Oh I'm sorry, only joking. It was kind of a cute statement. It's not so much that it's a hidden tune but it's just an added complexity to the arrangement of the song. One thing about Sondheim is that he tends to write complicated harmony.
If you listen closely to the score, or other scores he has written, you'll find the reoccurrence of melodies in other songs is actually quite common. My favorite example is the song "Beautiful" from Sunday in the Park with George, although you have to be familiar with the whole score, since it's like one long song. If you are familiar, have you noticed that Finishing the Hat = Putting it Together? Not only do composers disguise melodies, but they can invert them, all sorts of things.
These are just composition techniques. It's not exactly hidden, but it is the sort of thing a person notices more on repeated listenings, unless you have... would I call it an advanced ear for music? I don't want to sound pretentious.
I checked the original version and it's not there (unless I just couldn't hear it), so I think this particular little tidbit is just in the new production, so the arranger put it there.
Do you have the original? You should check that out too.
yr ronin,
joey
