Thoughts on Passion?

terrific musical that deserves more admiration

After SUNDAY..., INTO THE WOODS, and ASSASSINS, all of which were overstuffed full meals, PASSION felt like a barely warmed up appetizer. It was at once deadly dull and more operatic in showing its emotions, a dreary combination.

It was basically a 3-person one-act play with a few superfluous soldiers in the background singing consistently superfluous songs. At the time, I remember really liking "I Wish I could Forget You", and wondering why none of the other songs landed as well for me. Once I owned the album and could really study the score, I knew why-- that was the only song in conventional 32-bar construction. It even rhymed, for God's sake. And it stated something complex in a beautifully simple way. Every other musical sequence seemed like part of a meandering through-sung show (a style I generally dislike). We had no hooks to hold on to, no rhyme schemes to lock the words together, and no characters to really root for. The result for me was a shorter than average evening that bored me more than shows twice as long.

In the last 22 years, I've come to learn the lyrics by heart, and my ears have grown to appreciate unconventionally structured scores, so back I went 2 years ago to see the CSC revival that had gotten such great reviews. I enjoyed the singing and instrumental work a great deal, but honestly, that show has simply not got the bones to work on me. It's one of the coldest shows ever to examine the heat and fire of romantic love.

Updated On: 12/11/16 at 08:23 PM

It's definitely not Sondheim's best show, but in a lot of ways it's quite subversive. Can you name any other musical that opens with a love song? Plus the love triangle at its root is like the gender reversed counterpart of that in Phantom of the Opera. There are always stories of the undesirable man feeling entitled to the woman of his choosing (and often getting her, Phantom notwithstanding) but how often does that happen the other way around?

It's one of my favorite Sondheim scores. I remember being bored when I saw the original Broadway production - it was just too "different" for me to understand on first viewing - but once I got the recording, I fell in love almost instantly. I actually think it is lush and romantic, at least as preserved on the original cast recording. I love the music from beginning to end, except for the soldier gossip/pool scenes.

For me the score is one of the most beautiful of all Sondheim's.... more openly emotional and I would love just another lush chamber opera of this type from him. I LOVED it when I first saw it, and very much enjoy the Broadway cast album, though I regret all the trims made to fit it on once CD. PS Classics got it right with a 2 CD edition of the off Broadway revival and First Night did a more sensible compression to one disc for the original London Production. The PBS TV version is a wonderful preservation of the original cast and staging. I also very much enjoyed the later PBS edition on LIVE FROM LINCOLN CENTER with Patti Lupone and Michael Cerveris. Cerveris had also been in the Kennedy Center production which I loved as much for teh imaginative staging as for the performances by Judy Kuhn and Rebecca Luker.

Last summer (2015) The Stratford Festival here in Ontario staged it in a concert format in their intimate studio theatre and the audiences very clearly responded to the show's rich emotional journey...no one walked out, you could hear the proverbial pin drop during the performance and the standing ovation at the conclusion was long and heartfelt.

I never witnessed any of the hostility After Eight claims to have seen although the authors admit that during previews audiences were having a hard time accepting and believing the story. Their jeering behavior was reported in the press and in online chat forums and I think may have encouraged others to go and behave in just this way.



If you go in expecting to hate it you most likely will.

I LOVE this score! I think it is one of his best. Sure, the book may not be great, but the score is one I return to over and over again. I find it lush and haunting. After seeing the original on stage and then again on DVD, I enjoyed it much better on DVD. I think the performances of the OBC are wonderful. Many people are sour about Passion. It won Best Musical in a VERY weak year of shows. I could sit through Passion over and over again as long as I never see another production of Beauty and the Beast! Ugh! There's a snooze fest!

I saw the original Broadway production three times, and have seen several revivals in various places. The score has some very good music, but it's the only Sondheim show with absolutely NO sense of humor, and I'm always bored before it's halfway through.

The fact that, IMO, it confuses pathetic obsession for mature love doesn't help at all.