Your Least Favorite Sondheim Song — Page 4

I love "The Day Off." It's one of my favorite songs from SUNDAY. I also think the score of PACIFIC OVERTURES is pretty flawless -- thought I've yet to see it live (only the TV recording).

No matter how many times I see FORUM, though, I can't figure out how "Everybody Ought to Have a Maid" manages to stop the show.

@wickedfan: The reason I admire Assassins so much is that it examines a side of these personages that our collective history has shunted aside. To be fair, the song brilliantly evokes the feelings of collective grief and it firmly attaches a moral weight to the characters’ actions without seeming heavy-handed. However, at least to me, that moral weight hangs over the entire show and it’s most effective when the audience has to confront the fact that they’re being asked to examine the actions and motivations of people whose actions caused such tremendous collective pain. Both times I’ve seen the show and every time I listen to the cast albums, I’m never able to forget that I’m laughing and empathizing (though not sympathizing, I should add before I completely creep you out) with people who committed - or attempted to commit - heinous acts of political violence. The song stops the show cold to remind us of sentiments that are so firmly ingrained in public discourse that they should go without saying. It's an overt concession to the audience and a return to familiar territory in a show that, when done right, is anything but.

And I haven’t heard Bounce, but the version of “The Best Thing That Has Ever Happened” in Road Show is my favorite Sondheim song since No One Is Alone.

Updated On: 6/26/10 at 05:58 PM

A LITTLE OFF TOPIC: I saw Sondheim on Sondheim today and while Miss Cook was singing "In Buddy's Eyes," I was pretty sure someone was going to appear and start a medley of that song and "Tonight" from West Side Story. They just sound so similar to me...

ljay, whichever version was done at the City Center concert. Sorry for the incorrect titling.

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Most of 'Pacific Overtures' is not my cup of tea. However, 'Someone in a Tree' is just plain glorious.

But my least favorite Sondheim song would have to be 'Something Just Broke'. I've got a lot of issues with it's placement in the show and whether or not it truly belongs. I understood the addition, but I feel it ruins the spirit of the men and women that were just humanized.

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Something Just Broke seems totally at odds with the rest of the show, and, as many people have noted in regards to songs that were later added to shows, sounds like what he was working on at the time, Passion.




"It takes all kinds" is DEFINITELY the worst thing he has ever written. Although I assume it was probably intended to be tacky.

Updated On: 6/3/11 at 02:30 AM