Sondheim On Music Minor Details Major Decisions By Mark Eden Horowitz (Book)

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Stephen Sondheim, the immortal genius of musicals

“All roads lead to Rome and all musicals lead to Sondheim ,” according to Mario Gas . The composer and playwright worked on “ dissonances , polyphonies songs , unhummable , changes of rhythm and phrasing in the same song. And he does it with music, but also with dramaturgies, with lyrics and with characters. Sondheim created without thinking about the public,” is how he’s defined.

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The artist, born on this day in 1930, died at the age of 91, leaving a legacy of several musicals and songs that will last forever in the collective memory. He discovers his main theater productions through the National Radio sound archive.

Sweeny Tood

“If you go into Sweeny’s barbershop you can end up turned into a meatloaf in Mrs. Lovett’s shop,” he points out. The musical by Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler tells “the story of against revenge Sweeney Todd’s the judge who ruined her life and Mrs. Lovett will be the one to help her achieve her goal.” This is the plot of Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, one of the great musicals of all time.

Hugh Wheeler wrote a libretto to which Sondheim imposed music and songs. This landmark premiered on Broadway in 1979 and has won eight Tony Awards, including Best Musical.

Into the woods

It is a musical that premiered at the Old Globe Theater in San Diego in 1986, and then on Broadway on November 5, 1987. It was conceived by composer Stephen Sondheim, who was in charge of the music and lyrics of the songs, while the story was written by James Lapine . In the words of Gary González, the plot mixes “the characters of classic stories such as Little Red Riding Hood , Cinderella , Jack of the Magic Seeds, an evil witch and the big bad wolf . The stories of all of them will intersect with those of a couple of bakers who want to have a child. “Everything will be resolved inside the forests.”

The production, winner of several Tony awards, “aims to show through stories such important actions as responsibility , the importance of being considerate of others and the values ​​that we transmit to our children.”

After having been staged on countless occasions, it has been transferred to the big screen by Rob Marshall with the script by James Lapine and a new song written by Stephen Sondheim. However, although it was filmed it was discarded in the final cut, as often happens, the film adaptation presented some changes with respect to the theatrical version. “Among them the reduction of songs and the variation of some of the lyrics to make them more familiar,” explains Gary González.

Follies

The musical was the second collaboration between Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman that premiered at the Winter Garden Theater in April 1971 and ran for 552 performances. However, despite lasting over time, both the public and critics did not welcome the show, which they accused of being cold and critical of American society. Why?

“ Follies is a metaphor about paradise lost , about a happy time in the United States. The plot takes place in two different historical moments. “Stephen Sondheim tried to ensure that the songs he composed for the show corresponded to the type of music heard at the time in which each of the actions took place,” he says.

Company

“ Company arose from putting together several short works by the writer George Furth that had a common theme: relationships . To give them a unity, the author created the character of Bobby, the only bachelor in the group and friend of all the others,” he emphasizes in the program The Musical City . The work set in New York is a compilation of sketches that explore the couple relationships taking the protagonist’s 35th anniversary party as a starting point. Throughout the performance, the friendships and sentimental issues of the protagonists become known.

Premiered at the Alvin Theater on Broadway, in 1970, Company is a show that won six Tony Awards , including Best Musical, and ran for 705 performances. Since then, it has been seen on numerous occasions in different parts of the world.

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