SQUARE ONE on Broadway Announcement Hoax — Page 5

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. 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.

In a word...

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

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.