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#51

Your Least Favorite Sondheim Song

Posted: 6/25/10 at 10:23pm

The reason you don't like "The Right Girl" is that it was written basically as a lead-in to a dramatic solo dance that Michael Bennett choreographed on Gene Nelson, who was a dancer/actor in the mold of Gene Kelly in 1950s Hollywood.

So it's more like "The Music and the Mirror"--and okay song that finds its fullest expression in a dance solo.

Watch Gene Nelson sing and dance it here on this blurry video from the original production of Follies, and you'll "get" what Sondheim and Prince and Bennett intended:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFxygAHcNGM

#52

Your Least Favorite Sondheim Song

Posted: 6/25/10 at 10:33pm

Oh, I've seen that before. He's so wonderful. You're right the song really is best experienced live and with the choreography.

"...and in a bed."

#53

Your Least Favorite Sondheim Song

Posted: 6/25/10 at 10:35pm

I love Bounce.

I don't think there is even one song that I don't love in Sondheim's entire catalog, but the one I listen to the least is The Frogs. Not the show, just the actual song "The Frogs".

....but the world goes 'round

#54

Your Least Favorite Sondheim Song

Posted: 6/25/10 at 11:04pm

I really like Something Just Broke. It's my second-favorite from Assassins, after Everybody's Got the Right.

I don't mind that some songs are overdone. I love all the Sondheim cabaret favorites - I'm Still Here, Send in the Clowns, Broadway Baby, Not a Day Goes By, Losing My Mind, Could I Leave You, etc etc etc. The only one I really don't care for is In Buddy's Eyes. I actually used to hate Being Alive until I watched the DVD a few times and saw Norm Lewis do it in Sondheim on Sondheim. Highlight of the show.

That said, I thought of some more I don't really like - Sorry/Grateful, It Would Have Been Wonderful, and In Praise of Women. They just bore me.

I know you. I know you. I know you.

#55

Your Least Favorite Sondheim Song

Posted: 6/25/10 at 11:04pm

"Come Play Wiz Me" isn't nearly on the level of the rest of his Whistle score. It's one belabored joke that even performers as charming as Lee Remick and Bernadette Peters run out of ways to sell on the recordings. "Something Just Broke" is good in itself, but I think it detracts from the brutality of the show's final moments and instead gets sentimental. The score of The Frogs is interesting in places, but it's the only Sondheim score I don't really remember. It just seems to blend into one long, not that involving, piece.

I don't listen to any of the songs from Forum except when I listen to the show as a whole. I like some of them a lot, but only in context.

Lastly, there's one moment of dialogue in Follies - Phyllis' "Bargains" speech - that always feels to me as though it SHOULD be a song, but isn't.

#56

Your Least Favorite Sondheim Song

Posted: 6/25/10 at 11:17pm

"Green Finch and Linnet Bird" and "Kiss Me." Blah!

"They're eating her and then they're going to eat me. OH MY GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!!!!" -Troll 2

#57

Your Least Favorite Sondheim Song

Posted: 6/25/10 at 11:59pm

I've tried to get through Pacific Overtures, honest, I've tried! But everytizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
The Flog

#58

Your Least Favorite Sondheim Song

Posted: 6/26/10 at 12:00am

THE FROGs is the score I listen to the least.

#59

Your Least Favorite Sondheim Song

Posted: 6/26/10 at 12:37am

What's interesting is how some of these choices seem to fair better live than in recording. I'm not particularly fond of "Bobby and Jackie and Jack" on CD, but it was a stand out when I saw MERRILY live. And, depending on the performer, "Green Finch" and "In Praise of Women" can be wonderful. They're both very, very tricky, though.

I'd have to go with "The Best Thing That Ever Has Happened." It just...no.

Edited for the title

Some people paint, some people sew, I meddle.

Updated On: 6/27/10 at 12:37 AM

#60

Your Least Favorite Sondheim Song

Posted: 6/26/10 at 12:53am

The title is "The Best Thing That Ever Has Happened." And what version don't you like? The straight or gay version? I think the gay version is some of his best recent work.

#61

Your Least Favorite Sondheim Song

Posted: 6/26/10 at 2:33am

I never listen to FORUM ever... The only production I've seen was a high school one and it was just terrible, really terrible. So maybe that's part of it, but I really just don't like any of the songs. Comedy Tonight is decent.

I can't believe some of the answers... The Right Girl is one of my favorites and I haven't seen it performed live. And I second ljay with The Best Thing That Has Ever Happened.

#62

Your Least Favorite Sondheim Song

Posted: 6/26/10 at 2:42am

The gay version is extremely accessible and 'traditionally' melodic - I don't understand that choice as his "least favourite" either :P.

Give me claws and a hunch, just away from this bunch.

#63

Your Least Favorite Sondheim Song

Posted: 6/26/10 at 8:02am

I don't like "On the steps of the palace" from Into the Woods. It's a nice song the first verse, but it goes absoultely no where and stays the same the whole song until the last note.

#64

Your Least Favorite Sondheim Song

Posted: 6/26/10 at 9:18am

""Something Just Broke" is good in itself, but I think it detracts from the brutality of the show's final moments and instead gets sentimental."

I disagree. Again, I think without it Assassins wouldn't work nearly as well. The song isn't sentimental. It's the one bit of heart in Assassins, really. And I KNOW that Assassins "shouldn't have heart and it's all about brutality and yadda yadda yadda" but on a purely technical musical theatre level the show NEEDS that song. Without it, the audience doesn't get a breather. And if you want the rest of the show to effect the audience they need that breather.

Also, it's the one time in the show where we see the intense effect of the assassins' work. The entire show we hear about all of their problems, and why they did it and how they did it and so on and so forth, but we never see the actual effect their actions had on the country. It's a perspective that the show needs to examine, and they do it simply and efficiently with that one song.

"Sing the words, Patti!!!!" Stephen Sondheim to Patti LuPone.

#65

Your Least Favorite Sondheim Song

Posted: 6/26/10 at 12:42pm

"I don't like "On the steps of the palace" from Into the Woods. It's a nice song the first verse, but it goes absoultely no where and stays the same the whole song until the last note."

You're joking, Right? that whole song is a scene in itself. It certainly does not "go nowhere" And it's one of the most brilliant uses of alliteration and rhyme scheme that he has ever written.

If you don't like it, that's a personal opinion, but don't say it's because it doesn't go anywhere.

"I'm an American, Damnit!!! And if it's three things I don't believe in, it's quitting and math."

Updated On: 6/26/10 at 12:42 PM

#66

Your Least Favorite Sondheim Song

Posted: 6/26/10 at 1:20pm

I agree with Pippin - shocked that someone would say that about "On the Steps of the Palace." I use that song in my class as an example of story telling in song AND as an example of how to use rhyme to effect.

swinther - I get having a hard time getting through Pacific Overtures, but have you made it to Pretty Lady? It's pretty deep into the score, but if there was a thread on the prettiest songs Sondheim wrote, that would be the first thing I would post. It's a gorgeous melody.

Hi, Shirley Temple Pudding.

#67

Your Least Favorite Sondheim Song

Posted: 6/26/10 at 1:21pm

How can anyone not like "Come Play Wiz Me?" Not up to the level of the rest of the score? Please. It's a great song, especially in the context of the show. And later when its opening theme is reprised in the introduction to "With So Little To Be Sure Of" it never fails to affect me.

Faced with these Loreleis, what man can moralize!

#68

Your Least Favorite Sondheim Song

Posted: 6/26/10 at 1:35pm

Sometimes there are ideas and concepts behind his songs that deepen another aspect of the show. The song itself may seem like a throwaway, which is why the title of this thread creates a skewed discussion. ALL of the songs mentioned in this thread work in the context of the show. We can dislike them as songs, but we probably would like them better in the context of the show.

If Sondheim himself were answering the question, he might say (as he said many times) "I Feel Pretty," because the "Noel Coward-ish" lyrics, he says, are false character writing for a young girl newly arrived in New York from San Juan.

But in the context of the show, the song invariably gets a big hand. It opens the second act, and the first act ended with two deaths, which was highly unusual for a musical in 1957. The audience appreciates the frivolity, knowing they are in for more death.

If Jerome Robbins were asked the question, he would say "One Hand, One Heart"--or "The Cigarette Song," as he used to call it.

Whenever he was watching the show and that scene would start, Robbins would quietly file out of his seat, up the aisle and into the lobby, where he would enjoy a cigarette (back when you could still smoke in the lobby) before returning to his seat for the Quintet and the Rumble.

#69

Your Least Favorite Sondheim Song

Posted: 6/26/10 at 1:40pm

jasonf - I'd heard "Pretty Lady" in the Sondheim Celebration at Carnegie Hall and just fell in love with it, so I was anxious to hear the rest of Pacific Overtures. I finally got the CD, and geez. I hadn't been that disappointed since Howard Hessman left "Head of the Class."

The Flog

#70

Your Least Favorite Sondheim Song

Posted: 6/26/10 at 1:57pm

Sondheim's disliking I Feel Pretty surprised me. I took lyrics like "alarming how charming" to be like a kid playing dress-up or acting sophisticated while knowing they are anything but. (Is irony too high class for Maria?) Then I thought, maybe those are the lyrics Lenny wrote that Sondheim was loathe to take credit/blame for.

My vote for worst songs are I Feel Pretty and A Boy Like That in Spanish. My little niece's excitement with the show came to a crashing halt when suddenly the words didn't make sense to her. Worst gimmick ever.

#71

Your Least Favorite Sondheim Song

Posted: 6/26/10 at 3:16pm

swinther - If you gave the show a fair shot then, I can certainly understand it. I've never seen the show, but I do love the score. It also could depend on which recording you've heard. The ENO which was the first time I heard it was one of the poorest recordings sound-wise I've ever heard. The revival, for me, is a little too long, but the OBC is a pretty good recording. As another try at an access point, though it's a long song, give "Please Hello" another try. The different styles Sondheim uses there are really clever and pretty amusing...

Hi, Shirley Temple Pudding.

#72

Your Least Favorite Sondheim Song

Posted: 6/26/10 at 3:34pm

Alright, jasonf. I'll give it one more shot. :)

The Flog

#73

Your Least Favorite Sondheim Song

Posted: 6/26/10 at 4:00pm

Of course there are many songs that work within a show but that are completely boring outside of the context of a show. It's why any theater piece loses something on the written page, no matter how brilliant. It's meant to be seen. Still, that doesn't take away from the fact that there are plenty of Sondheim song's I really don't want to listen to on my stereo, and ones I will enjoy if I'm in a certain mood or frame of mind that I skip over otherwise.

I know Sondheim loves "Someone in a Tree" but I'm not particularly fond of it musically. The two songs in Pacific Overtures I really love best are "Poems" and "A Bowler Hat" which I find both touching on a musical level as well as emotionally satisfying lyrically.

#74

Your Least Favorite Sondheim Song

Posted: 6/26/10 at 4:04pm

Not a fan of "The Day Off" from Sunday in the Park With George... though I think a big part of that is Mandy Patinkin's dog voices. I always skip that one.

In my pants, she has burst like the music of angels, the light of the sun! --Marius Pantsmercy

#75

Your Least Favorite Sondheim Song

Posted: 6/26/10 at 4:45pm

Watch this "Someone in a Tree" and you'll see why Sondheim loves it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cx6hhy2Dwzw

I was in college when Pacific Overtures opened. I had been increasingly obsessed all through high school by the expanding brilliance of Company, Follies and A Little Night Music. I naturally assumed I would love Pacific Overtures even more.

I came in from college and ran to attend a matinee. I hated almost every minute of it. I left the theater shocked and disillusioned. What had happened? Frank Rich wrote (about Merrily, I believe) that to be a Sondheim fan was to have your heart broken from time to time.

Pacific Overtures broke my heart. But "Someone in a Tree" is genius.

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