Reading of New Sondheim Musical with Nathan Lane and Bernadette Peters- Page 7

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 12/14/22 at 5:16pm

hearthemsing22 said: "whatever2 said: ">Unsubstantiated rumors aside, squareonebroadway.com domain is a registered trademark. This is the strongest, evidential indicator of an eventual staging.

i think you mean it's a registered domain; a trademark is something different altogether.

not intending to be snarky here ... i was genuinely curious, so i went to the Trademark Office's online search site - nothing. then i went to the ICANN site (where domains are registered) and -- something! the domain was created yesterday."

Curious theater fans turn into A+ sleuths when show rumors start hehe"


We've been teased about this particular show for YEARS, to the point where I’m afraid to even believe these exciting rumors. We are ready!!

[Someday]

Posted: 12/14/22 at 6:13pm

Have you all seen the NYTix.com subpage for Square One? It has the first mention I’ve seen of “The Susquehanna River.” Had anyone heard about that?

Quoted from that page:

Square One on Broadway Background

With Broadway legends Nathan Lane and Bernadette Peters already attached to the latest Stephen Sondheim and David Ives production Square One, Broadway interest in this show has been piqued. 

In 2015, David Ives and Stephen Sondheim fell in love with films by Luis Buñuel and worked on a now-cancelled Broadway show together, That show, The Susquehanna River, was based on two films by Luis Buñuel, Belle de Jour (1967) and Tristana (1970). 

Scathing Commentary on Bourgeoisie

Sondheim and Ives also collaborated on Francophile which is a blend of other Luis Buñuel films The Exterminating Angel(1962) and The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972), which both share a common plot-point. 

This show is a scathing commentary on the bourgeoisie in Franco’s Spain. The irony is that the word "Francophile" is actually social commentary about France, not Spain at all, which underlines the duo's dark humor on the matter. The Broadway musical Square One borrows heavily from the previously shelved show and the latter development.

Franco’s Spain or New York's Hamptons?

The show is ultimately a scathing commentary on the bourgeoisie in Franco’s Spain before WWII and the excesses and inhumanity that set the course towards the Spanish Civil War. This ultimately became the training ground for Hitler's army and many blame the Spanish Civil War as being the First Battle Of WWII. 

Others see the show as a scathing attack on the modern bourgeoisie of The Hamptons, NY or Malibu, CA where excess, mediocrity and materialistic values reign supreme.

[Georgeanddot2]

Posted: 12/14/22 at 6:25pm

^Fascinating info.

A Sondheim Belle de Jour would've been amazing.

I'm a big Bunuel fan so hopefully this new piece pulls from across his whole filmography.

It has the Jacobs as the house for this! We'll find out for sure tomorrow!

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 12/14/22 at 7:36pm

Agreed, Georgeanddot. And Sondheim is the only composer I’d ever want to tackle European art house cinema.

[BroadwayNYC2]

Posted: 12/14/22 at 7:45pm

“ It has the Jacobs as the house for this! We'll find out for sure tomorrow!”

 

NYTIX is about as reliable as your uncle on Facebook. They make up dates and theatres for shows all the time. 

[jacobsnchz14]

Posted: 1/5/23 at 12:14pm

https://www.whatsonstage.com/london-theatre/news/cameron-mackintosh-on-sondheims-unfinished-musical_58110.html

Mackintosh was quick to clear up any misinformation: "The unfinished musical was the Bourgeoisie one [presumably based in part on Luis Buñuel's film, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, as had previously been reported]. My last conversation with Steve was the Sunday before he died. He asked me to go through the entire score with him on the phone."

Will it ever be seen on stage, we ask: "I don't know. It was 50 or 60 per cent there. Musically. What was interesting was that Steve had never gone through a full score with me before like that – I think he wanted me to reinforce his view as to whether or not he was going to complete it. Because of the amount of energy it would have taken.

"I mean," Mackintosh laughs, "he was always looking for excuses not to write! When we went through it I found so many vigorous tunes, but none that he had fully completed. Some moments would go off at tangents – I'd ask him: 'why don't you let the music do its thing!'.

"There was a whole section in the musical that he told me he wanted to be 'wall-to-wall music' – like the Folliessequence. But sadly he never got to write that. There was a lot of music within what he'd already written that I'm sure he would have used for that specific section, but he died before he was able to do all of that."

In the end, Mackintosh was philosophical about the entire experience. "In a way, I was blessed that my last conversation with him, a dear friend, was when his mind was working full tilt. And talking about some amazing stuff he'd written."

[ljay889]

Posted: 1/8/23 at 2:41pm

Just saw that Mackintosh interview. That is really the most concrete information we've received so far regarding the piece. It doesn't sound like it was anywhere near ready, unfortunately. Mackintosh did confirm that it was the Bunuel piece. 

[binau]

Posted: 1/8/23 at 6:12pm

Interesting that on one hand we have ‘rumours’ the show is looking for a home (and wasn’t this printed in the dramatist so not just random Instagram people) and on the other hand we have Cam Mac questioning its completeness and quality. Didn’t Scott Rudin once describe what he heard of the score as like Passion? If so, I’d personally like to hear another opinion than Cam Mack about the score. ‘Letting the music do its thing’ instead of ‘going off in tangents’ to me sounds like code for him expecting traditional song structures whereas perhaps Sondheim was going for something like Passion. In any case, reflecting on my assumptions for what could hold up presentation of this show it does sound like the challenge of how to navigate unfinished work has unsurprisingly been true. 

[fashionguru_23]

Posted: 1/9/23 at 9:05am

I know Sondheim and Cameron Mackintosh had a working relationship, but why do I feel Cameron feels left out, and wanted to let everyone know he knows about the musical. Also, Sondheim is dead, so he can't confirm or deny he asked Cameron to listen to the score over the phone.

Updated On: 1/9/23 at 09:05 AM

[Musicaldudepeter]

Posted: 1/9/23 at 9:25am

Also, what on earth is he talking about re Sondheim playing the entire score over the phone and letting him judge it? Cameron has truly never been more insufferable in the last five years.

[BJR]

Posted: 1/9/23 at 11:04am

That story sounds feasible, especially if it was only 50% done.

But what a damn shame, since that doesnt sound near a state someone could complete it. And it's not like the Kander and Ebb pieces where John could do his best to channel Fred. No one can be Sondheim.

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 1/9/23 at 12:35pm

No one is you, Steve, there we agree.

 

[kdogg36]

Posted: 1/9/23 at 5:42pm

Would the fact that the reading occurred imply that some sort of score existed, however inchoate it may have been? That reading, along with the fact that Lane and Sondheim went public about the show, gives me some hope that the wheels may still be turning. I realize that may be wishful thinking.

[broadwayboy223]

Posted: 1/9/23 at 6:31pm

I thought the scoop was that he'd finished a complete act one. Wasn't there a workshop/reading in 2016? 

[Alex Kulak2]

Posted: 1/10/23 at 12:37am

broadwayboy223 said: "I thought the scoop was that he'd finished a complete act one. Wasn't there a workshop/reading in 2016?"

And the reading with Lane and Peters in 2021. Even if all the work in those five years was rewriting old stuff, would you have a private industry reading with two people who presumably would lead the show on Broadway if you only had half a musical to show people?

[PianoMann]

Posted: 1/10/23 at 12:47am

It is very clear that Sondheim finished the first act. This was confirmed in one of the interviews in the just-published book Finale by D. T. Max. We know "finished" is very different than locked, especially had he been able to write and rewrite during an Off-Broadway run, etc. but a full score exists for this half of the show.

I think the most likely scenario for this ever being done publicly is for it to be billed as a one-act musical based on The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. Even though the musical was written to merge this source material with Exterminating Angel as act two, I'd imagine the first half could stand alone as the film does.

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 1/10/23 at 1:03am

Many things could be true of this work.....

(A) we eventually hear select songs from it in concert form only.

(B) we eventually get a "Tick Tick Boom"-style stage production with judicious help from a musical arranger and a dramaturg (or David Ives). Except TTB was much more written at the time of Larson's death.

(C) some of the fragments of music that exist eventually become incorporated into a new Sondheim revue.

(D) this never sees/hears the light of day. Would love to know what David Ives thinks about this show and how publicly-digestible it is, if the first act can even stand alone...Ives is as key a figure as Sondheim's estate (Jeff Romley, his husband, and Rick Pappas, his lawyer) if this is ever to see the light of day. Would Sondheim himself even agree to it being released in some capacity? You have to respect (and infer) his wishes.