What is the BEST of Sondheim? The worst? Favorite songs or characters? Tonight on Broadway and More!

Hello all! For those of you NOT watching the Super Bowl, I want to personally invite you all to join us tonight on "Broadway and More" the Internet Radio Talk Show devoted to All Things Broadway, where tonight’s show is dedicated to All Things Sondheim!

What are your favorite Sondheim shows? What are your least favorite? Who are your favorite Sondheim roles? Least favorite? What Sondheim role would YOU play if you could? And what subject matter would you like to see Sondheim write a musical about in the future?

Call in and share your ideas with us and the audience.

PLUS: Sondheim Trivia! How well DO you know this genius of Broadway and his shows?

Or feel free to call in and chat about other Broadway news that you've heard or stories you want to share about your Broadway and Theater Experiences.

Also throughout tonight’s show, we’ll be challenging you with Broadway Trivia, Sondheim Trivia and "Broadway Name That Tune". Let's see how good you are!

The show airs Sunday night from 9-11 p.m. Eastern (6-8 p.m. Pacific)

You can tune in for FREE by going to www.BroadwayTalkRadio.com
If it's your first time tuning in, give your computer's music player a minute or two to get synched up with the radio show's player.

You can also call in TOLL FREE by dialing: 888-842-BWAY (2929)

We also have a LIVE CHATROOM during the show where we check in frequently live on the air, for those of you who are too shy to call in directly, or don't have access to a phone.

I hope you'll join us! We have a lot of fun on the show, but what makes the shows great is having YOU, the Broadway Fans, join us and give us your great opinions and input!

Henry Farnam
Host of Broadway and More
The Internet Radio Talk Show Devoted to All Things Broadway!

Broadway and More Radio Show Link

Ok this is really off topic, but can you possibly bring up the question of when the current production of Sweeny will close?

P.S. I'll be listening.

Bella, u were GREAT!! Hope you come back next Sunday too.

Jenny, you should call in/. And it was her that talked bout Passion.. :)

Hi Jenny,

I really wish you HAD called in - I love it when we can get a great discussion going about these characters. Everyone has such great opinions and I find it really interesting when people don't always all agree with each other. Never be too nervous to call in - and if you don't agree with something, even better. That makes our show even more balanced!

Your defense of Fosca was very eloquently written. It made me want to take another look. And maybe my opinion was a little bit biased because I had a "Fosca" in my life once who really crossed the line into obsession. And it didn't make me fall in love, it scared me and made me want to get a restraining order.

But anyway, thank you SO much for your opinion and I really would LOVE to have you call in next week and share that view with us about Passion and Fosca. It's our opinions that make us all unique and makes this world interesting. Some opinions we agree with, and others we find completely absurd. But it sure makes it fun to try to sway each other in our direction when it comes to these great opinions!

Thanks again for listening. And please do call in! You're always welcome on the show!

Oh, and GREAT job to Izabella - thanks for being on the show - you brought a lot to it!

Henry Farnam
Host of Broadway and More
The Internet Radio Talk Show about All Things Broadway
Broadway and More Radio Show Link

no problem, it was a great pleasure to talk to you!

I never laughed at her. I saw the depth of her character, especially as played by the BRILLIANT Donna Murphy. But you brought up a really good point as to what my problem eventually became with her - the manipulation. I just don't think love should be manipulated. I never laughed at her or even hated her. And I understood why he eventually left Clara. And believe me, the show HAD me in the palm of it's hand until the last 20 minutes when I went "hey, wait a minute - something was left out here - how did he go from feeling one way about her to all of a sudden feeling this intensely passionate love for her?". I've been manipulated before by a person like Fosca - and it didn't make me fall in love, it made me feel manipulated, hurt and angry.

And I'm not even bad mouthing Fosca or the show Passion. I'm simply saying that I wanted another 20 minutes added in to take him from despising her to passionately loving her. Why DID the manipulations work? What changed and why? It's been years since I saw it (I saw opening week on Broadway), so my recollections might be mudied. But I just remember walking out of the theater feeling disappointed - not in the music, not in the performances, not in 3/4 of the show - but in that one instant of finding real love in someone who has done nothing but manipulate based on her obsession; a person who doesn't seem to care how her manipulations affect other people. Is that what a truly passionate love is? Manipulating someone to fall in love with you by obsessing about them? I just remember WANTING to like Fosca. I really really did. I kept looking for what was inside of her and not seeing what she looked like. And like I said, it's been a long long time, but I just remember after a couple of hours of REALLY wanting and TRYING to like her, that I just didn't. She wasn't someone I'd want to know in real life. And I guess that made it hard for me to understand why, in a split second, he instantly loves her.

But don't get me wrong - I think it's an incredible role, performed to perfection by Donna Murphy with a score that was absolutely beautiful. I agree that it was wrong for the audience to laugh at her or just hate her because she was so ugly. But I just wished that extra 20 minutes was put in so that I could see him changing his mind and seeing through to some real feelings for her, and have it based on something more than manipulations. Trust me - I WANTED them to find love. I WANTED him to see past the exterior and see to the beauty of her flawed but loving interior. But no matter how much I wanted that to be my experience, I still walked out of the theater thinking to myself "Really? He REALLY fell in love with her? What did I miss?".

But as I said on the show tonight - Sondheim stories and characters are SO rich that you find all KINDS of subtext in them. Perhaps I never gave it enough of a chance to go back and find out more about Fosca. But please don't get upset with me that I was turned off enough by her in one viewing to not really care about finding out more of what was underneath.

It's like when you're at a really great wedding and there's that one friend of the bride who is absolutely miserable and jealous of the bride, angry and very self centered (there's one at every wedding), and who wants to make it all about her. Even though there's probably a lot under the surface and maybe a really deep and wonderful person under all of that, are you really compelled to go digging in under that surface when you've just plain not enjoyed any of the time that you've had with the girl? Maybe not, unless of course she shows you something beyond the manipulation and you see some sense of humor, or sensitivity to others, or humanity of some kind coming through in her personality. But if not, you don't hate this girl - you just would rather steer clear of her since she brings everyone down when she's around. So for me, Fosca was sort of like that girl at the wedding. Interesting character? Yes. Someone I'd want to know? No. Someone I'd see myself all of sudden being head over heels in love with after so much manipulation and obsession. No, definitely not. But that could all be changed for me with one kind act, one selfless gesture, a sense of humor. Anything redeeming.

And perhaps I just missed it. It's hard to imagine that I would since I'm the guy who loves seeing way below the exterior and delve deeply into characters. And perhaps I chose to not see it because I was simply turned off by her manipulative behavior. And in years since, having been on the receiving end of obsession and manipulation, it's probably soured me even more on the Fosca character because the whole thing makes my blood run cold. Trust me, experience something like that in real life, and you'll see what I mean. Manipulation does not endear you to someone, it makes you scary and creepy.

BUT, I'm willing to also take a look at the other side. I'm open to accepting that maybe I did miss something. But until the manipulation is erased, I'll still have a hard time. Manipulation is not love, it's actually a very controlling and hateful act. Hateful internally to the person doing it and hateful to the person who is being manipulated. Love is giving over of yourself to care for another in a way that is unselfish and nuturing and protective and caring. Love is a very selfless thing. It's not about "what are you going to become for me and MY happiness", it's "what can I do to help you fulfill who you are for your own happiness".

Show me where Fosca does that - and trust me - you'll have a convert over to the Fosca team.

Like I said, I didn't hate Passion or the characters, I just felt there was 20 minutes missing - like the producers cut off an important 20 minutes of the story and just left it up to the audience to fill in the gaps on their own.

But I'm always willing to change my mind or take another look. That's why I host a talk show. There's nothing better than hearing other people's opinions on things and hearing their take on it and maybe learning something new or finding a new perspective.

I was wondering the same thing. I'm in a different time zone but would still love to hear the show!

Thank you for that detailed answer. It's so wonderful to debate about this one-of-a-kind show with intelligent people. I love it so much, but at times I can't really articulate why - reading other people's responses is absolutely great.

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I always wonder about that 'missing 20 minutes.' On the surface, it appears far too convenient that Georgio would have such a change of heart. Is it really so sudden, though? The audience brings its own prejudices to the table. We have a fascination with physical beauty. Perhaps we are the problem. We cannot believe that deeper feelings can be generated for a physically unattractive person. Fosca adds to this disbelief with her socially unacceptable behaviour. The show gives us such a contrast between the two relationships. In earlier scenes, Georgio is able to discuss fairly intimate matters with Fosca. Their conversations run deeper than the scenes of lovemaking between Giorgio and Clara, whose relationship appears to fill a physical need rather than anything deeper. Fosca initially asks for friendship; her loneliness brings a need for intellectual and spiritual fulfillment. The conversations she initiates with Giorgio have probably started a tiny crack.

This crack opens a little wider with 'Loving You.' While Giorgio remains appalled by Fosca's obsessive behaviour, he is given the reason - she loves him by compulsion. This parallels the earlier 'hopelessly in love' of his letter explaining his relationship with Clara. However, Fosca gives Giorgio a clear message - she would die for him. Clara would not. When Giorgio desperately wishes to run away with Clara, she backs off.

It is the close proximity between the end of Giorgio's relationship with Clara and his apparent love for Fosca that still causes problems. Perhaps it is only seen to be valid after you have seen the show several times. The score is written in such a way as to allow themes to seep into the consciousness of the audience. Fosca has seeped under Giorgio's guard. She has given the reason for their possible closeness with, 'they hear drums, we hear music.' This intellectual and spiritual similarity needs time to mature. Perhaps it is only with repeated visits to this show can we put aside our prejudices and accept that love is not always convenient or obvious.

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I actually agree with you 100%. But my issue isn't that Fosca finally changes, I'm glad she does. But I almost wish he found his great passionate love for her AFTER she backs away from the manipulation. And the discussions that they have about love in the beginning - although wonderful and definitely the kinds of discussions that make you feel affectionate towards someone and a kinship with them - I don't think just feeling the same way about love necessarily makes someone fall in love with you. I've had these conversations with both people I was interested in and people who were interested in me. And unless that spark and chemistry was there, the conversations never made me wake up one morning and think "wow, I'm now in love with this person". Except in cases where the person was SO wonderful over a period of time that I couldn't stop thinking about them and wanted them around all the time.

I love all that you guys are saying and it's really opening my eyes more about Fosca - to the point where I do want to go back and give "her" a chance. But I still feel the loss of that 20 minutes. I want to see his eyes opening to love.

But perhaps the damaged person in all of this really ISN'T Fosca at all. Maybe it's Giorgio. He did, after all, carry on a long term affair with a married woman. There must have been a certain amount of self-loathing to allow himself to be involved in a situation like that. Did he not think that he deserved better? Or was Clara so perfect that he couldn't resist her? Obviously not in the end, she wasn't. She was flawed and he saw that. Maybe what's working here is that Giorgio can't be alone. Maybe he has a deep NEED to not only be loved, but to be adored and put on a pedestal.

Maybe I'm just giving Giorgio WAY too much credit here. Maybe ultimately it wouldn't matter who it was as long as they adored him and he felt involved in a relationship. If Giorgio is weak in that way, then perhaps the "they hear drums, we hear music" argument would work on him in the end once he's out on his own and alone without a relationship.

I do want to mention something. You guys don't know me, but I'm not someone who bases my opinions on people based on looks. I'm sure a lot of Passion detractors couldn't get past her ugly looks. For me, it wasn't her looks or the unibrow. It was the manipulation. I hate manipulators and it's just hard for me to put that aside to find the redeeming qualities. Nothing good in my life has ever come from being around a manipulator. And so perhaps I'm putting MYSELF in Giorgio's position and saying "there's no way I'd do that without that extra 20 minutes where she moves past the manipulations".

And I guess we ALL put ourselves into the characters we watch in one way or another. I mean, who hasn't sympathized with Elphaba because you remember a time when you felt out of place? Who hasn't felt the pain of Colehouse Walker when Sarah dies because you've lost someone very special yourself?

Well, I guess I can now really say that it's not Fosca that bothers me so much about Passion. It's Giorgio. Maybe he's REALLY the one who is seriously flawed.

oh by the way, i just checked the archive section but it wasn't there... is it going to be there soon?