweater, you tell your favorite aunt that you like the sweater. Not because you're necessarily all that crazy about the sweater itself, but because you love the giver and what the gesture stands for.

Brown got a gift that he didn't like, from a complete stranger who had good intentions. You don't make that complete stranger who has good intentions feel bad about something that can't be changed. Brown didn't mention a gift he just got to the gift giver, whom he saw right afterwards, for twenty minutes, until the gift giver had to ask about it. That was rude. Really rude. Brown adds in all this stuff about "great art" and makes it seem like the anecdote is about the creative process, but I wonder how much of that is Brown and how much is what Sondheim actually said or felt at that time. I'm not sure the incident is as much about an artist having a fragile ego about his creative output as Brown seems to think.

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Mikem, Yes.
In the what he should have said" "Thank you for getting me the tickets and the dinner. It's been an amazing evening. To be your guest at your show - and now dinner - is an honor and an unexpected treat. I will never forget this evening. Frank Rich was sitting behind us and I could have told him that the evening is "unforgettable"!" or something like that.

I don't think "I loved it" is the correct thing to say, especially as there is follow up: "What did you love the most?" And you are now caught.
You don't have to be critical - although I guess you could say "I didn't enjoy it as much as Sunday (Sweeney)" and if asked why, you can praise Sunday or Sweeney without saying anything about the current production. And it might give Sondhem the opportunity to talk about those shows and perhaps why this show is different.

Or, despite being so young and foolish at the barely post-natal age of 23 (and 28 or however old the secret former best friend was), it didn't occur to either of them between the theatre and sitting down with Sondheim at the restaurant that they might actually be asked what they thought?

JRB editorializes here so much, both by leaving out key information and extensively paraphrasing the "lesson," that I can't formulate an opinion about it. Even as a blog entry, it's very poorly written.

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His need to make his revulsion for Sondheim apparent trumps any pretense he makes of having actual convictions.

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Updated On: 11/1/12 at 05:22 PM

Exactly. And the only reason he GOT Parade was because Prince approached Sondheim, and he wasn't interested...