Everyone and his brother have been posting about Sondheim...so perhaps I shouldn't add to the Overwhelm. The only thing I can say is that, with a couple of exceptions like Peter Pan and Hello Dolly, Sondheim is what turned me into a Broadway nut. And thanks also to him, I don't fall for the bells and whistles, the spectacular smoke and mirrors type of Broadway (that means Phantom and Cats and Miss Saigon's helicopter). Yes, I have been known to thrill at those 17 extra choruses of Jerry Herman's and his glockenspiels, but given the choice, I much prefer emotionally ambivalent, neurotic, smart lyrics, and melodies that you HAVE to listen to several times to appreciate, let alone sing back. That's Pacific Overtures and Sunday In The Park and Merrily.
My first Sondheim musical was Company. I'd just moved to New York City and despite living with a boyfriend, and being part of a new-to-town "gang," I spent plenty of time alone in that Hell's Kitchen apartment, delving into somebody else's LP collection. And there I found "Company". The first time I heard "The Ladies Who Lunch", I didn't even understand it. Who the hell were these ladies? Why was Joanne so pissed off at them? And what about Mahler? (They mentioned him once, and then...? :) This was 1978 so I was way late to the Sondheim game, but then ...but then...A FRIEND (Richard Pugh, a lyric tenor, long since passed) got a part in the chorus in the original production of Sweeney (he also understudied the part of Beadle Bamford!). We (the new-to-NYC rookies, fresh out of SUNYs) went about 17 times. Over and over. We prided ourselves on knowing all the lyrics. We'd quote Sondheim anecdotes over East Side brunches (when $5 got you Eggs Benedict and 2 Mimosas!). He wrote flops and lost money and seemed emotionally scarred. We could relate to that! We smugly referred to him as "Steve." Like we knew him and he knew us. Sondheim connected us to New York City and starting out and screwing up, and I felt as close to being understood (by a Broadway composer?) as I ever would.
I ran the Central Park reservoir to strains of "Someone In A Tree" (it's the ripple, not the sea). I detoured thru Grand Central singing "Another Hundred People". I now understood "The Ladies Who Lunch". And cried thru the first act of Sunday In The Park, knowing for the first time that I had just married a man I didn't love. !?!?! Stephen, you mind reader. You heart reader.
I'm not going to find a piano bar to cry in. Or join Lin in Times Square to sing his anthems. This is too personal. But I can salute/mourn/remember (and remember the old me) with his music everyday. Like Sunday. Not an ordinary Sunday. :)
Side By Side By Side (Ensemble, Side By Side By Sondheim)
Company (Elaine Stritch, Barbara Barrie, Charles Kimbrough, George Coe, Beth Howland, Steve Elmore, Charles Braswell, Company)
Another Hundred People (Pamela Myers, Company)
Being Alive (Dean Jones, Company)
Lovely (Zero Mostel, Jack Gilford, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum)
Impossible (David Burns, Brian Davies, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum)
Finishing The Hat (Mandy Patinkin, Sunday In The Park With George)
We Do Not Belong Together (Bernadette Peters, Mandy Patinkin, Sunday In The Park With George)
Take Me To The World (Charmian Carr, Anthony Perkins, Evening Primrose)
Loving You (Donna Murphy, Passion)
Anyone Can Whistle (Lee Remick, Anyone Can Whistle)
My Friends (Len Cariou, Angela Lansbury, Sweeney Todd)
Pretty Women (Len Cariou, Edmund Lyndeck, Sweeney Todd)
A Little Priest (Angela Lansbury, Len Cariou, Sweeney Todd)
Johanna (Victor Garber, Sweeney Todd)
Someone In A Tree (Mako, Gedde Watanabe, Mark Hsu Syers, James Dybas, Pacific Overtures)
Poems (Isao Sato, Sab Shimono, Pacific Overtures)
A Bowler Hat (Isao Sato, Pacific Overtures)
Our Time (Lonny Price, Jim Walton, Ann Morrison, Merrily We Roll Along) A Good Thing Going (Lonny Price, Merrily We Roll Along)
A Good Thing Going (Lonny Price, Merrily We Roll Along)
Not A Day Goes By (Bernadette Peters, Merrily We Roll Along)
I Remember (Charmian Carr, Evening Primrose)
Every Day A Little Death (Victoria Mallory, Patricia Elliot, A Little Night Music)
No One Is Alone (Bernadette Peters, Into The Woods)
Broadway Baby (Elaine Stritch, Follies)
Losing My Mind (Barbara Cook, Follies)
Move On (Bernadette Peters, Sunday In The Park With George)
Send In The Clowns (Glynis Johns, A Little Night Music)
No comments:
Post a Comment