The Heckler: Why I'm allergic to Stephen Sondheim

The article "The Heckler: Why I’m allergic to Stephen Sondheim" popped up on Google News today. I can't tell if it's supposed to be a joke or not.

It includes such choice quotes as:

"I’ve been the victim of a Sondheim evening only once in my life and I emerged feeling as if I’d been shrieked at for three hours by a gorilla with rabies."

and

"The rhymes are too haphazard to reveal a scheme or pattern. They just crop up at random like serial killers in a rural community."

and

"If you’re filling out a line with ‘dear’ or ‘dearie’, you’re very unwise to draw attention to your ineptitude with rhymes that feel forced. ‘Query’ is an unconvincing alternative to ‘ask’ or ‘wonder’. ‘Hara kiri’ is just bizarre. And ‘dearie’, if we’re honest, is not a word anyone would use except as an insult."

WTF?


The article in question.

Updated On: 3/21/15 at 11:06 PM

Finally, FINALLY, someone speaks the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

It certainly took long enough.

But better late than never.

From the article:

"One final question for those fans. Why do your bonces explode when someone says Sondheim’s crap?"

Because the truth is anathema to them, that's why.

I bet your peepee got hard when you read it.

Pfizer gave him a refund because even Viagra couldn't help.

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No opinion here, but for the record, this is what Lloyd Evans (aka "The Heckler") does. No one would expect anything different from him. Other recent articles:

"Why George Bernard Shaw was an overrated babbler"

"The Book of Mormon — toothless, jokeless, plotless and pointless"

"Phyllida Lloyd has nothing but contempt for her audience"

"Memo to Nick Payne: filling your plays with cosmic chit-chat doesn’t make you intelligent"

"The National Theatre of Scotland has done more to demean Scotland’s cultural reputation than anything I can think of"

"Tom Stoppard: too clever by half"

and onward...

The Heckler

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Updated On: 3/23/15 at 01:05 AM

What I love is that AfterEating acts like nobody has ever said these things about Sondheim ever in the history of ever. He's not what you'd call widely read, I guess.

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Oh boy, After Eight is at it again.

Followspot,

Thank you for those citations from Lloyd Evans.

Hail Lloyd Evans! A beacon in the darkness ---the voice of truth in a warped and corrupt world.

"I have to say that Sondheim is one of the reasons many people hate musicals. Most of his lyrics are unnecessary. Combine that with too many repetitions and strange rhymes and farfetched melodies, it gets to a point wher you just think: stop it! "

Yes, indeed. Sitting through something like Sunday in the Park With George or Passion could make anyone give up on musicals forever.

Everyone can like or dislike whatever they like or dislike, but to suggest that "many" people hate musicals "because" of Sondheim (or any other individual writer) or could "give up on musicals forever" because of him, is fatuous. The truth is, many people (perhaps most) hate musicals regardless of who wrote them, or from what era they arise. As for those who do like at least some musicals, Sondheim enjoys broad affection and it is willful ignorance to suggest otherwise. To suggest that anyone's taste is "the truth" is to misapprehend the essence of artistic endeavor and the way humans react to it. Agreeing with anyone's opinion (no matter how much of a minority view it is) is fine; drawing conclusions from that opinion as to those who do not agree with it is nescient.

You don't consider some of the musicals???? What can that possibly mean??

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Oh what BS, After Eight!

Sunday in the Park and Passion are both treasures that have given countless people, myself included, joy beyond belief. They are in the fact reasons we keep going back to the theater. Would that every new musical be as brilliant as Sunday in the Park or every character be as complexly drawn as Fosca!

Perhaps you should take Dot's advice and move on.

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Well this is going as well as can be expected.

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