It has become a cliché that Sondheim was a powerhouse of change for the contemporary musical in the last half of the twentieth century. He remade it anew, brought fresh possibilities, gave it a new prominence – and, not least, he gave it a wider credibility as an art form. There were many earlier people…
On Sondheim: An Opinionated Guide By Ethan Mordden Oxford University Press, New York; xiii, 186 (pp216) ISBN 978-0199394814 Published January 21st 2016 Stephen Sondheim has been the mover and shaker of the modern musical for the past half-century. Widely honoured and celebrated, his work flags how the musical has evolved and become celebrated as…
I have long been a fan of Stephen Sondheim. I first encountered him back in the 1960’s, but my love affair was sealed with Merrily We Roll Along in the early 80’s. And so we roll on….. And last Sunday I found myself at a rally of Sondheimites at the Drury Lane Theatre Royal to celebrate…
I first saw Gypsy the night I got my PhD back in 1973! It starred Angela Lansbury and I was bowled over. The music by Jules Styne and the lyrics of Stephen Sondheim made me life long fans of both. I have seen it quite a few times since, and most notably with…
I first encountered Voltaire’s witty and scatty satire Candide when I was at school ( it was a set text for A level); and it has stayed with me. Not least because of the glorious musical by Lenny Bernstein ( with lyrics by Sondheim) that he wrote in the 1950’s. Initially a flop, it has…
A life story backwards: Merrily We Roll Along Stephen Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along is the winner of this year’s London’s Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards for Best Musical. It is a musical I have known and loved for over 30 years. Based on a 1934 play by Kauffman and Hart with the same name, it…
I saw Side by Side with Sondheim in 1976 at the Wyndham’s Theatre in London in 1976, and became a Sondheim fan. Oddly I had already seen Company (at Her Majesty’s) and A Little Night Music (at the Adelphi), but this compilation revue finally hit me. Sondheim was a complex tunesmith and a marvellous lyricist. Hot on the heels of this came Sweeney Todd and Merrily We Roll Along (which is coming back to London this Christmas). Here is one of my all time favourite songs – and one that has shaped my oddball sociology. It is from Into the Woods.
See Bernadette Peters sing it: You Tube
Sondheim: One of my musical heroes
