RIP Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Sondheim, one of the giants of the American musical theater, died three days ago at the age of 91. Sondheim’s Wiki entry describes him this way:
Sondheim was praised for having “reinvented the American musical” with shows that tackled “unexpected themes that range far beyond the [genre’s] traditional subjects” with “music and lyrics of unprecedented complexity and sophistication”. His shows addressed “darker, more harrowing elements of the human experience”, with songs often tinged with “ambivalence” about various aspects of life.
He initially gained fame as a lyricist, however, having composed lyrics for “West Side Story” and “Gypsy.” And it is as a lyricist that I appreciated him, because although I definitely like some of his more tuneful songs, I’m not really keen on his work as a whole because of what I perceive as a lack of melody and melodic hooks. I may be in the minority there, though.
I also admire Sondheim for his more recent criticism of a newer production of “Porgy and Bess,” a production I saw in Cambridge, MA before it opened in New York City, and I agree with Sondheim 1000 percent. Simply put, the production was abominable.
In doing a search of my blog, I’m surprised to see I never wrote about it, because for a while I was incensed at what I’d seen and I wrote a couple of very lengthy drafts for a post about it and about the black feminist directors who “re-imagined” it. Perhaps some day I’ll polish it and publish it…
But here’s Sondheim on the matter – for which he was heavily criticized, of course:
[Director] Ms. Paulus says that in the opera you don’t get to know the characters as people. Putting it kindly, that’s willful ignorance. These characters are as vivid as any ever created for the musical theater, as has been proved over and over in productions that may have cut some dialogue and musical passages but didn’t rewrite and distort them.
What Ms. Paulus wants, and has ordered, are back stories for the characters. For example she (or, rather, Ms. Parks) is supplying Porgy with dialogue that will explain how he became crippled. She fails to recognize that Porgy, Bess, Crown, Sportin’ Life and the rest are archetypes and intended to be larger than life and that filling in “realistic” details is likely to reduce them to line drawings. It makes you speculate about what would happen if she ever got her hands on “Tosca” and ‘Don Giovanni.” How would we get to know them? Ms. Paulus would probably want to add an aria or two to explain how Tosca got to be a star, and she would certainly want some additional material about Don Giovanni’s unhappy childhood to explain what made him such an unconscionable lecher.
Then there is Ms. Paulus’s condescension toward the audience. She says, “I’m sorry, but to ask an audience these days to invest three hours in a show requires your heroine be an understandable and fully rounded character.” I don’t know what she’s sorry about, but I’m glad she can speak for all of us restless theatergoers. If she doesn’t understand Bess and feels she has to “excavate” the show, she clearly thinks it’s a ruin, so why is she doing it? I’m sorry, but could the problem be her lack of understanding, not Heyward’s?
Much much more at the link. And let me just say that Sondheim is being kind to these people, who ruined the opera for political reasons, as well as (I believe) aesthetic envy of the work of an actual genius whom they felt the need to cut down to their own size.
But back to Sondheim. Here is my favorite song of his about ambivalence, from “Company”:
And a big favorite here, performed excellently by an unlikely singer:
Somewhere along the way I got the idea that Sondheim’s view on melody–he avoided it–was shaped by his having been mentored by Oscar Hammerstein, whose melodies remain ineffable. I suspect Sondheim deliberately steered clear of melody because he knew he couldn’t be better at it than Hammerstein. Sondheim, I think, was also an intellectual, which, at least to me, explains why I have so much trouble with his work. There’s a coldness, or maybe a distance, you never feel when listening to Rogers and Hammerstein. Still, that said, the man was a genius, and a giant of the stage. His two books on theater (Look, I Made a Hat & Finishing the Hat) are wonderful.
I saw “Sweeny Todd” at a local Omaha community theater; a tiny theater. I thought it was great. I love “Pretty Women.” Especially sung by Johnny Depp and that other guy.
Please forgive the mistake. Hammerstein was a lyricist, not a composer. Which makes my point wrong. Sorry. Rogers wrote those melodies.
It was Richard Rodgers.
However, Hammerstein was a mentor to Sondheim in Sondheim’s youth, more or less a surrogate father. See this.
Sorry, but the Dench version seems more suited for a non-musical version of “Night Music”.
I think I first heard the song as recorded by Sinatra on the album, “Ol’ Blue Eyes Is Back”. Of course, the Judy Collins recording got the lion’s share of airtime, but I still thought Frank’s was the most definitive.
That is, until I heard Sarah Vaughan –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdnRRW2gINw
Lots of wonderful shows. One of my favorites: A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum. Zero Mostel and Buster Keaton. And Michael Crawford, pre-Phantom.
I have loved musical comedy since childhood – since my grandmother took me at age 6 to see Peter Pan w/ Mary Martin at the Coconut Grove Theatre (Miami). It was my first show and I fell in love with musicals for life! (and have a huge drawerful of Playbills of every show I’ve ever seen to prove it!) I begged for record player as a child so after lights out I could play show music over and over so I could write down the lyrics and learn them. The classics are classic for a reason: they are magical and can transport you to another time and place when the production is done well. One can see them over and over for the same magic. While I regret the dearth of creativity on Broadway for many decades exceptions: Rent, Hamilton, Spring Awakenings and few others for at least last 3 decades) I find “re-imaginations” of great classic productions, especially for purpose of delivering political messages so enormously annoying! Not against new shows with messages – Hamilton has one and is definitely a new classic: original, creative, with great music, and dance (and apurposefully non-white cast (have my own opinions about that) but ,entertaining and enjoyable for fresh approach and visual and audible magic. “The Lion King” was another spectacularly creative and original show). Classics remain popular for a reason though for a longtime, Broadway had at least as many re-mountings as new shows. Many directors and producers have re-made classics with there own imprint -it’s possible and has been done with much success over the years. But to me, “re-imagining” – changing the work, especially to convey an ideological message, is basically theft! If you are so bent on re-imagining, use that imagination to WRITE YOUR OWN SHOW!
(Looking forward to Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of “West Side Story” for the big screen opening in a few weeks. We know he has as good an imagination and as much creativity as there is. Will be interesting to see what he does with it.)-
This very interesting post-memoir-obit for Sondheim was on Powerline’s Picks yesterday.
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/one-day-in-the-house-with-steve/
And about that remake of WSS – it will be brilliant but that won’t save it (John Podhoretz in June):
https://nypost.com/2021/06/30/steven-spielbergs-west-side-story-adaptation-is-going-to-get-him-canceled/
“The raging, petulant, stupid but click-baity op-eds write themselves, all of which will share this implicit message: Jews stole our music, insulted our accents and are making bank on our pain.”
I am a fan of the American musical theatre and an absolute fan of Sondheim. It seems to me he is underrated and less well known than might be expected (at least outside the USA), given the high quality of his work. I appreciate his quite original, exquisite melodies that he fills with long lines of clever poems, reaching seemingly miraculous equilibria between music and words. This applies to every kind of his songs, either they convey drama, or humour, or some apparent frivolity. I keep a pen in my car with many of his songs and I am not tired of enjoying them after years.
I was an enormous fan of American musicals from a very young age. I loved every Rodgers & Hammerstein musical, as well as more modern productions like The Music Man, and wore out vinyl records listening and re-listening to them.
I recently found an old vinyl of Carrousel, and have to say it has not aged well. Billy Bigelow is a bully. I wonder if Sondheim’s musicals will age well, or if people will look back in 30 years and say they were not melodious enough?
That said, I find the essence of good music to be the surprise twist, which Sondheim gave us in spades — both musically and in lyrics. When I would first hear a work of his, I would find it distasteful. Then after a few days I would find myself seeking it out again, to hear the music and words all over again. Eventually I would find it very appealing. This was the case with Send in the Clowns, which I now love.
You’re not in the minority. Sondheim was a great lyricist, but a mediocre composer. Fifty years from now, “Send in the Clowns” will be the only Sondheim song that is performed.
Steve Sailer has a fine obit: https://www.unz.com/isteve/stephen-sondheim-rip/
The one missing item is of course catchy tunes. As with most Sondheim musicals, you won’t walk out humming the closing song. …
In a more tuneful alternate reality version of Broadway history, Leonard Bernstein would have followed up West Side Story by composing three or four more musicals, with Sondheim repeating as lyricist.
I really like his clever lyrics, but GREAT songs also have great music. I also think the lyrics to Send In The Clowns, one of my favorites, actually fit an aging womanizing man more than a woman.
I often think of both Finishing the Hat (from Sunday in the Park with George) and Into The Woods (after the “happily ever after” in combining a few different fairy tales), but not for singing along with.
Sorry-Grateful is poignantly true for so many couples.
But Neo, when was the last time you sang it to yourself? Or any Sondheim song, other than Clowns?
He was a Genius lyricist.
Tom Grey:
I agree that Sondheim, for me, was primarily a brilliant lyricist with a few exceptions.
But I think I have sung “Sorry/Grateful” to myself on occasion, having been in a long-term marriage that ultimately ended in divorce.
Another one I have sung to myself – because of a relative who felt it was important to him – “Anyone Can Whistle.”