Number of completed songs in Sondheim new score — Page 2

Another morsel to throw into the cauldron of speculation:

The English language is not terribly precise. Unlike some languages, when we say "completed," that does not necessarily mean we are done. It can mean we have a "draft" (another imprecise word). In the theatre, we generally go into rehearsal with a completed script (and score in a musical), but we have to wait about a month before we say the show is "frozen." And even then, sometimes, we have writers who show up after that with changes. (I've been there.)

A good analogous situation is that of Rent. Jonathan Larson had certainly completed a script and score. Everyone knew who lived and who died. But the work continued.

I tend to be skeptical of gossip.

The way that so many people, including Sondheim himself, talked about this show for YEARS does not at all make it sound like a show that was 30% done as of 2021. Everybody was always super hopeful that it would happen "next season/year/Fall/etc." I just do not buy that people expected the show to go form 6 songs to on a stage in front of a paying audience that quickly.

To me, that sounds much more like a show which is presentable, but has elements that aren't clicking and need to be reworked. Have Ives, Mantello, and the music team cracked those theoretical problems? I guess we'll find out in September.

Aren't there a handful of Sondheim songs that have never been heard from the aborted one act body building musical that once was the second act of what became Passion? Perhaps there will be some interpolation of these numbers?

Sondheim and James Lapine were once working on 2 one act thematic musicals. One was based on a book about a bodybuilder, one was based on an Italian novel and film, Passion D'amour.

They lost interest in the former and extended the latter into Passion.