Sondheim's book is kind of bombastic. . .

[chekkyjr]

Posted: 12/25/10 at 7:11pm

. . . and sloppy!

And I mean of course he's my personal household god, I fall to my knees and cry holy before him, and so forth.

But I am finding his book about himself to be smug and generalizing and egregiously chatty and seemingly written in a hurry. Did no one edit him very closely? Was his editor intimidated by SS's genius? Was his editor tied to the bed post with a ball gag in his mouth while SS went downstairs and banged out a chapter? And then served dinner?

Which is not to say I don't agree with him that Alan Jay Lerner's lyrics are no more than pleasant! Although I have always liked PAINT YOUR WAGON. . .

[ClapYo'Hands]

Posted: 12/25/10 at 7:42pm

I get what you mean a bit. Like, yes, parts are a bit general. And yes, out of all of the lyrcists that Sondheim has said have written crap, most of them, if not all of them have written one of the greatest shows in history and are up there next to n(or above) his.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 12/25/10 at 7:53pm

I found it a little hard to get into at first, like being taught a class but a really smart by obnoxiously didactic teacher. Once I got past the intro and into the lyrics, it started moving a lot better.

But with a subtitle like the one it has, what did any of us really expect? :)
Updated On: 12/25/10 at 07:53 PM

[jv92]

Posted: 12/25/10 at 7:54pm

I don't agree with Sondheim on several things-- I like Dorothy Fields' work with Cy Coleman, I liked when Frank Loesser got "earthy" in shows like Most Happy Fella and Greenwillow. But his essays about Hart and Ira Gershwin are sort of dead on. It's not like he doesn't give examples to support his opinions. His Noel Coward essay also makes sense. His Lerner one? While I don't think My Fair Lady is the masterpiece most do, I do think it is a good show. Camelot too. However, I do agree with SS on some things. Even his Hammerstein one isn't terribly catty.

I do think he took a lot of time to write it. I mean, he clams it took about three years. He didn't want to stir up any goblins by writing nasty anecdotes about Robbins or Laurents. His essay about Brustein and Academia is surprising and enlightening.

So I will disagree with your criticism of Finishing the Hat.

[Disneyland Magic Man]

Posted: 12/25/10 at 8:36pm

What's great about the book is that Mr Sondheim gives his honest opinions. We may not agree with what he thinks, but that's part of the reason we probably all worship the man.

If Sondheim wrote shows or music the way that everyone else did, his body of work wouldnt be what we've come to love today. By him discerning what he did and didn't like by his peers, he was able to create masterpieces like Company, Sunday, and all the rest. Imagine Sunday with Hammerstein's June/moon lyrics or Company with a score by Cy Coleman...

What I think is amazing is that like his shows, he didn't write it to sell copies... It's going to regardless. He wrote the book to answer questions that peoe have probably plagued him with for the last 50 years.

[chekkyjr]

Posted: 12/25/10 at 8:53pm

Wow, you all are way more evenhanded and scrupulous than I am. Yes, I think he's right about Larry Hart and Noely and AJL. AJL was married 8 times! "Marriage was Alan's way of saying good-bye," said one of Lerner's 8 ex-wives, if wikipedia is to be believed. Two confessions: 1) I think SS was wildly cute in 1957, especially in a bow tie; and: 2) I expect SS to be a genius in all things, and so I find myself demanding that his prose display a Henry Jamesian fullness of expression. But his sentences are sometimes a bit slack. If you ask me. Which of course you did not.

[sparrman]

Posted: 12/26/10 at 1:38am

The editing is surprisingly sloppy. On page 361, Sondheim's description of how he'd rewrite the ending of "A Little Priest" is repeated twice, in a footnote and also in his notes on the song. It's like there were two different editors, with no one checking against the repetition of material. There were a couple of lesser such mistakes as well.

And I thought the tirade against Robert Brustein was - to use the accusation Sondheim levels against Brustein - unprofessional. It's been 36 years, Steve! Let it go, man!

Brustein rebutted it; his rebuttal is pretty easy to find online.

[Kad]

Posted: 12/26/10 at 1:53am

I certainly didn't purchase the book expecting a well-written memoir. I picked it up to read about how the lyrics to Sondheim's shows came to be, and how he works, and anecdotes about the development of his shows. And for some of his opinions on his work and others. And I got all that.

As for cattiness and bluntness.. well, whatever. They're his opinions, and he makes no bones about that. I love the man's work. The man himself I'm not sold on. But I don't need to love the man to love his work.

[ClapYo'Hands]

Posted: 12/26/10 at 5:07am

"Imagine Company with a score by Cy Coleman..."

Sounds bloody amazing in my head!

[canmark]

Posted: 12/26/10 at 9:21am

I must admit that I was surprised (but pleasantly so), that Sondheim was so blunt in his assessment of others (although, as he says, he only writes about people who are dead). He could have written fluff pieces about other writers--or not mentioned them at all--but that he provides analysis (with examples of the good and the not-so-good) shows that he's artist who has analyzed his art, who has studied his fellow artists, and who sees his work as a craft. I think it's quite refreshing. I'm only part way through (and must admit I would have liked some dish, too), but appreciate Sondheim's frankness and his critiques of himself and others.

[sparrman]

Posted: 12/26/10 at 9:45am

Brustein isn't dead!

I think it's a great and fascinating book. I appreciate how ruthless Sondheim is in critiquing others' work (and his own). He's hard on Hammerstein, yet I found the piece on Hammerstein to be ultimately rather moving.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 12/26/10 at 10:03am

I expect SS to be a genius in all things, and so I find myself demanding that his prose display a Henry Jamesian fullness of expression. But his sentences are sometimes a bit slack

Unless the writer is Henry James himself, chekky, a Jamesian "fullness" of prose is usually an indication of pretension, not genius. (Your sentences are a good example of that.)

And "bombastic" in the subject line of this thread is, well, bombastic. (Or melodramatic, at any rate.)

I'm glad his prose is as it is. It's the way he talks, and the way he talks when he's excited and passionate about his topic.

And, sparrman, I'm not so sure I would blame "two different editors" for what you call the "repetition" on page 361. It's more like Sondheim wrote the book itself in two (or more) different passes: the first to include the lyric with occasional footnotes and the second to insert anecdotes. The footnotes are generally about lines he wrote that now irritate him. They are constant, throughout the book, as I imagine they are in his head: I imagine every single time he hears "I Feel Pretty": he cringes at what he calls the "sinful alliteration" of "fizzy and funny and fine." I don't find that footnote on page 361 is repetitious. I think the anecdote that follows amplifies it.

A third, fourth and fifth might have been to add the larger essays, the introductions and interstitial comments and, finally, the handwritten facsimiles and illustrations. It's like one of Suerat's large canvases that seems to be abstract but on close inspection has order and composition and beauty.

And I don't begrudge him his opinionated moments--in fact, I would have loved more of them. If all he had done was annotate his lyrics, it would have been wonderful...but cold.

The great achievement of the book is that it tells you the stories of his life the way a memoir would and sheds light into his creative process--both his enormous imagination and his intense self-criticism. But because it's not a memoir, he didn't have to "lie about himself a little," as Dmitri Weisman says in Follies.

I look forward to his second volume, which has such a perfect title: "Look, I Made a Hat."

[sparrman]

Posted: 12/26/10 at 10:51am

Of course, "two different editors" was only a guess. But I still maintain it's a mistake to present the same information twice, on the same page yet, and both times present it as if it's the first time we're hearing it. I suspect it will be corrected in future editions. Still, it's a small objection to a hugely fascinating and enjoyable work.

Yes, it's impossible not to wish for a little more "dish". How can you work with Zero Mostel and have NOTHING to say about it??? Kudos to Sondheim for his discipline and focus on the lyrics in this book, but I hope in addition to "Look I Made a Hat" he also does a more straightforward memoir.

[Kad]

Posted: 12/26/10 at 11:01am

I think what I would prefer to a memoir is an oral history, the way Free for All does with Joseph Papp and the Public.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 12/26/10 at 11:08am

I guess I was expecting more annotation to the lyrics. It seems like most (a non-scientific guess, but let's said at least half) go by without any commentary whatsoever.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 12/26/10 at 11:23am

You get a lot more than Ira Gershwin gave in his "Lyrics on Several Occasions."

And, sparrman, I don't think he has any intention of writing "a more straightforward memoir." I think he offers these two volumes in lieu of a memoir, take them or leave them.

[BroodingReader28]

Posted: 12/26/10 at 11:49am

What draws me to this book, and I presume to Sondheim in general, is the recurring idea of "the artist at work". I haven't read his book yet; however, I did order it as a Christmas present to myself.

As an artist, one would constantly be affected by his environs and I think that a book that interjects anecdotes, theatrical history, and occasional bitchiness is sure to be a good read. I also find Sondheim VERY knowledgeable about cultural history and about interpersonal dynamics. Regardless, even if the book is "bombastic", it will always be a worthwhile text to consider since it is an analysis of the work of the greatest American musical composer done by the greatest American musical composer.

Kudos for Sondheim for writing an interestingly structured memoir that covers his work, his life, and the works of others!

Updated On: 12/26/10 at 11:49 AM

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 12/26/10 at 11:58am

You get a lot more than Ira Gershwin gave in his "Lyrics on Several Occasions."

K.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 12/26/10 at 12:54pm

It's a wonderful book, but the "annotations" and "disquisitions" don't provide much in the way of self-revelation.



In Finishing the Hat, Sondheim takes Ira Gershwin's model and expands it with more: not just annotations and disquisitions but also "principles," "heresies," "grudges" and "whines."

Like Gershwin, Sondheim knows that the reader wants both the lyrics and the inside stories, but the set-up of the book gives him carte blanche to reveal only what he wants to reveal, like a literary striptease.

Updated On: 12/26/10 at 12:54 PM

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 12/26/10 at 12:58pm

At his age he's an opinionated curmudgeon? Pardon me while I faint from shock.


And Brustein is an a-hole who wrote the most incredibly homophobic things about Edward Albee back in the day. If you ever want to see the portraint of a name-dropper in action, check out his book LETTERS TO A YOUNG ACTOR.

[ClapYo'Hands]

Posted: 12/26/10 at 2:08pm

I would like to see him devote such a book to his music.

[Disneyland Magic Man]

Posted: 12/26/10 at 4:30pm

A moderator needs to delete this thread. Sondheim's not here to defend himself against people's misguided opinions.

If you don't like the book, don't read it. Just like if you don't like one of his shows, don't see it.

Get over yourselves... Whatever negative opinions some of you have about this book mean nothing because you're not Stephen Joshua Sondheim.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 12/26/10 at 4:39pm

K, crazy.

[chekkyjr]

Posted: 12/26/10 at 4:39pm

PalJoey! It's very easy to call me pretentious! You'll have to try harder, if you want to dismiss or insult me! I admit I'm pretentious. So is T.S. Eliot! Not to compare myself to the famous dead, or even the infamous dead. Hey, and who was it who said this thread should be deleted? Who are you, Julie Andrews? So Sondheim's a genius, so we shouldn't criticize him? I already said I fall to my knees and cry holy. Omigosh if Sondheim's hurting from a couple snarky comments on an online message board. . . And anyway, he's had the NYTIMES and practically the whole island of Manhattan genuflecting before his graven image all year! It's clear that everybody realizes we're living in the midst of this genius, and we can't let him die friendless like Mozart! So just chill.

And I should admit that the only reason I stopped reading SONDHEIM'S BIG BOOK OF SONDHEIM was because I had to leave the house in which it had been someone's Xmas present. I was riveted, okay?

Does that mean I'm not allowed to make jokes about B&D rituals and the self-absorption of great artists?

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 12/26/10 at 4:43pm

I feel PalJoey must have some sort of connection to this book, because I don't get why he's taking it so personally. Him and Disneyland Magic Man.