SQUARE ONE on Broadway Announcement Hoax- Page 5

[Georgeanddot2]

Posted: 12/15/22 at 6:34pm

Apparently, Square One is an entirely different show from the Bunuel one and the Bunuel show is the one that is currently in development.

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 12/15/22 at 6:40pm

...I mean, I theorized that, but I don't know for sure. Is that what your source is now telling you?

[Georgeanddot2]

Posted: 12/15/22 at 6:43pm

g.d.e.l.g.i. said: "...I mean, I theorized that, but I don't know for sure. Is that what your source is now telling you?"

Yeah, but it's unknown if material from Square One was maybe absorbed into the Bunuel piece.

[LuPita2]

Posted: 12/15/22 at 6:49pm

The only embarrassing ones are the people behind this hoax. What a lousy thing to do. 

[verywellthensigh]

Posted: 12/15/22 at 8:20pm

In a word...

[TaffyDavenport]

Posted: 12/15/22 at 8:45pm

This interview with the NYT makes it clear that Square One and the Buñuel musical are one and the same:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/26/theater/stephen-sondheim-final-interview.html

One thing he was hoping would happen: one more musical. For years he had been collaborating with the playwright David Ives and the director Joe Mantello on a new musical, most recently titled “Square One,” adapted from two movies directed by Luis Buñuel.

“The first act is based on ‘The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie,’ and the second act is based on ‘The Exterminating Angel,’ ” he explained during the interview. “I don’t know if I should give the so-called plot away, but the first act is a group of people trying to find a place to have dinner, and they run into all kinds of strange and surreal things, and in the second act, they find a place to have dinner, but they can’t get out.”

Updated On: 12/15/22 at 08:45 PM

[AnythingYouDo]

Posted: 12/15/22 at 9:27pm

It does seem possible, maybe likely that Square One is not the title of the Buñuel piece. In the Dramatist issue about Sondheim, Ives discussed Buñuel with Sondheim's other collaborators and never referred to it as Square One.

On the other hand, it seems improbable that Sondheim was referring to any show other than the Buñuel when he discussed it on Colbert; he mentioned the reading, which we know from Nathan Lane's comments was the musical based on Buñuel's films.

The whole thing is a little puzzling, and I hope it gets cleared up at some point. Perhaps when David Benedict's new biography comes out? Is there any information about the other projects Sondheim was working on?

Updated On: 12/15/22 at 09:27 PM

[ljay889]

Posted: 12/15/22 at 9:32pm

I mean I always found it odd people doubted Square One was Buñuel. I know that writer on twitter originally started the confusion, but Square One is a great title for a show about a group who can’t find a place to eat and then get trapped at a dinner party. I never doubted it was Buñuel. 

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 12/15/22 at 9:38pm

Hey, I only equivocate because the title sounds like it could easily fit the other idea they worked on and then abandoned, which frankly sounded like a riff on Ives' All in the Timing when described.

[ljay889]

Posted: 12/15/22 at 9:45pm

But given the amount of years they spent on Buñuel, I always found it hard to believe they magically had another piece that was close to ready, even if it was one of their abandoned ideas. Sondheim was notoriously a slow writer. 

[AnythingYouDo]

Posted: 12/15/22 at 9:51pm

It's possible that Sondheim wanted the title of the Buñuel show to be Square One but his collaborators disagreed, though I doubt someone who cared deeply about collaboration as much as Sondheim would have announced a title they hadn't agreed on.

(As I recall, Sondheim's favorite title for the show that ultimately became Road Show was Get Rich Quick!, but Weidman vetoed that title.) 

[ljay889]

Posted: 12/15/22 at 9:59pm

Sondheim apparently titled it Square One for the first time on the Colbert Show, which is pretty iconic, lol. I would think if it did move forward they would honor him by using his title. 

Updated On: 12/15/22 at 09:59 PM

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 12/15/22 at 10:03pm

ljay889 said: "But given the number of years they spent on Buñuel, I always found it hard to believe they magically had another piece that was close to ready, even if it was one of their abandoned ideas. Sondheim was notoriously a slow writer."

I don't know how close to ready each was, but I do know he had at least two or three, maybe four, irons in the fire at the time of the earlier Twitter kerfuffle both you and I refer to (this knowledge, as I said, directly caused said kerfuffle), and it worried a few people who knew the tremendous amount of focus it took for him to work on one show. It sounded scattershot and out-of-character for him.

Consequently, I would not be surprised if Square One was a different show, or -- given how anything new he wrote for revivals of prior shows sounded like whatever current item he was working on at the same time (witness some of the '87 Follies; "Country House" sounds suspiciously like ITW material) -- they managed to cobble something together score-wise by cannibalizing all of the projects.

[ljay889]

Posted: 12/15/22 at 10:30pm

g.d.e.l.g.i. said: 

Consequently, I would not be surprised ifSquare Onewas a different show, or -- given how anything new he wrote for revivals of prior shows sounded like whatever current item he was working on at the same time (witness some of the '87 Follies; "Country House" sounds suspiciously like ITWmaterial) -- they managed to cobble something together score-wise by cannibalizing all of the projects."

This is a really good point!!

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 12/15/22 at 10:38pm

I love Sondheim as much or more than everyone here and wish we could have seen this show finished in his lifetime. But we also have to be real that his later work (Road Show/Bounce) and even his lyrical rewrites to Company are not top-shelf Sondheim –– even if they're still better than the work of a lot of other composers.

My greatest hope for Sondheim's final project is that it could be salvageable someday as a song cycle or play-with-music, to be produced by an off-Bway theatre and licensed, with limited to no Broadway aspirations. I wouldn't expect more than that.

I am much more interested in this show as a historical artifact than a piece of entertainment. And I bet others feel the same.

[OhHiii]

Posted: 12/16/22 at 11:30am

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "I am much more interested in this show as a historical artifact than a piece of entertainment. And I bet others feel the same."

Given the very nature of the thread in which you're posting this, I'd say that would be a bad bet.

[binau]

Posted: 12/16/22 at 11:47am

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "I love Sondheim as much or more than everyone here and wish we could have seen this show finished in his lifetime. But we also have to be real that his later work (Road Show/Bounce) and even his lyrical rewrites toCompanyare not top-shelf Sondheim –– even if they're still better than the work of a lot of other composers.

My greatest hope for Sondheim's final project is that it could be salvageable someday as a song cycle or play-with-music, to be produced by an off-Bway theatre and licensed, with limited to no Broadway aspirations. I wouldn't expect more than that.

I am much more interested in this show as a historical artifact than a piece of entertainment. And I bet others feel the same."

It almost feels like you've already written off Square One as a show haha, so of course I can see why you're seeing it more as a historical curiosity than a piece of art or entertainment. However, I very much am expecting more than that, and if I'm disappointed so be it but I personally think Sondheim was still peaking with 'Passion' (ok maybe that was still a long time ago) and I'd like to think that having Bernadette involved might have re-sparked his creativity. 

[kdogg36]

Posted: 12/16/22 at 11:48am

ljay889 said: "Sondheim was notoriously a slow writer."

I know many have described him this way, but I'm curious as to why this is the case. Five of his musicals premiered in the 1970s, three of them in consecutive seasons. Even after that, through Passion, he wrote a new musical every three or four years. I can't think of many Broadway composers or lyricists who do much better than that. 

Does the "slow writer" label perhaps apply specifically to his work after Passion? 

 

Updated On: 12/16/22 at 11:48 AM

[ljay889]

Posted: 12/16/22 at 12:13pm

He definitely referred to himself as a slow writer in his later years. I don’t think he was referring to his earlier works. 

[kdogg36]

Posted: 12/16/22 at 12:33pm

ljay889 said: "He definitely referred to himself as a slow writer in his later years. I don’t think he was referring to his earlier works."

Thanks! That makes sense.

 

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 12/16/22 at 2:04pm

I’m getting updates on my iPhone from news sources talking about this lol. 
 

Also, I said some sh*t earlier that I deleted. I’m old enough to know better than that and it was stupid. I’m also old enough to know when to apologize when I go too far so I apologize. 
 

Still hoping this show gets presented sometime in the future. 

[JasonC3]

Posted: 12/16/22 at 2:38pm

^ Rumor has it that Jake loves men who can apologize

[Someday]

Posted: 12/16/22 at 4:59pm

g.d.e.l.g.i. said: "I don't know how close to ready each was, but I do know he had at least two or three, maybe four, irons in the fire.... Consequently, I would not be surprised if Square One was a different show, or... they managed to cobble something together score-wise by cannibalizing all of the projects."

Is it possible that the property closer to production-ready is The Susquehanna River? I posted this on a different thread pre-hoax, but I came across this NYTix.com subpage (still-up), which is ostensibly about Square One. I hear that site is less than reliable. Still, some of their details are rather specific to have been invented out of whole cloth. Quoting from that page:

"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). 
...

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."
 

Maybe if something is now actually being readied for production, it's that earlier Buñuel work — or, mostly the early work, with a few songs from the latter project, a.k.a. Square One ...a.k.a. Francophile?

I wonder if there's enough viable combined Buñuel material to mount a full-length program of one-acts, with The Susquehanna River as Act One (or as Acts One and Two?), and the newer, Exterminating Angel–based piece as a closing act. Or vice versa. Of course, this would be instead of the more recent plan to use their adaptations of Exterminating Angel as Act One and Discreet Charm (apparently unfinished) as Act Two.

This is pure speculation and may look silly in retrospect. But, for this particular topic, using existing tidbits to think through possibilities is irresistible.

Updated On: 12/16/22 at 04:59 PM

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 12/16/22 at 7:45pm

Okay, this is getting ridiculous.

What do they think we are, putzes?

[Ke3]

Posted: 12/16/22 at 9:04pm

Something else Sondheim said about writing in his older age is that when you have a resume of good work behind you, it can be harder to write because you feel the weight of the public's expectations. I can only imagine what it was like trying to write new work when what you've already written has inspired the phrase "Sondheim is God". I find it hard enough to write as is and I'm no Sondheim.