Prince and Sondheim

[Frank thebellhop]

Posted: 10/18/10 at 4:41pm

I was just wondering why Hal Prince and Stephen Sondheim's collaborative relationship ended. Is there bad blood?

Also, I'm looking for a good book on Sondheim. I just finished Arthur Laurent's Mainly on Directing and am looking for something in the same vein. Obviously not self penned but I'd like something that focuses more on his work and process rather than a plain biography.

Thanks!

[Unknown User]

Posted: 10/18/10 at 4:50pm

It didn't. Prince directed Bounce, Sondheim's last new show.

[Frank thebellhop]

Posted: 10/18/10 at 4:58pm

Thanks JoeKv99. I didn't know that. I'm not very familiar with that show. I've been contemplating buying the album but can't decide if I should get Bounce or Road Show.

[uncageg]

Posted: 10/18/10 at 5:11pm

Two must reads are "Sondheim - A Life" by Meryle Secrest and "Everything Was Possible: The birth of the musical FOLLIES" by Ted Chapin.

[Frank thebellhop]

Posted: 10/18/10 at 5:22pm

I LOVED Everything Was Possible! I'll have to check out Sondheim a Life. Thanks uncageg

[Paul Bland4]

Posted: 10/18/10 at 5:22pm

Frank - I understand your dilemma. I eagerly awaited the recording of ROAD SHOW, as I live on the West Coast and could not go see the production. Once it came out, I have to admit that I was disappointed, and that I thought BOUNCE was the better show.

Admittedly, this opinion is solely based on the recordings for the aforementioned reason of my geography. I just found the BOUNCE recording to be far more accessible than ROAD SHOW, and with more interesting performances.

Oddly, I also found FAR more incidences of Sondheim "signatures" in ROAD SHOW. I don't have the disc in front of me as I write this, so please forgive my generalization; The father's big number was so very similar to "The Ballad of Booth" from ASSASSINS as to be distracting and annoying. And the song "Addison's Trip" (?), being SS's first big solo patter song since MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG's "Franklin Shepard, Inc." bore strong similarities to one another. Plus, I much preferred Richard Kind's performance to Alexander Gemignani's.

Clearly, Sondheim knew what material in the show was wheat and what was chaff, as some moments in either recording are virtually identical, save for the individual performances.

As a Sondheim completist, I happily own both recordings, but it's BOUNCE that gets far more play in my CD player.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 10/18/10 at 5:26pm

As for BOUNCE and ROAD SHOW, I found both incredibly dull on record and ROAD SHOW even more dull in person. I think it's certainly Sondheims weakest score (to date).

[uncageg]

Posted: 10/18/10 at 5:44pm

Frank, it is an excellent book. I grabbed it from the library but I think I will eventually buy both books to own. I am also looking forward to the upcoming Sondheim book Finishing the Hat: Collected Lyrics (1954-1981).

[ljay889]

Posted: 10/18/10 at 5:48pm

I enjoyed ROAD SHOW live. They enhanced the gay relationship between Addy and Hollis. It was heartbreaking.

I also like the cast recoding more than Bounce's. The opening number is a vast improvement.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 10/18/10 at 6:13pm

In addition to the two books uncageg recommended, I would look for Craig Zadan's "Sondheim & Company," which is now sadly out-of-print.

It was first written in 1974, in the midst of the glory days of the Sondheim/Prince collaboration and twice revised.



Another out-of-print book from the same year that would give you great insight is Hal Prince's "Contradictions: Notes on Twenty-six Years in the Theatre," which is a much better book than "On Directing."



And then, if you want to know "what happened," you should learn everything you possibly can about Merrily We Roll Along.

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 10/18/10 at 6:20pm

The Sondheim-Prince professional relationship ran aground with the abrupt failure of MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG in 1981. It was troubling time because so many people blandly derided the show and seemed to go for personal attacks on both. Sondheim's score in particular was dismissed as being far below standard. Many of these critics would reverse themselves months later when the cast album came out and readjust the blame for the show's failure on Hal Prince's production. Prince has since admitted that he could never get a good handle on what the show should look like visually. Not that MERRILY but it had a lot more thought, a lot more human insight and a lot more memorable music than most of the other shows running at the time.

The damage had been done. Prince suggested thay should take a break from working together and Sondheim announced that because there seemed to be so much hatred aimed at him and Hal he would not write anymore musicals and would concentrate instead on writing mystery novels or creating puzzles. (Lucky for us James Lapine came along and the two started work on SUNDAY IN THE PARK the following year.)

Their friendship had existed long before they worked together and endures to this day.

As for BOUNCE, the production Chicago saw was in fact much like the original MERRILY: flawed but not without interest. The first act was too long and meandered a fair bit, but the second act was tighter and more effective. But the show had many sequences that rivaled the very best of the Sondheim-Prince shows of 3 decades earlier, notably "Addison's trip around the world", The "New York" sequence and the penultimate "Boca Raton" sequence.

The reviews were tepid. No one could zero in on what was wrong. In truth there wasn't anything terribly wong, but somehow the show wasn't quite right either.

This is where a strong producer would have set the authors on a course to reclaim the show. Instead, he abandoned the show after a subsequent Washington run.

The BOUNCE cast album plays much like what the show was at the time: A Broadway level musical comedy.

The revised version, ROAD SHOW is much more streamlined and better focused and John Doyle came up with his own innovative staging techniques. Yet it had a very small off-Broadway feel to it when the story and the characters really demand the bigger more Broadway-like approach to BOUNCE. This, of course, is reflected in the ROAD SHOW cast album. (I like segments of both but my overall preference for listening is BOUNCE.)

I did not fined either show dull. My only complaint - and it applies to both - was that for the first time Sondheim had chosen to tell a story and I could never understand why he had chosen this particular story to tell.

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 10/18/10 at 6:59pm

Did anyone else see this thread title and think of The Artist Formerly Known As?

I just want your extra time and your-
Kiss me!
Oh sir!
Ah miss!

...Just me?

[jv92]

Posted: 10/18/10 at 7:35pm

I thought Road Show was sort of a masterpiece, but I know I'm in the minority there.

And yes, Sondheim and Co. and Contradictions are extraordinary, sadly out-of-print books. I'd still recommend trying to track copies down.

[uncageg]

Posted: 10/18/10 at 8:39pm

orange, I will admit at first glance I did!

I need to get my hands on a copy of "Sondheim & Co."

Updated On: 10/18/10 at 08:39 PM

[LuminousBeing]

Posted: 10/18/10 at 9:11pm

Check the Amazon.com marketplace. I just bought a "Used - Like New" copy for eight bucks plus shipping after reading this thread. Thanks for the tip, all!

[uncageg]

Posted: 10/18/10 at 9:21pm

Sounds tempting but I have no more room for books in my apartment!