Stephen Sondheim’s death at the age of 91 marks more than the end for an era. It is the end of a chain of great Broadway musicals dating back to the 1920s when Jerome Kern’s “Showboat” first dazzled theater audiences.
He was the only time I saw him. It was at Barbara Cook’s apartment in New York where she had invited a few friends following her performance of Sondheim songs at Carnegie Hall.
The man was sitting on the couch talking with someone, when I entered. The man left and I went to sit down beside him. “Mr. Sondheim,” I said nervously, “I can’t think of anything to add to all of the wonderful things that have been said about your work, so I will just say thank you.” He smiled and said, “thank you” and uttered a pleasantry I have since forgotten, because I was in awe of him.
Frank Rich (the former chief drama criticism for The New York Times) conducted interviews with Sondheim in various theaters across the nation. In Portland, Oregon, Rich asked Sondheim how he at the tender age of 25 was chosen to write lyrics for “West Side Story”? Sondheim stayed at the house of Oscar Hammerstein as his mentor.
Adolph and Betty Comden had been originally selected to compose the lyrics. However, they became unavailable. Sondheim said he had written a show called “Saturday Night” that “died” for lack of financial backers before it could be produced. He still had the songs in his folio from that show. The story is a long one, but the basics are these: He knew playwright and director Arthur Laurents, who told him he was about to start work on a musical version of “Romeo and Juliet” and Leonard Bernstein was going to do the music. After hearing him play some songs from “Saturday Night,” Bernstein offered him the job. Hammerstein recommended that he accept the job and he accepted it. Sondheim’s lyrics, combined with Bernstein’s melodies, have become songs for the ages.
After later writing lyrics for “Gypsy,” Sondheim said he and others of his generation wanted to experiment with musicals that went beyond what he called the “linear,” where there is a song, some dialogue, another song, dancing and more dialogue and songs. Not that there was anything wrong with that, because Sondheim was making a good living writing “linear” and creating many memorable songs in addition to “West Side Story.” In the ’60s, as Bob Dylan sang, “the times they are a-changin,” so Sondheim and his friends wanted to explore new musical forms. This included non-traditional melodic forms and complex human emotions.
Sondheim’s obituary contains many other details of his incredible life, so I won’t repeat them here, but I have often wondered where such genius comes from. Evidently, it’s a rare gift. I once asked Steve Allen, the first host and creator of “The Tonight Show” about this. Allen composed over 3,000 songs and was an actor, comedian, writer of mysteries, and played the piano. “Did you go through the gift line more than once?” I asked him. He said he couldn’t explain it. Practice helps, but I couldn’t do what these creative geniuses did with any amount of practice.
People who create beauty stand out in an increasingly dark culture, even when their creations seem dark, as do some of Sondheim’s lyrics. It’s difficult to pick a favorite. Some songs are well known, like “Send in the Clowns” from “A Little Night Music.” Others, not so much, like the ones from “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” (although “Comedy Tonight” is a rousing and fun song).
If I was forced to pick my favorite from his “non-linear” work, it would be one I used in a proposal letter to my wife. It’s called “Being Alive” from “Company.” The line that touches my heart and touched hers is “alone is alone, not alive.”
Thank you, Mr. Sondheim.
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