Sondheim at 90: NYT

Two excellent articles.

Jesse Green: It's Not the Music. it's Not the Lyrics. It's the Drama.

Ben Brantley: Stephen Sondheim, The Man Who Felt Too Much

Also, a variety of artists share their favorite Sondheim song.

Updated On: 3/12/20 at 01:18 PM

I wish people would stop carping about the books to Sondheim's shows. It isn't a compliment to him to do so. As it happens, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd and Sunday in the Park with George have superb books. Pacific Overtures has a pretty good book and so does Into the Woods. Merrily We Roll Along is the only clunker among the major shows. (I don't know that most of us can judge Anyone Can Whistle--for one thing, I'm not sure the published script is exactly what played on Broadway, for another, the way a script reads and the way a script plays can be two completely different things: I like the way it reads; it may indeed not work in performance.)

I think the book to Company is superb. Anyone Can Whistle is definitely the most flawed. Other than Whistle, I think all of the books are superb. Merrily is flawed but still enjoyable.

I love the Company/Follies/Night Music/Pacific Overtures/Sweeney wave, but I LOVE the Sunday/Into the Woods/Passion/Assassins wave. I think Sunday might have the best book to one of his shows and quite possibly my favorite book of all time.

Anyways, he's the greatest musical theater writer of all time. His work is absolutely timeless. Sondheim's birthday is always treated like a holiday in my musical theater obsessed household. We'll be binging the filmed versions of his shows and drinking. The goal is to be under the table by the time we get to Passion.

For those who are interested, 8 pages celebrating Sondheim are in this Sunday’s NY Times Arts and Leisure. It looks great.

Updated On: 3/15/20 at 11:28 AM

HAPPY 90

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sittingovation said: "Is that a wedding ring?"



I noticed that also when I saw this pic the other day.

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Globefan said: "I wonder if they'll make a Sondheim biopic at some point."

I think they will, or at least an HBO or Netflix series. His upbringing is VERY interesting, and would play very well dramatically.

Sondheim passionately responds to Ben Brantley and Jesse Green's criticisms of George Furth's work in Company. Sondheim is famous for always honoring the work of all of his book writers.

https://twitter.com/HESherman/status/1243956895171465217?s=20

Updated On: 3/29/20 at 03:08 PM

Elliot's production is probably the first time I've been impressed by Furth's book. She expertly stages the vignettes/book scenes as if they were mini straight plays/individual comedies. She was certainly determined to highlight the strengths of Furth's book.

Updated On: 3/29/20 at 03:41 PM