- According to Sondheim's agent, the second volume will follow this fall and be titled Look, I Made A Hat, and cover the lyrics from Sunday In The Park With George and thereafter. Given that the lyrics to "Finishing the Hat" will appear in that volume and that it represents the "completion" of Sondheim's career (he claims to be retired from new projects), shouldn't the two be reversed?
- While there are juicy tidbits here and there, it's odd how much is missing--for instance, there's no discussion of Dean Jones' departure from Company (which led to the only breaking of the Tonys' "opening night performer" rule ever) or of Chris Kattan's last second firing from The Frogs. Given how poisonous Sondheim's writing about other lyricists is, would have been interesting to hear his side of the story on some of these.
- While it's lovely to see some of the cut songs (in particular, a cut song from Gypsy that got cribbed from for "Rose's Turn" and the discarded finales for Company), the dance number "Tick-Tock" from Company, one of the very few "dance songs" Sondheim has ever written solo, appears nowhere in the book.
- Company is (or at least can be) a pretty bleak musical. (I recall reading about a production somewhere where after singing "Being Alive," Bobby puts a gun to his head, the lights go out, and we hear a gunshot--curtain.) The original finale, "Multitudes of Amys," actually makes it a little more uplifting, but what they had out of town--"Happily Ever After"--which takes parts of the "Being Alive" lyric (e.g., "someone to sit in your chair, to ruin your sleep"), and refers to it as "happily ever after..in Hell," makes even the "suicide ending" seem almost uplifting. Because Sondheim is so focused on the lyrics, he doesn't talk about why the book changed requiring the shift--I wish he'd done that.
Know many others have been enjoying this, and wanted to open it up for your thoughts.
In the spirit of librettos, the new translation of the top Mozart operas is really, really good. I got it for my dad for Christmas because he's learning Italian, and got a copy for myself. The Da Ponte operas -- bawdy!
ReplyDelete"Into the Woods" is good.
" (I recall reading about a production somewhere where after singing "Being Alive," Bobby puts a gun to his head, the lights go out, and we hear a gunshot--curtain.)"
ReplyDeleteIf you're allowed to do that, you can make pretty much anything bleak, can't you? "Oklahoma" would sound like they just invented the machine gun.
I kind of enjoy that it is mostly dishy on lyricist/creator process and skills more than other dish. I don't really like to read gossipy books that aren't total fiction.
ReplyDeleteBut in reading his notions on writing for character, it did sort of spoil me on a production of Reasons to Be Pretty I saw last night at Profiles Theatre here in Chicago, all because Neal LaBute does not seem to be interested in doing that for his regular words, and with FTH fresh in mind I couldn't stop noticing all the places that LaBute failed at that.
I just got this in the mail today and will now take the opportunity to avoid the snowy slush outside and curl up on the couch with Sondheim.
ReplyDeleteThat's actually how my production of Merrily We Roll Along begins.
ReplyDeleteI just finished FTH a few days ago, and love love loved it. What fantastic insight into the creative process! I especially enjoyed his notes on Merrily We Roll Along, which is probably the show of his I know best, having produced it in college. His comment on the flaws in that show, and how he tried to rectify them are fascinating.
ReplyDeleteYesh, there's stuff he could have done, but he says right up front that he won't disparage the living, so that leaves out a lot of gossip.
I should also say that I'm really hoping he discussed "Getting Away With Murder" in the next volume - his only non-musical play. I saw it on Broadway and would LOVE to hear his thoughts on it.
ReplyDeleteRandom thoughts (I read it around Christmastime):
ReplyDelete1. Interesting to see the praise for Jason Alexander, who as I recall he singles out as being the one youth involved with Merrily who was already on top of his game.
2. The Hermione Gingold audition story for Little Night Music is fantastic.
3. Also, I didn't know that Bergman would not allow LNM to use the title of this movie, except in German-speaking countries where the title would be Eine Kleine Nachtmusik.
4. Love, love, love the one-to-two page essays on various musical theatre composers. I was a little scared there was going to be a takedown of Cole Porter as merely clever, but thankfully he seems to come off best in those essays (and boy, does Sondheim not like Noel Coward).
5. That said, I should put my pre-order in now so I can start reading the Assassins section ASAP.
The problem with this book is the absolute feast of insight, detail, explanation, and color you get around Sondheim's thoughts on lyric writing makes you hunger in the worst way for the same around his thoughts on music. I'm wondering why he skipped Evening Primrose. Hoping the follow up will include a "film and TV" section. Considering that for shows it's just Sunday, Woods, Assassins, Passion, and Bounce, I'm guessing it might.
ReplyDeleteI think there's no question he'll include the songs from Dick Tracy (which are really great), and he's said he's going to include the couple of songs he wrote for the abortive Into the Woods film, but he did cover TV/film adaptations in this volume, even when he wrote the songs later (the new/revised material for the West Side Story film, the new material for The Frogs). Also, remember that he's E short of EGOT, so he may want to keep something in his bag for that.
ReplyDeleteI think there's no question he'll include the songs from Dick Tracy (which are really great), and he's said he's going to include the couple of songs he wrote for the abortive Into the Woods film, but he did cover TV/film adaptations in this volume, even when he wrote the songs later (the new/revised material for the West Side Story film, the new material for The Frogs). Also, remember that he's E short of EGOT, so he may want to keep something in his bag for that.
ReplyDeleteChris Kattan - you call that living?
ReplyDeleteI find it amusingly ironic that Sondheim's orchestrator has an EGOT, but not Sondheim.
ReplyDeleteThere was a potential Into The Woods film? I die.
ReplyDelete"Look, I made a hat" is a statement that indicates that the declarant completed the task at some point in the past. "Finishing the hat" indicates a state of being in the process of completing the task. Finishing the task necessarily must precede the act of reflecting upon the finished task.
ReplyDelete3rd book: Does Anyone Still Wear a Hat?
ReplyDeleteRe: "Tick Tock" from Company -- Sondheim didn't actually write it -- David Shire wrote/arranged it based on Sondheim's themes. Despite that, I really love it -- it's a splendid job of arranging -- and so specific to its time and place -- and really miss it when it's dropped, as it so often is.
ReplyDelete