The wisdom of Sondheim

[StageManager2]

Posted: 4/11/06 at 4:06am

I'm new to the worship at the altar of Sondheim. Since discovering him last year when I watched the DVDs of INTO THE WOODS, SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE, PASSION, and SWEENEY TODD, he has become my favorite lyricist of all time. In fact, I'll even go so far as to call him a poet because his lyrics are just beautiful and creative and witty, and so on. So far, INO THE WOODS is my favorite. Its life themes and maxims have given me so much comfort. Thanks, Stephen! The following are some of my favorite:

1. "Stay a child while you can be a child."
2. "Sometimes the things you most wish for are not to be touched."
3. "You may know what you want, but to get what you need, better see that you keep what you have."
4. "Near may be better than far, but it still isn't there."
5. "The prettier the flower, the farther from the path."
6. "Sometimes the greatest prize lies at the end of the thorniest path."
7. "The harder to wake, the better to have."
And my favorite:
7. "Oppotunity is not a lengthy visitor."

Can anyone think of more from his other shows?

[CJWesselman]

Posted: 4/11/06 at 4:08am

"Don't leave me hangin' on like a yo-yo."

Oh...damn, wait...was that Wham!? Sorry.

[best12bars]

Posted: 4/11/06 at 4:34am

"To flirt with rescue when one has no intention of being saved..."

A Little Night Music

(FYI... some of those quotes, including mine above, aren't actually Sondheim's. As brilliant as he is, he didn't write the books to these shows.)

[buffyactsing]

Posted: 4/11/06 at 5:50am

"Stop worrying it your vision is new. Let others make that decision-They usually do."

[StageManager2]

Posted: 4/11/06 at 5:56am

best12bars, aren't the lines I posted sung in the show? I assumed they were Sondheim's, since he is the lyricist and composer... in collaboration with James Lapine, perhaps?

[Sister Rose]

Posted: 4/11/06 at 7:11am

StageManager2 - Welcome to the Temple. One of my favorites is "And a girl has to celebrate what passes by" from ALNM, but there are so damn many it could take all the live long day.

[Sumofallthings]

Posted: 4/11/06 at 7:45am

"Stop worrying if your vision is new, let others make that decision, they usually do, just keep moving on." -Sunday in the Park With George

[astonishing1985]

Posted: 4/11/06 at 7:49am

"When going to hide know how to get there. And how to get back. And eat first"

[philcrosby]

Posted: 4/11/06 at 8:29am

You're quoting a lot of James Lapine as well.

One of my favorite Sondheim lyrics:

The choice may have been mistaken
So what?
The choice may have been mistaken
The choosing was not
You have to move on

[Piazzaslight]

Posted: 4/11/06 at 8:42am

I'll add another quote from Move On from SITP:

Anything you do,
Let it come from you.
Then it will be new.
Give us more to see.

[best12bars]

Posted: 4/11/06 at 10:32am

The quotes from Into the Woods?

Those "lessons learned" spoken by the various characters are very likely a mixture of Lapine's and Sondheim's work. They're not actual song lyrics, even though they're recited by the characters during a song. Sondheim often takes bits of dialogue or even a full scene and blends it or transforms it into a song.

[jasonf]

Posted: 4/11/06 at 10:36am

"Does anyone still wear a hat?"

Yeah.

Think about it.

[Pippin]

Posted: 4/11/06 at 10:44am

when you're alone on a saturday night, you might as well be dead.

[InfiniteTheaterFrenzy]

Posted: 4/11/06 at 11:17am

"Dreams don't die so keep an eye on your dream
Cause before you know where you are, there you are."

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 4/11/06 at 11:34am

"They hear drums, we hear music, be my friend..."



and this isn't really wise but it's my new favorite Sondheim lyric:

"That might be effective, my body's alright. But not in perspective and not in the light"

[Color and Light]

Posted: 4/11/06 at 11:35am

Pretty isn't beautiful, Mother,
Pretty is what changes.
What the eye arranges
Is what is beautiful.

Another one I love from SITPWG.

[buffyactsing]

Posted: 4/11/06 at 11:40am

"The more you cling to things the more you love them, the more the pain you suffer when they're taken from you."

Kinda not a fun one though..

[kelzama]

Posted: 4/11/06 at 2:09pm

"It's not so much do what you like as it is that you like what you do"
--SITPWG
"If life were only moments, then you'd never know you had one"
--ITTW

[dry2olives]

Posted: 4/11/06 at 2:18pm

The shiney stuff is tomates,
The salad lies in a group,
The curley stuff is potatoes,
The stuff that moves is soup.
Anything that is white is sweet,
Anything that is brown is meat,
Anything that is gray, don't eat.

[C is for Company]

Posted: 4/11/06 at 2:27pm

I don't know so much about the lyric but I love the moment in SITPWG
"I'll draw us now before we fade, Mother. You watch while I revise the world"
That whole song has such a mystical vibe on the dvd, I guess because the background just makes them look like they aren't anywhere here and that part is just very strange.

[rosekwbp]

Posted: 4/11/06 at 2:31pm

"Anything you do let it come from you then it will be true" SITPWG

"Hard to see the light now just don't let it go things will turn out right now we can make it so" ITW

And the quote that literally changed my life:

"Some people sit on their butts got the dream yeah but not the guts that's living for some people for some hum drum people I suppose well they can stay and rot but not Rose." from Gypsy

[best12bars]

Posted: 4/11/06 at 2:31pm

C is for Company---I agree, and I love that whole "Changing" section with the Mother and George.

When she sings, "Quick! Draw it all, Georgie," it always gives me chills.



"Sunday's disappearing all the time."

"Oh, Georgie... How I long for the old view."

Updated On: 4/11/06 at 02:31 PM

[C is for Company]

Posted: 4/11/06 at 2:39pm

Oh that whole section is just so celestial, like sometimes it just confuses me almost as to where they are or what is truly going on, but their interaction between each other is just something that adds magic to that whole show for me.
I love Mandy and Barbara and this is probably my favorite scene with them in it.

Oh and of course her "Arb sicka foreigners!" aka "I'm sick of foreigners". Or how about "Nurse! Nuuuurse, my faaaaaahn". Gotta love her

[jasonf]

Posted: 4/11/06 at 2:47pm

"When a person's personality is personable, he shouldn't ought to sit like a lump."

"Anyone can whistle..."

[Katurian2]

Posted: 4/11/06 at 2:56pm

"If I cannot fly, let me sing." -Sweeney Todd (My favorite quote)

"There won't be trumpets..."