sondheim on sondheim

[Richard 2]

Posted: 6/2/10 at 9:31pm

Does anybody know why "Pacific Overtures" was omitted from the show ?

[Mildred Plotka]

Posted: 6/2/10 at 9:34pm

Cause James Lapine is RACIST!

[ljay889]

Posted: 6/2/10 at 9:36pm

Parts of the score were used for the entr'acte during previews. But the entr'acte was since cut.

[yankee_fan907]

Posted: 6/2/10 at 10:59pm

Lapine came to talk at my school, and he addressed this. The answer is quite simple: they just couldn't find a place for it. They tried really hard, but nothing they did worked well. There's no other reason.

[Mildred Plotka]

Posted: 6/3/10 at 2:08am

That's such a lame answer. Couldn't work in? There's no plot. They fit a Passion sequence in! They could easily have done "Someone in a Tree" with video of Sondheim chatting about how he admires that composition.

Methinks Roundabout didn't want to remind its subscribers of that awful revival they did not so long ago.

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 6/3/10 at 3:01am

I suspect it is because there is so little in the score that is easily excerptable. They did use "Pretty Lady"in the original SIDE BY SIDE, but most of the other numbers are very long and would not really make much sense out of context. Notice there is nothing from PACIFIC OVERTURES in PUTTING IT TOGETHER either.

[Mildred Plotka]

Posted: 6/3/10 at 3:36am

There's also the fact that much of the success of Pacific Overtures was in its Asian cast. Having non-asian actors perform the songs wouldn't make much sense. And as FrontRow said, there's not much to pull from the score that'd make sense out of context.

I still think "Someone in a Tree" could have worked though, especially since it's a personal favorite of Sondheim.

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 6/4/10 at 3:12am

A recent Toronto production of SIDE BY SIDE used "Someone in a Tree." The Sondheim fans loved it. The rest of the audience was mystified for 7 minutes.