More info on the new Sondheim and David Ives musical (UPDATE, 2018)- Page 2

[Phillypinto]

Posted: 10/11/14 at 7:35pm

I agree with Fantod. Usually when writers get old, their work simply isn't as good anymore. Look at what happened with Andrew Webber's last shows . Sondheim was definitely as his peek in the 70s. This is really exciting though so I'm rooting for this show :)

Updated On: 10/11/14 at 07:35 PM

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 10/11/14 at 7:47pm

I still consider Passion to be Sondheim's masterpiece.

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 10/11/14 at 7:49pm

Yes, his writing did change - Sondheim says LaPine allowed him to change and his writing became "warm". Sondheim said that with Sunday, Into the Woods, and Passion, he was allowed to find the Hammerstein in himself - and he was the better for it.

Updated On: 10/11/14 at 07:49 PM

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 10/11/14 at 8:01pm

I certainly agree with Sally that PASSION is "one of" Sondheim's masterpieces. There's plenty of room in the theater for FOLLIES and PASSION. We don't have to choose.

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 10/11/14 at 8:13pm

Gav, the only reason I called Passion his masterpiece is because I think it is exactly what Sondgeim and LaPine wanted to be and can work with a variety of casts. Follies, while brilliant, works only under very specific circumstances and even then it doesn't really work. I consider Follies to be my favorite show, but it seems that everything after 1971 has been underwhelming. But yes, he does have many masterpieces and we never have to choose :)

[Phillypinto]

Posted: 10/11/14 at 8:20pm

Didn't somebody mention one time that at a performance of Passion, the audience was so bored that they actually started applauding when Fosca died?

[binau]

Posted: 10/11/14 at 8:24pm

No, they apparently applauded because they hated her character. And that somebody was Sondheim himself.

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 10/11/14 at 8:26pm

No, during previews, audience members were so repelled at Fosca that they started laughing when she had an attack and during one, a member of the audience yelled "Die, Fosca, Die!"

[NoName3]

Posted: 10/11/14 at 9:02pm

The night I saw it, when the doctor came out and announced Fosca had died, the audience did indeed applaud. And when, earlier in the show, she had thrown herself on her knees, grabbed Giorgio and asked what she could do to prove how much she loved him, someone shouted "Let go of his legs!" to much laughter.

ETA Now that I think about it, I believe I posted about that evening awhile back on another thread, which may be where Phillypinto read about it. And we weren't applauding because we were bored. I've never been in a theater before or since where the audience so actively detested both the show and the leading character. Justifiably so, I will add. But to each their own.

Updated On: 10/11/14 at 09:02 PM

[binau]

Posted: 10/11/14 at 10:30pm

I watched Passion again recently and I just don't buy the ending. I don't believe that an apparently very attractive man who has tasted the flesh of Marin Mazzie would fall for a sickly, ugly, obsessive, awful, dying woman. Did it ever look like he enjoyed her company once throughout the show?

[Fantod]

Posted: 10/11/14 at 10:43pm

I'm not really sure why anybody would consider Passion Sondheim's masterpiece, as it contains his least attractive music along with Road Show and is very alienating to audience members and is cold and lifeless in general (unless seeing it in the theatre was a hundred thousand times better than the live broadcast, which is all that I've seen)

[Fantod]

Posted: 10/11/14 at 10:45pm

Of course my opinion isn't definitive and there are plenty of people who love everything he does, including somehow Passion

[Phillypinto]

Posted: 10/11/14 at 10:46pm

I still think Company is his best show. It's his best score in my opinion.

[Consistency]

Posted: 10/11/14 at 11:24pm

Hmm... Well this is unexpected news. I don't remember much about "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie" - it has been years and years since I last saw it - but "The Exterminating Angel" is one of my favorite movies and I watch it every few years. It's not a connection I had thought about before reading this news, but I think Sondheim and Bunuel's senses of humor should actually mesh fairly well.

Of course, I don't think Sondheim has made a great show since "Assassins," but I can't help but be excited by the thought of a new project from him.

As for "Passion" - I certainly wouldn't call it "cold and lifeless." And I do think it has one of Sondheim's most traditionally beautiful scores - but it is a deeply problematic show, in my opinion. I can empathize with both those who hate it and those who love it - even though I fall somewhere in between.

[ljay889]

Posted: 10/12/14 at 12:21am

More information from The Times.

The Public Theater and the film and theater producer Scott Rudin are producing the work; the Public’s artistic director, Oskar Eustis, said on Saturday that the Public planned to mount the show at some point in the future.

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/10/11/stephen-sondheim-plans-a-new-musical-based-on-bunuel-film/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

[madlibrarian]

Posted: 10/12/14 at 7:10pm

Everybody loves Luis!

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 10/12/14 at 7:34pm

I think it takes a unique person to appreciate Passion.

The reason I live it so much is that I was in a really low place when I first say it and instantly connected to Fosca - and I found the entire thing to be one of the most beautiful shows I'd ever seen. I'm still so glad they recorded it.

That being said, I understand the reservations most people have regarding the show. A very good friend of mine hated it for 6 years, then watched it on a whim one day and sobbed over it. He believes it requires the audience to be in a certain state of mind.

[broadwaybabywannabe2]

Posted: 10/13/14 at 6:49am

ROAD SHOW and PASSION are too way differnet shows and for some of you to lump them in together for either better or worse SONDHEIM show is ridiculous...PASSION while beautfully sung is cold and not an easy show to warm up to...while ROAD SHOW is very livley and has some really melodic songs about two men who may have been not so important in real life...PASSION to me seems more like a "drawing room musical"...whle ROAD SHOW seems more like a review type of musical..."The Best Thing That Ever Happened"...is a very very good SONDHEIM song...PASSION belongs more in the line with another more drawing room type musical...A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC...but many many steps below that masterly charming piece for sure...

[artscallion]

Posted: 10/13/14 at 8:31am

While I think Passion, as a show, is flawed, I do think that its music is gorgeous and some of Sondheim's absolute best. I don't find it cold in the least. But as has been said, to each his own.

I'm hopeful, but not optimistic about this news.

[gstrus2]

Posted: 4/20/15 at 12:54pm

Does this have a timeframe at the Public? Maybe next season??

[icecreambenjamin]

Posted: 4/20/15 at 1:05pm

Would it open Off-Broadway first?  I would think that a new Sondheim musical would maybe do an out of town tryout and then move straight to broadway.   Especially if some Sondheim favorites are invloved.

[JBroadway]

Posted: 4/20/15 at 1:12pm

I think there was an article recently about the show, which briefly mentioned that the show would play at the Public, but I couldn't find any additional sources online that say that.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 4/20/15 at 10:11pm

PASSION isn't "cold", it just isn't ingratiating. If anything audience laughed and squirmed uncomfortably because the show is so unrelentingly intense.

I loved it when I saw it because I thought it was the most uncompromising musical I had ever seen. With repeated listening, I fell in love with the beautiful score.

My husband hates the entire endeavor so intently I have agreed to listen to it only when wearing headphones.

As for a new Sondheim musical, how could we NOT be excited?

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 4/20/15 at 10:51pm

"As for a new Sondheim musical, how could we NOT be excited?"

That statement will surely invoke a response from our own favorite Dirgucal.

[icecreambenjamin]

Posted: 4/20/15 at 11:53pm

I don't understand why everyone finds the ending of Passion so unbelievable.  He learns to love Fosca because her love is so powerful that he realizes that love is more than just beauty.  The moral of Passion is that true love isn't physical,  it's emotional.  

And why is Fosca so horrible?  She's a poor, sick woman who doesn't have much time.  She finds true love and is relentless because she could die at any time.  She's a flawed person, yes, but a horrible one?  I don't think so.  I find her sweet, but damaged, and pessimistic.  Her soul is beautiful and romantic.