Such sad, sad news.
Years ago, I arranged to get a group together to record and audio commentary for a release of Sondheim's PASSION for DVD.
Marin, Donna and even Jere Shea (who was nearly impossible to track down as he was now working in Massachusetts for the government) all agreed to do it. Stephen Sondheim, James Lapine and Ira Weitzman all agreed to participate as well. We had some wine (which only Mr. Sondheim had a glass or two of during the session) and the commentary went off without a hitch...
I do remember there were a few stories that needed to be cut due to content, etc. Marin and Jere told a great story of Jere having to use Bengay on some of his body due to muscle aches, etc. During the opening scene when he and Marin are in bed together, Marin came in contact with some of Jere's Bengay... Well, in the commentary, as she was laughingly telling the story, she all of the sudden burst into song...a small snippet from SWEENEY TODD: The original lyrics are "City on fire! City on fire!" Marin swapped out "City" and the commentary ground to a halt as everyone laughed like there was no tomorrow... The whole experience, having all of those people in a small studio reminiscing about the show, was one of my life highlights...
About a year later, I was on a plane headed to LAX from JFK. I flew like a crazy person at the time so I always got upgraded. I looked up as the plane was boarding and saw Marin and Jason coming down the aisle on their way to seats in coach. Marin recognized me and we all said our "hellos" and she introduced me to Jason. I knew I had a ton of airmiles, so I got up and tried to have the flight personnel upgrade Marin and Jason, but the doors to the plane had been shut and they claimed it was too late to make the change.
I'm going to go home tonight and watch Marin and Jason in their segments from the Sondheim 80th Birthday Concert. So sad.
