Sondheim's MUSCLE workshop found and released
Sondheim's MUSCLE workshop found and released
#1Sondheim's MUSCLE workshop found and released
Posted: 3/23/26 at 7:48pm
https://youtu.be/zJ3-u_gJPEU?si=FW_snFB71xL5IGsV
The (admittedly unfinished) but complete workshop of Sondheim's adaptation of "Muscle" has finally leaked. I suspect this won't stay up for long, so check it out before it becomes ephemera again.
There's only a little music in it overall, making it sort of an accidental companion piece to "Here We Are."
#2Sondheim's MUSCLE workshop found and released
Posted: 3/23/26 at 7:59pm
If any kind soul wanted to DM me a link to download this I’d be extremely grateful.
#3Sondheim's MUSCLE workshop found and released
Posted: 3/24/26 at 8:13am
And it looks like James Lapine moved forward with the show with Willian Finn instead of Sondheim?
https://playbill.com/article/lapine-finn-and-fitzhugh-flex-their-muscle-june-13-july-22-in-chi-com-97213
#4Sondheim's MUSCLE workshop found and released
Posted: 3/24/26 at 8:49am
It’s surprising they would do a workshop with only one song written.
#5Sondheim's MUSCLE workshop found and released
Posted: 3/24/26 at 9:32am
TotallyEffed said: "If any kind soul wanted to DM me a link to download this I’d be extremely grateful."
PM'd you
#6Sondheim's MUSCLE workshop found and released
Posted: 3/24/26 at 10:12am
Jordan Catalano said: "TotallyEffed said: "If any kind soul wanted to DM me a link to download this I’d be extremely grateful."
PM'd you"
🫶🏼
scottcain
Swing Joined: 5/12/03
#7Sondheim's MUSCLE workshop found and released
Posted: 3/24/26 at 10:44am
I saw the William Finn version of Muscle in Chicago. It was fine - the score was very Finn, which I like, but the source story and characters really didn't scream out for musicalization or dramatization, honestly.
#8Sondheim's MUSCLE workshop found and released
Posted: 3/24/26 at 10:52am
scottcain said: "I saw the William Finn version of Muscle in Chicago. It was fine - the score was very Finn, which I like, but the source story and characters really didn't scream out for musicalization or dramatization, honestly."
When I saw the link, post I thought, "Based on that book? Or just the coincidence of the title." From the song (which is all I listened to--granted, I found a lot of lyrics hard to hear clearly), it didn't sound like it had a very strong connection to the the source material.
#9Sondheim's MUSCLE workshop found and released
Posted: 3/24/26 at 12:46pm
If it helps, the lyrics are in Look I Made A Hat.
#11Sondheim's MUSCLE workshop found and released
Posted: 3/24/26 at 5:30pm
It's very interesting getting to hear these words put to the music they were written for. I've always wondered how much of an impact Lapine had on Sondheim's sound in the second half of his career, or if that sound was just the jittery engine that gave his pastiche-ier works their zip and energy. That bit where the main singer gets stuck on "in my own four walls" etc sounds almost identical to the "but he drew me close" section from Into the Wood, but also a lot of it reminds me of the score from Saturday Night.
The play itself is atrocious. Obviously it's a clumsy reading of an early version, and I can "hear" where some songs would be drawn from (like the post-sex bit where, as they put more clothes on, they get more inhibited) but oof. It's funny listening to everyone laughing at the awful jokes. I can't imagine the monumental amount of work it would've taken to shape this up into something functional, because there's almost nothing to build on.
Would be curious if anyone has any familiarity with the Finn version could compare the two.
#12Sondheim's MUSCLE workshop found and released
Posted: 3/24/26 at 5:46pm
That was a fascinating listen but to me everything about it was dreadful. It makes ‘here we are’ or ‘road show’ look like Pulitzer Prize winners.
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