The Heckler: Why I'm allergic to Stephen Sondheim — Page 8

thats good PianoMann, I'm glad! Im going to be a big Broadway Star one day, and you guys are going to be flocking to the theatre to see me!!!

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F*ck you, Phillypinto.

That comes from the bottom of my heart. With your attitude, you won't be in a Broadway show if you blew Cameron Mackintosh.

Updated On: 3/22/15 at 08:46 PM

"Im going to be a big Broadway Star one day, and you guys are going to be flocking to the theatre to see me!!!"

Your delusions are unbelievable.

...does phillypinto not know what "at an impasse" means?

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I don't think I've seen Sondheim compared to Nicki Minaj before.

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Somewhere in the middle of a King and I post I asserted that up to half of the regulars here would probably rank Sondheim over Rodgers. I took some flak for that, from After Eight for one:

"Probably a third to a half of the posters here would put Sondheim over Rodgers."

You have GOT to be kidding. Truly, you have GOT to be kidding. Yes, I know that there are some brainwashed and/or brainwashing and/or hopeless and/or corrosive and/or corroded individuals here--- but surely nowhere near THAT many!

I pointed out that to an outsider the number of topics devoted to Sondheim or to one of his shows on this board made up a substantial fraction of all topics.

I referred to a topic where each was asked to name the ten best scores written for a musical. Of the fifty or so who complied, full near half of them included two or three or four scores by Sondheim.

Nevertheless, I kind of took my statement back, but now I'm not entirely sure.

My first exposure was when my father brought home from work the Company album, assuming that might mother would like it since she liked Broadway songs and this had won the Tony.

But my mother was used to a show opening like: There's a bright golden haze on the meadow, There's a bright golden haze on the meadow. What she got with Company was the jarring Bobby baby Bobby bubbi...

I've become more open to Sondheim over the years, although I don't ever think I could understand the merit of Sunday in the Park with George

But I've learned that there is a lot of life after "Clowns." I don't know that Rodgers ever wrote as fine a song about the aftermath of a shattered relationship with the punch of "Not a Day Goes By."

And as a lyricist there is no dispute as to his genius. If all else were to fail, West Side Story would be his monument. After all, his mentor was Oscar Hammerstein.

Updated On: 3/22/15 at 09:41 PM

Rodgers did music while Sondheim did lyrics as well. This alone shows why he is in a different category.

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"And as a lyricist there is no dispute as to his genius."

Uh, did you even bother reading the article that prompted this thread? Or the posts in it?

Musical Master,

Uh, it seems to me that the insults --- and worse --- are coming from those who are his most ardent devotees. They're the ones calling others idiots ---- and worse.

And of course, like you, they try to shut up all dissenters.

Sondheim came of age during the 1940s when jazz dominated musical taste. To our lot, from the 1960s, jazz seems like a journey without a map to a town that doesn’t exist.

Another stupid statement from the article. He writes off a whole genre, so this man's opinion on one particular composer shouldn't be taken to heart.

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@philly et al-The only easily accessible metric (Spotify) suggests that you are technically correct about Memory vis-a-vis Send in the Clowns. However, the truth is that neither song is popular in any meaningful sense, so this is literally much ado about nothing. Neither song registers at a discernible level.

@after eight-The reason people have no problem coming forward with negatives about Sondheim is that people have different taste. The etiology of your attributing Sondheim's popularity to "indoctrination" is manifest and sad, and it is unfortunate: people like what they like because they like it, not because they have been programmed in a manner that does not align with your (apparently pathological) contrarian preferences. It is also pretty obvious (confirmed by all the nasty things people say about you here) that you enjoy the posture you have adopted here, and playing the role you have assigned yourself like the clown that you are. There are happy clowns (e.g., Pinto) and there are sad clowns. You might ruminate on what it is that prompts you to be the latter. It's not pretty.

AfterEight makes it sound like voicing distaste for Sondheim's music and/or lyrics is the equivalent of rising up against a dictator's brutal regime. AfterEight also literally thinks there's a cabal of "bad guys" engineering the demise of Broadway through musicals about things he finds depressing and mean. AfterEight is either a massive, incredibly dedicated troll or needs to get back on their medications because boy howdy is that some paranoid-schizophrenic stuff going on there.

btw, in the last revival recording on Little Night Music, why is there so much speaking for the first 2 minutes of Send in the Clowns?? How annoying!! Im listening to it now...so pretty

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Updated On: 3/23/15 at 12:00 AM