Balcony Bill said: "Nathan Lane talks about Sondheim and working on the new Bunuel show in the reading:
https://variety.com/2021/theater/people-news/nathan-lane-beanie-feldstein-stephen-sondheim-1235123585/"
Thanks, Bill!
Here are the specific Buñuel/Square One excerpts for anyone just looking for those…
“His material was challenging and complex to learn and perform but once you got it into your head, it never left you because it was just so brilliantly written. I can’t say we became close friends, I was too in awe of him to pursue that kind of friendship, but it was a very friendly and warm working relationship that went on for thirty years. I was always in awe of him until the very end – that recent reading we did for “Square One,” the last musical he wrote with David Ives. Every time I’d see him I’d still say to myself, ‘Oh my God, it’s Stephen Sondheim.’
I’m not on social media, but when you see all of the beautiful tributes and this tremendous outpouring of love and admiration for his incomparable legacy, and believe me, we will never see its like again, you can’t help but feel it’s all been said. But it feels good to remind ourselves how great and important he was to the world and that we were lucky enough to get the opportunity to work with that kind of legend. I assure you I’ve kept every one of his notes and letters and emails and I will treasure them.
[…]
The last time I would see him was at the reading for “Square One”. It was supposed to be done a few years ago at The Public, but was postponed and then cancelled. I thought it was gone forever, but after the pandemic the director Joe Mantello felt a surreal musical based on two Bunuel films might be just what the doctor ordered and encouraged Steve and David Ives to resurrect the piece and take another crack at it. He named it on “The Colbert Show,” by the way. It didn’t have a title until that moment. Bless his heart, but it’s actually a good title.
Anyway, I was excited to see him at the reading, but was concerned when I saw him walking in slowly with a cane. He was recovering from a bad fall, but once we sat down and talked, he was as sharp and as funny as he’d ever been. It was a phenomenal group of actors and Bernadette Peters and I got to be a married couple and it doesn’t get any better than that. Steve said he was encouraged by the reading, which was great fun, and hoped we might get it on next season. It would certainly be a terrific way to honor the greatest composer/lyricist the American theater has ever known. A lovely way to say goodbye and thank you.
In the meantime allow me to say thank you for everything, Steve, from the bottom of my heart.”
