A Broadway master has moved on. Stephen Sondheim, the most well-known composer and lyricist in American musical theatre, died this morning. He passed away at the age of 91 years.
His productions include "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum," a vaudeville-inspired comedy...
(SONG: "Comedy Tonight") SOUNDBITE
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP #1: (Singing as characters) Tonight's comedy has something for everyone.
Cornish:...to "Sunday In The Park With George," a concept musical on the process of creating art.
(SONG SAMPLE: "Putting It Together")
Stephen Sondheim, the most well-known composer and lyricist in American musical theatre, died this morning. He passed away at the age of 91 years. His productions include "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum," a vaudeville-inspired comedy...
(SONG: "Comedy Tonight"). SOUNDBITE
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP #1: (Singing as characters) Tonight's comedy has something for everyone.
Cornish:... to "Sunday In The Park With George," a concept musical on the process of creating art.
(SONG SAMPLE: "Putting It Together")
MANDY PATINKIN: (Singing as George) Bit by bit, piece by piece - that's the only way to create a work of art.
Cornish: It's difficult to overestimate Stephen Sondheim's impact on Broadway and reviewer Bob Mondello, who pays this tribute.
Most musicals end with protagonists singing heartfelt songs about enchanting evenings, overcoming gravity, or what I did for love. Characters in Sondheim's plays sing about ambivalence and struggle.
(SONG "Being Allive") SOUNDBITE
Larry Kert: (Singing as Bobby) Somebody, don't hug me too tight. Someone has caused me too much pain.
This is Bobby from "Company," the musical that set the Sondheim pattern in 1970. It was not his first play, but it was the first huge smash in which his characters sang less to propel the plot ahead and more to provide a psychological profile. Bobby is hesitant to make a commitment. He
Stephen Sondheim, the most well-known composer and lyricist in American musical theatre, died this morning. He passed away at the age of 91 years. His productions include "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum," a vaudeville-inspired comedy...
(SONG: "Comedy Tonight"). SOUNDBITE
(Performances as characters)Tonight's comedy has something for everyone.
Cornish:... to "Sunday In The Park With George," a concept musical on the process of creating art.
(SONG SAMPLE: "Putting It Together")
MANDY PATINKIN: (Singing in the role of George)Bit by bit, piece by piece—that's the only way to create a work of art.
Cornish: It's difficult to overestimate Stephen Sondheim's impact on Broadway and reviewer Bob Mondello, who pays this tribute.
Most musicals end with protagonists singing heartfelt songs about enchanting evenings, overcoming gravity, or what they did for love. Characters in Sondheim's plays sing about ambivalence and struggle.
(SONG "Being Allive") SOUNDBITE
Larry Kert: (Singing as Bobby) Somebody, don't hug me too tight. Someone has caused me too much pain.
This is Bobby from "Company," the musical that set the Sondheim pattern in 1970. It was not his first play, but it was the first huge smash in which his characters sang less to propel the plot ahead and more to provide a psychological profile. Bobby is hesitant to make a commitment. He
He cringes when he sees his pals' nuptials. Nevertheless, he desires what they have.
(SONG "Being Allive") SOUNDBITE
KERT: (Singing as Bobby) Somebody needs me too much. Someone knows too much about me. Pull me up short and put me through hell while providing me with support.
MONDELLO: It's not how most musicals finish, but Sondheim's performances almost always leave audiences thinking, not just singing, about anything from the Westernization of Japan in "Pacific Overtures" to...
(SONG SOUNDBITE: "Please Hello")
He cringes when he sees his pals' nuptials. Nevertheless, he desires what they have.
(SONG "Being Allive") SOUNDBITE
KERT: (Singing as Bobby) Somebody needs me too much. Someone knows too much about me. Pull me up short and put me through hell while providing me with support.
MONDELLO: It's not how most musicals finish, but Sondheim's performances almost always leave audiences thinking, not just singing, about anything from the Westernization of Japan in "Pacific Overtures" to...
(SONG SOUNDBITE: "Please Hello")
Stephen Sondheim, the most well-known composer and lyricist in American musical theatre, died this morning. He passed away at the age of 91 years. His productions include "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum," a vaudeville-inspired comedy...
(SONG: "Comedy Tonight"). SOUNDBITE
(Performances as characters)Tonight's comedy has something for everyone.
Cornish:... to "Sunday In The Park With George," a concept musical on the process of creating art.
(SONG SAMPLE: "Putting It Together")
MANDY PATINKIN: (Singing in the role of George)Bit by bit, piece by piece—that's the only way to create a work of art.
Cornish: It's difficult to overestimate Stephen Sondheim's impact on Broadway and reviewer Bob Mondello, who pays this tribute.
Most musicals end with protagonists singing heartfelt songs about enchanting evenings, overcoming gravity, or what they did for love. Characters in Sondheim's plays sing about ambivalence and struggle.
(SONG "Being Allive") SOUNDBITE
Larry Kert: (Singing as Bobby) Somebody, don't hug me too tight. Someone has caused me too much pain.
This is Bobby from "Company," the musical that set the Sondheim pattern in 1970. It was not his first play, but it was the first huge smash in which his characters sang less to propel the plot ahead and more to provide a psychological profile. Bobby is hesitant to make a commitment. He
He cringes when he sees his pals' nuptials. Nevertheless, he desires what they have.
(SONG "Being Allive") SOUNDBITE
KERT: (Singing as Bobby) Somebody needs me too much. Someone knows too much about me. Pull me up short and put me through hell while providing me with support.
It's not how most musicals finish, but Sondheim's performances almost always leave audiences thinking, not just singing, about anything from the Westernization of Japan in "Pacific Overtures" to
(SONG SOUNDBITE: "Please Hello")
He cringes when he sees his pals' nuptials. Nevertheless, he desires what they have.
(SONG "Being Allive") SOUNDBITE
KERT: (Singing as Bobby) Somebody needs me too much. Someone knows too much about me. Pull me up short and put me through hell while providing me with support.
It's not how most musicals finish, but Sondheim's performances almost always leave audiences thinking, not just singing, about anything from the Westernization of Japan in "Pacific Overtures" to
(SONG SOUNDBITE: "Please Hello")
PATRICK KINSER-LAU: (Singing as a Dutch Admiral) Two ports, one not too rocky. Nagasaki, perhaps?
MONDELLO:...in "Sweeney Todd," to social justice...
(SONG SOUNDBITE: "NO PLACE LIKE LONDON")
LEN CARIOU: (Singing as Sweeney Todd) There's a hole in the universe like a vast dark pit, and the world's vermin live there. Its principles aren't worth as much as a pig's spit. London is the name of the city.
MONDELLO:...to what occurs after "Into The Woods" ends happily ever after.
when you believe you've finally made it. Then it's back into the woods for another adventure.
The first act of this fairy tale performance tells us legends like Red Riding Hood and Jack and the Beanstalk in a straight-forward manner, which is pretty much what you'd expect from a musical comedy. In the second act, there are princes who make dreadful spouses and witches who are nefarious but know a lot of things.
(SONG SOUNDBITE: "LAST MIDNIGHT")
Bernadette Peters: (Singing) You're such a sweetheart. You're not up to par. You're not a horrible person. You're just a great person. I'm not up to par. I'm not a pleasant person. I'm exactly what you're looking for. I'm the sorceress. You are the entire universe.
MONDELLO: That's Sondheim figuring out how the universe works on stage. The term that comes to mind is perplexing. Sondheim, a fan of puzzles and riddles, revelled in transforming the Broadway musical into a thinker's playground. At one of his gigs, you'll almost certainly hear "Moon June Croon" lyrics.
a prank Say, we have so much in common, it's a phenomenon, a line penned early in his career for another composer's music, as were his lyrics for Leonard Bernstein's semi-symphonic "West Side Story."
(THE SONG "America") SOUNDBITE
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP #2: (Singing as characters) I like to be in America; that's OK with me in America.
It was a production that launched Sondheim as a lyricist while also giving him a pet gripe about how sophisticated music is treated on Broadway. In the single song he ever referred to as autobiographical, he made a joke about it. In this clip from an HBO special, Sondheim doubles the laugh by playing a producer in "Merrily We Roll Along" and snarling the phrase people used to say to him when he first started out.
a prank Say, we have so much in common, it's a phenomenon, a line penned early in his career for another composer's music, as were his lyrics for Leonard Bernstein's semi-symphonic "West Side Story."
(THE SONG "America") SOUNDBITE
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP #2: (Singing as characters) I like to be in America; that's OK with me in America.
It was a production that launched Sondheim as a lyricist while also giving him a pet gripe about how sophisticated music is treated on Broadway. In the single song he ever referred to as autobiographical, he made a joke about it. In this clip from an HBO special, Sondheim doubles the laugh by playing a producer in "Merrily We Roll Along" and snarling the phrase people used to say to him when he first started out.
AUDIO FROM AN ARCHIVED RECORDING)
STEPHEN SONDHEIM: (Singing) It's not every day that I hear such a powerful score. But, if I may say so, there's only one problem. There isn't a song that you can hum. There isn't a song that makes you go bump, bump, bump.
It's Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Some Enchanted Evening" that he ultimately hums when the character feels it's a hummable melody. That's an inside joke, because lyricist Oscar Hammerstein Jr. was Sondheim's mentor in real life. Rodgers and Hammerstein were evolving Broadway's cheerful song-and-dance musicals into musical dramas in the 1940s, when the blossoming lyricist was just a kid. Sondheim went one step farther in his progress. His musicals were built around a theme. Take, for example, the show "Follies"...
(ARCHIVED RECORDING SOUNDBITE)
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR NUMBER TWO: (As character) Roscoe is here, as always, to bring out the best in you (unintelligible). Let's get started.
a prank Say, we have so much in common, it's a phenomenon, a line penned early in his career for another composer's music, as were his lyrics for Leonard Bernstein's semi-symphonic "West Side Story."
(THE SONG "America") SOUNDBITE
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP #2: (Singing as characters) I like to be in America; that's OK with me in America.
It was a production that launched Sondheim as a lyricist while also giving him a pet gripe about how sophisticated music is treated on Broadway. In the single song he ever referred to as autobiographical, he made a joke about it. In this clip from an HBO special, Sondheim doubles the laugh by playing a producer in "Merrily We Roll Along" and snarling the phrase people used to say to him when he first started out.
(Audio from an archived recording)
STEPHEN SONDHEIM: (Singing) It's not every day that I hear such a powerful score. But, if I may say so, there's only one problem. There isn't a song that you can hum. There isn't a song that makes you go "bump, bump, bump."
It's Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Some Enchanted Evening" that he ultimately hums when the character feels it's a hummable melody. That's an inside joke, because lyricist Oscar Hammerstein Jr. was Sondheim's mentor in real life. In the 1940s, when the blossoming lyricist was just a kid, Rodgers and Hammerstein were busy evolving Broadway's cheerful song-and-dance musicals into musical dramas. Sondheim went one step farther in his progress. His musicals were built around a theme. Take, for example, the show "Follies"...
(ARCHIVED RECORDING SOUNDBITE)
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR NUMBER TWO: (As character) Roscoe is here, as always, to bring out the best in you (unintelligible). Let's get started.
MONDELLO:... based on a Ziegfeld-inspired metaphor for marital folly.
(SONG SOUNDBITE: "Could I leave you?")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (Singing as Phyllis) You'll believe the ill-concealed falsehoods and the unhealed scars. And the game isn't even worth playing. And then there's waiting. I'm just getting started.
The idea behind "A Little Night Music" was to create a three-tiered romance...
(SONG SOUNDBITE: "Send in the clowns")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #4: (Singing as Desiree) Isn't it wonderful?
MONDELLO:... and have the characters sing waltz time about it all.
(SONG SOUNDBITE: "Send in the clowns")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #4: (Singing as Desiree) Are we a couple?
In "Sweeney Todd," undoubtedly Sondheim's finest, he combined operatic style and musical comedy quips to tell the storey of a demon barber who cuts the throats of his clients and a baker...
(ARCHIVED RECORDING SOUNDBITE)
5th UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As Mrs. Lovett) We've arrived, sweaty and bothered.
a prank Say, we have so much in common, it's a phenomenon, a line penned early in his career for another composer's music, as were his lyrics for Leonard Bernstein's semi-symphonic "West Side Story."
(THE SONG "America") SOUNDBITE
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP #2: (Singing as characters) I like to be in America; that's OK with me in America.
It was a production that launched Sondheim as a lyricist while also giving him a pet gripe about how sophisticated music is treated on Broadway. In the single song he ever referred to as autobiographical, he made a joke about it. In this clip from an HBO special, Sondheim doubles the laugh by playing a producer in "Merrily We Roll Along" and snarling the phrase people used to say to him when he first started out.
(Audio from an archived recording)
STEPHEN SONDHEIM: (Singing) It's not every day that I hear such a powerful score. But, if I may say so, there's only one problem. There isn't a song that you can hum. There isn't a song that makes you go "bump, bump, bump."
It's Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Some Enchanted Evening" that he ultimately hums when the character feels it's a hummable melody. That's an inside joke, because lyricist Oscar Hammerstein Jr. was Sondheim's mentor in real life. In the 1940s, when the blossoming lyricist was just a kid, Rodgers and Hammerstein were busy evolving Broadway's cheerful song-and-dance musicals into musical dramas. Sondheim went one step farther in his progress. His musicals were built around a theme. Take, for example, the show "Follies"...
(ARCHIVED RECORDING SOUNDBITE)
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR NUMBER TWO: (As character) Roscoe is here, as always, to bring out the best in you (unintelligible). Let's get started.
MONDELLO:... based on a Ziegfeld-inspired metaphor for marital folly.
(SONG SOUNDBITE: "Could I leave you?")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (Singing as Phyllis) You'll believe the ill-concealed falsehoods and the unhealed scars. And the game isn't even worth playing. And then there's waiting. I'm just getting started.
The idea behind "A Little Night Music" was to create a three-tiered romance...
(SONG SOUNDBITE: "Send in the clowns")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #4: (Singing as Desiree) Isn't it wonderful?
MONDELLO:... and have the characters sing waltz time about it all.
(SONG SOUNDBITE: "Send in the clowns")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #4: (Singing as Desiree) Are we a couple?
In "Sweeney Todd," undoubtedly Sondheim's finest, he combined operatic style and musical comedy quips to tell the storey of a demon barber who cuts the throats of his clients and a baker...
(ARCHIVED RECORDING SOUNDBITE)
5th UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As Mrs. Lovett) We've arrived, sweaty and bothered.
The stovetop
MONDELLO:... Who makes meat pies out of them.
(ARCHIVED RECORDING SOUNDBITE)
(ARCHIVED RECORDING SOUNDBITE)
(As Sweeney Todd) What is that? UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #6: (As Sweeney Todd)
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #5: It's priest, it's priest, it's priest, it's priest, it's priest, it's priest, it's priest, it's priest, it's priest, it's priest Have a mini-priest with you.
Unidentified actor #6: Is it really good? (As Sweeney Todd).
Unidentified actor #5: (Singing as Mrs. Lovett) Sir, it's at least too good. However, they don't commit fleshly crimes, so it's still really new.
6th UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As Sweeney Todd), a colossal amount of fat.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #5: Only where it sat. (as Mrs. Lovett)
Unidentified Actor #6: (As Sweeney Todd) Don't you have a poet or something?
(Singing as Mrs. Lovett) The problem with a poet is that how can you know if he's dead? Attempt to contact the priest.
MONDELLO: "Sunday In The Park With George" shows a struggling artist, George Seurat, who is exhorted by his muse to do that most difficult thing to do when you're stuck, whether in life or in art, the thing Sondheim always did and that has kept his art fresh for more than five decades.
(SONG SAMPLE: "MOVE ON").
Peters: (Singing as Dot) Don't be concerned about your destination. Let's get this party started. You've arrived if you can predict where you're going. Continue on your way.
Stephen Sondheim followed that command to become, in the words of one of his lesser-known songs, the finest thing that ever happened to Broadway over the course of 18 major musicals and decades of mentorship. He continued forward.
(SONG SAMPLE: "MOVE ON").
(Singing as Dot) You've got to get out of here.
MONDELLO: "Sunday In The Park With George" shows a struggling artist, George Seurat, who is exhorted by his muse to do that most difficult thing to do when you're stuck, whether in life or in art, the thing Sondheim always did and that has kept his art fresh for more than five decades.
(SONG SAMPLE: "MOVE ON").
Peters: (singing as Dot) Don't be concerned about your destination. Let's get this party started. You've arrived if you can predict where you're going. Continue on your way.
Stephen Sondheim followed that command to become, in the words of one of his lesser-known songs, the finest thing that ever happened to Broadway over the course of 18 major musicals and decades of mentorship. He continued forward.
(SONG SAMPLE: "MOVE ON").
(Singing as Dot) You've got to get out of here.
MONDELLO: And now it's up to the rest of us.
(SONG SOUNDBITE: "MOVE ON")
(As Dot) Don't be concerned if you have a fresh vision.
MONDELLO: Hello, my name is Bob Mondello.
(SONG SOUNDBITE: "MOVE ON")
(Singing as Dot) Let others make that choice. They almost always do. You continue on your way. Take a look at what you've accomplished...
(As George, singing) Something in the light. PATINKIN:
PETERS: (Singing as Dot)...
Then you may focus on what you desire...
Patinkin: (singing as George) Something in the sky
PETERS: (Singing as Dot)...
That is not the case where you are...
PATINKIN: (Singing as George) In the grass.
PETERS: (Singing as Dot)...What you'll be.
PATINKIN: Up behind the trees, up behind the trees, up behind the trees, up behind the trees, up behind the trees, up behind the trees, up behind the trees, up
Peters: (Singing as Dot) Look at all the gifts you've given me.
MONDELLO: "Sunday In The Park With George" shows a struggling artist, George Seurat, who is exhorted by his muse to do that most difficult thing to do when you're stuck, whether in life or in art, the thing Sondheim always did and that has kept his art fresh for more than five decades.
(SONG SAMPLE: "MOVE ON").
Peters: (singing as Dot) Don't be concerned about your destination. Let's get this party started. You've arrived if you can predict where you're going. Continue on your way.
Stephen Sondheim followed that command to become, in the words of one of his lesser-known songs, the finest thing that ever happened to Broadway over the course of 18 major musicals and decades of mentorship. He continued forward.
(SONG SAMPLE: "MOVE ON").
(Singing as Dot) You've got to get out of here.
MONDELLO: And now it's up to the rest of us.
(SONG SOUNDBITE: "MOVE ON")
Don't be concerned if you have a fresh vision.
MONDELLO: Hello, my name is Bob Mondello.
(SONG SOUNDBITE: "MOVE ON")
(singing as Dot) Let others make that choice. They almost always do. You continue on your way. Take a look at what you've accomplished...
(As George, singing) Something in the light. PATINKIN:
PETERS: (Singing as Dot)...
Then you may focus on what you desire...
Patinkin: (singing as George) Something in the sky
PETERS: (Singing as Dot)...
That is not the case where you are...
PATINKIN: (Singing as George) In the grass.
PETERS: (Singing as Dot)...What you'll be.
PATINKIN: Up behind the trees, up behind the trees, up behind the trees, up behind the trees, up behind the trees, up behind the trees, up behind the trees, up
Peters: (Singing as Dot) Look at all the gifts you've given me.
Patinkin: (Singing as George), Things I hadn't noticed before.
Peters: (Singing as Dot) Let me offer you something in exchange.
PATINKIN: (Singing as George) Flower in your hat and grin.
(Singing as Dot) I'd be overjoyed.