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RIP Stephen Sondheim — 14 Comments

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. Please forgive the mistake. Hammerstein was a lyricist, not a composer. Which makes my point wrong. Sorry. Rogers wrote those melodies.

  4. 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

  5. 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.

  6. 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.)-

  7. 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.”

  8. 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.

  9. 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.

  10. 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.

  11. 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.

  12. 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.”

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