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Post by Desert Dweller on Nov 28, 2021 2:01:14 GMT -5
This needs more than just a post in the "RIP Famous Person" thread.
Sondheim was the greatest Broadway composer of all time. He is the greatest lyricist I have ever encountered in any genre. He revolutionized musical theater. He mentored dozens of young writers, actors and musicians.
It is insane to me that people complain that his songs are "heartless". I find incredible emotion in his work. His songs are interior reflections, not bold emotional statements. He writes about doubt, self-delusion, confusion, loss, grief, loneliness ... He also wrote some of the funniest songs ever on Broadway.
Feel free to post here any great Sondheim songs and performances. I am intentionally leaving out my top 3 for now.
Moments in the Woods:
What an incredible story song, as this character works through what has happened.
"Just remembering you've had an 'and' When you're back to 'or' Makes the 'or' mean more Than it did before"
Losing my Mind
"You said you loved me Or were you just being kind?"
Ugh, yeah, nailed it, Sondheim:
Not Getting Married:
My God, Sondheim's lyrics in this are AMAZING
A Weekend in the Country
Sondheim wrote a near opera with this show, and this is a stellar group number, Act I finale. Ooh, what Sondheim does with the rhyme scheme in this is phenomenal, it comes across so great even in concert form:
Take Me To the World
Even Sondheim's obscure songs from tv musicals that no one has seen are amazing. (Intentionally leaving out one Raul Esparza performance, but I can't resist adding this one.)
Finishing the Hat
Sondheim also writes so passionately and specifically about the act of creation, and Mandy Patinkin was born to play this role:
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Post by Desert Dweller on Nov 28, 2021 3:11:46 GMT -5
Bah, I am continuing
Flag Song
Sometimes Sondheim's cut songs are better than the songs in the show. This is because he doesn't cut songs because they're bad. He cuts them because he feels they don't match the tone of the show. This one isn't quite what he was going for in "Assassins", but it's damn good.
Incidentally, apparently Brian Stokes Mitchell has played Sweeney Todd on stage and OMG I want to see a recording of that sooooooo badly. He is an AMAZING performer:
Marry Me A Little
And sometimes cut songs are actually really, really good and can fit the tone of the show if they are shifted to a different point in time. Really don't want to overpost Raul Esparza here (who is a top tier Sondheim interpreter) so I'll go with Aaron Tveit, if only to reiterate my post from the TV board that what Schmigadoon did with him was a horrible waste. Also, he was recovering from COVID when he did this. Yikes:
A Little Priest
I don't see a good video with Angela Lansbury and Len Cariou, and the performances of Lansbury and George Hearn are low quality even though there is a DVD of their performance. But hey, no video means you can focus on Sondheim's lyrics. Here he famously writes an entire song using puns about cannibalism. Because of course he does.
"Shepherd's pie peppered with actual shepherd" ... OMG, Sondheim, just OMG:
No One is Alone
I am also attempting to not post too much Bernadette Peters, who is probably the best all-time Sondheim interpreter. But, her concert version of this is amazing. It is CRAZY to me that high schools perform only Act I of this show, and that Sondheim was perfectly fine with that, even though it undercuts his entire point, which is articulated in this song:
Loving You
This goes on my list because Donna Murphy's performance of it is legendary:
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Post by King Charles’s Butterfly on Nov 29, 2021 10:42:49 GMT -5
Not a Sondheim musical, but he did contribute lyrics to a couple of songs on Candide—there’s the gentle “Life is Happiness Indeed” and the raucous, sardonic “Auto-da-Fé”
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Post by Desert Dweller on Nov 30, 2021 1:56:08 GMT -5
Yes, I think after all the "Candide" revisions were made that Sondheim contributed some lyrics to 5 of the songs? I think it is 5. I am too lazy to google for this, and I don't own the "Candide" score. Apparently Bernstein quite liked working with Sondheim. It is crazy to think that Sondheim almost said no to writing lyrics for West Side Story. There must exist some alternate universe wherein Bernstein and Sondheim collaborated on a string of hit shows. Wold that be better or worse than what we got?
Anyway, here's some more of my favorite Sondheim songs and/or performances:
Steps of the Palace
This is such a great song about indecision. Damn, I love how this character talks herself into NOT making a decision. And that Sondheim makes this FUNNY. Amazing. And, ha, no I won't be using any of the clips from the godawful movie. I'd rather use this one, even though there is a delay between the audio and video.
Johanna
Freaking ridiculous that people say Sondheim's songs are "tuneless" and "heartless". This is the creepiest romantic song ever. Or most romantic creepy song ever? Again, no, I won't use any movie clips.
Could I Leave You?
Seriously, Sondheim writes some of the funniest songs ever to appear on Broadway. This one is incredible in the context of the show.
Ladies Who Lunch
Performers LOVE performing Sondheim, even though it is very hard. His songs require you to sing difficult music and also act. I mean really act. And if you can act your ass off (while singing flawlessly), you can produce an iconic performance with just about any Sondheim song.
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Post by William T. Goat, Esq. on Dec 3, 2021 0:02:03 GMT -5
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Post by Desert Dweller on Dec 13, 2021 1:43:08 GMT -5
He loved puzzles and games of all kinds. He had a huge chess board in his apartment. He collected obscure puzzle games. He loved puzzle video games. He apparently loved Myst. And Ronan Farrow says Sondheim and his husband crushed Escape Rooms.
At one point in the 80s he gave an interview and said he thought about quitting writing musicals and instead going into video game development. Which is all kinds of crazy to think about.
Edited to add: Those crosswords are sooooooo hard. I find regular crossword clues to be too vague and misleading. I don't understand the clue conventions at all. I once thought that cryptic crosswords might actually be *easier* for me. They kind of are? But Sondheim's are hard.
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Post by Desert Dweller on Dec 13, 2021 2:07:33 GMT -5
And to complete this with my top 3 Sondheim performances, I must return to Raul Esparza, Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters.
This fantastic performance of "Move On" between Patinkin and Peters. Wow. This song has a couple of my favorite Sondheim lyrics.
"I chose and my world was shaken So what? The choice may have been mistaken The choosing was not You have to move on"
and
"Stop worrying if your vision is new Let others make that decision. They usually do"
Peters absolutely crushing "Not a Day Goes By". This musical just doesn't work on stage, yet people continuously try to fix it and reshape it to make it work. This is because the music in this show is awesome. Damn, this is a top tier Sondheim song, and no one has ever sung this better than Peters.
Remember at the end of "Marriage Story" how there is this dramatic scene of Adam Driver singing "Being Alive" and some people raved about how great this was? I hated this. (And I really like Adam Driver!) I found it so cheap and empty. Here is Raul Esparza giving the all time greatest performance of "Being Alive" and OMG, I cannot believe he lost the Tony Award that year.
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