Sondheim Roles created for specific performers

[cfmiller]

Posted: 7/14/06 at 2:10pm

I read in another thread that Sondheim created the role of Ms. Lovett especially for Angela Lansbury? Is this true? Is the only role Sondheim created for a specific performer?

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 7/14/06 at 2:13pm

Probably not, since Mrs. Lovett existed long before Sondheim go to her.

[GovernorSlaton]

Posted: 7/14/06 at 2:15pm

True, but Sondheim did tailor the part to Lansbury's talents. Same with Cariou.

[rosekwbp]

Posted: 7/14/06 at 2:16pm

Sondheim usually does tailor the music to fit the vocal talents of the performer.

[philcrosby]

Posted: 7/14/06 at 2:18pm

Sondheim has always tailored roles to actors' specific talents and has said he actually finds it easier to write songs when he knows who is writing them for. (For example, SEND IN THE CLOWNS might have a far different melodic range had Glynis Johns' singing not been so limited.)

But I don't know that he has ever written a specific role for a specific actor, in the way that CALL ME MADAM was written for Merman.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 7/14/06 at 2:20pm

But the version of Mrs. Lovett from his musical version is completely different from any version ever seen before (as is his Sweeney, who, thanks in part to the earlier Christopher Bond version, is actually a three dimensional character who has motives for his actions unlike any previous Sweeneys who were simply crazed blood thirsty madmen). Sondheim designed Lovett's music around Lansbury's voice, added music hall elements that she was adept at (that again had never been part of the character) and he and Wheeler played up the character's humor and dotty nature to suit her. Sondheim's Lovett was tailor-made for Lansbury.

Updated On: 7/14/06 at 02:20 PM

[MrSweetNAwful]

Posted: 7/14/06 at 2:22pm

Sondheim created The Witch in ITW for Betty Buckley, but she got fired while it was out of town.
I don't know if he wrote the whole character around her or just the music for Buckley's voice.

[sweetestsiren]

Posted: 7/14/06 at 2:24pm

I think I remember reading somewhere that Sondheim had originally intended George in Sunday... to be more of a bass/baritone, but ended up writing to suit Mandy Patinkin's voice. Is that so?

[Sumofallthings]

Posted: 7/14/06 at 2:51pm

Yes that is true.

Posted: 7/14/06 at 10:04pm

Does anyone know if Mr. Sondheim wrote Dot in SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE for Bernadette Peters? I always wondered. I loved her in that - She was perfection.

[ljay889]

Posted: 7/14/06 at 10:05pm

Well Sondheim said his original vision for Dot was a soprano, but they got Bernadette.

Same for Mandy. The same thing happened.

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 7/14/06 at 10:08pm

Since George's music was originally supposed to be lower, does anyone know if Sondheim lowered it for the baritones who later played the part, such as Philip Quast or Robert Westenberg?

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 7/14/06 at 10:10pm

I'm not sure, but I believe that for replacement casts, transpositions aren't all that rare.

[bwaylvsong]

Posted: 7/14/06 at 10:30pm

That's good news, Munk, because I am a bass-baritone, but most roles that suit me are for tenors =).

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 7/14/06 at 10:57pm

Although I have some major quibbles with SITPWG, I certainly wouldn't mind playing George one day (I find that LIKING the show you're in is more of an added bonus than a requirement). However, they would have to transpose it as Ab's are simply out of my range.

[FoscasBohemianDream]

Posted: 7/14/06 at 11:22pm

Sondheim has said before that one of the reasons he takes so long in writing his scores even as a show is workshopping or in rehearsals (apart from his own procrastination which he is very honest about) is the fact he likes to write for the people who are going to play the role; he envisioned George as a baritone and Dot as a soprano, but he didn't start writing most of the score for the show till he knew he was writing for George as played by Mandy Patinkin and Dot as played by Bernadette Peters which changed the whole baritone/soprano idea. The same way he has said that writing the character of Fosca was easier once Donna Murphy was cast in the role.
He says he learned this thanks to his experience in Gypsy where together with Jule Styne he had to write the character of Momma Rose as played by Ethel Merman. That's why the original casts in Sondheim shows tend to be so well-connected and specific to their roles.

[LostLeander]

Posted: 7/15/06 at 12:02am

Is that why I never really like revival casts of Sondheim shows?
Without fail?

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 7/15/06 at 2:40pm

Yeah, Sondheim wrote Mrs. Lovett with Lansbury in mind and Sweeney with Cariou in mind. The only other instance I know of in which he wrote with a specific performer in mind from the beginning was Elaine Stritch as Joanne.

I've never heard that the Witch was written with Buckley in mind from the beginning, though perhaps it's true. She never played it out of town. She only played it in workshop. At the Old Globe, the only full production prior to Broadway, the Witch was played by Ellen Foley.

Of course, once a performer is cast in a role, he tailors the role to that person, as with George and Dot/Marie. There are many examples of Sonheim writing songs very specifically for certain performers, occasionally even with their input. "Moments in the Woods," for example, came out of a conversation he had with Joanna Gleason.

Btw, I'm pretty sure that all the Broadway Georges sang in Patinkin's keys, though sometimes with transpositions of specific sections down an octave. Westenberg, for example, sometimes took "More like the parasol" down, but otherwise I think he sang what Patinkin sang (and I think he sang it better). Groener had to take down part of "Beautiful." (Still, for me he was far and away the best George.) And I think that Quast sang in the original keys.

But since I don't have a great ear for these things, I could be wrong.