well, That's Show Biz, 12-04-2022 36 Sondheim Remembered Part 2

Sondheim Remembered Part 2

“Well, That’s Show Biz!”

12-04-2022

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• Welcome to “well, That’s Show Biz!”. I am your host, Jeremy Freedman, and each week I bring you music from Broadway, Movies, and Entertainers along with some anecdotes, information, and commentary all based on a theme. A year ago we lost composer Stephen Sondheim and this is the second of a series of shows remembering Sondheim. Last week we looked at his early shows, shows that he wrote the lyrics for other composers, some of the songs he wrote for movies, and a few, what I call, “quirks”. The 1970s began with what many theater scholars have called the greatest creative burst in musical theater history. In just 4 years, we saw 1970’s Company, 1971’s Follies, and 1973’s A Little Night Music. Today’s show will focus on those three musicals.

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• 1970s Company is what would now be called a “Concept” musical as it is basically a plotless examination of relationships and marriage as seen through the eyes of single Robert and his married friends.  My first experience with Company is when I bought the 8-track recording of the show. By listening to the album, you understand the entire show as the songs are an amalgam of character, motivation, and plot.

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• We are going to start off our Company set with the opening number and title song “Company” from the 2006 revival where the actors also played the musical instruments. Next, Sondheim wrote the song, “The Ladies Who Lunch” specifically for the actress Elaine Stritch. Listen to the word play where the cleverness of the lyric is not merely for the sake of being clever but is used to manifest Stritch’s character. And finally in this set we will hear the main character Robert’s final song, “Being Alive” as sung by Dean Jones in the original production, as he comes to terms with marriage or remaining single. Sondheim, having never been married, asked his good friend, Mary Rodgers, daughter of Richard Rodgers, what marriage was like. He took copious notes and the result was one of the greatest songs ever written for the theater. Study the words and agonize with the character. Here’s “Company”.

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• <PSA>

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• You just heard three songs from Company, the title song “Company”, Elaine Stritch and “The Ladies Who Lunch”, and Dean Jones summing up marriage in “Being Alive” as we remember the life and career of Stephen Sondheim on “well, That’s Show Biz”.

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• The next year, 1971, we got Follies, another concept musical. We are in the ruins of a Broadway theater, home to the fictional Weismann Follies, at a reunion of the aging Weisman Girls who performed between World Wars. Joining the girls are their husbands and the ghosts of their former selves. During the course of the evening the women sing the songs that they sang over the years which also showcase their personalities. Sondheim wrote the songs as homages to the great songwriters of the early to mid 20th century. We are going to hear the great Elaine Stritch again singing “Broadway Baby” from the 1985 New York Philharmonic Cast Recording. And we are going to follow that with Elaine Page singing “I’m Still Here” from the 2011 revival. Elaine Page was the original Evita in London and the original Grisabella who sang “Memory” in the London production of Cats. Here’s Elaine Stritch and “Broadway Baby” from Follies.

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• This is Sondheim Remembered Part 2 on “well, That’s Show Biz” and you just heard “Broadway Baby” and “I’m Still Here” from Follies. And you are listening to [Studio ID].

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• <Underwriting>

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• This is the second of a series of shows remembering the great Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim. We are looking at the three shows that opened in a 4 year span, from 1970-1973, Company, Follies, and A Little Night Music. Continuing with Follies as the show progresses, we learn about the four leads, former showgirls Sally and Phyllis and their husband Buddy and Ben. In act two we learn that Ben wants a divorce from Phyllis and she mulls it over with the son “Could I Leave You?” Once again, the cleverness of the lyric showcases Phyllis’ character. As the plot ensues, the characters and songs flip in that we no longer have showgirls singing Follies songs but our present day characters and their ghosts have become the Follies themselves showing the “Folly” that they’ve made of their lives. In the songs “You’re Gonna Love Tomorrow / Love Will See Us Through the ghosts of young Sally, Buddy, Phyliis, and Ben sing of their “bright future” which we already know has come crashing down. And finally, Bernadette Peters from the 2011 revival will sing the soul crushing song “Losing My Mind”. Here’s Lee Remick with “Could I Leave You?”.

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• “You said you loved me, or were you just being kind. Or am I losing my mind.” You just heard Lee Remick with “Could I Leave You?”, “You’re Gonna Love Tomorrow / Love Will See Us Through”, and Bernadette Peters with “Losing My Mind” all from Follies as we remember the great Stephen Sondheim on this edition of “well, That’s Show Biz!”.

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• When I started to do this show of Sondheim Remembered, I asked a friend to help me pick out songs. She said it was impossible to just pick 10 - 12 songs. I started writing down shows and songs and discovered that she was right. So to close out the second of at least 4 shows on Stephen Sondheim we are going to look at 1973’s A Little Night Music based on Ingmar Bergman’s movie Smiles of a Summer Night. The show deals with the romantic entanglements of its main character with the music written in variations of waltz time. The first song we will hear is “Every Day a Little Death” by Diana Rigg from the movie version. It is a song about her relationship with an abusive Narcissist. Next, the most popular song in Sondheim’s catalog, “Send in the Clowns” about finally realizing what you want but finding out the chance to take it is long past.  This version is by Catherine Zeta-Jones from the 2009 revival. And finally, the last song in the show, “The Miller’s Son”, sung by the maid Petra. Here’s “Every Day a Little Death” from A Little Night Music.

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• You just heard Diana Rigg with “Every Day a Little Death”, Catherine Zeta-Jones sing “Send in the Clowns”, and “The Miller’s Son” from A Little Night Music.  In his book, Finishing The Hat, Stephen Sondheim relates that he has no idea why “Send in the Clowns” was his most popular song. And that concludes part 2 of Sondheim Remembered. Next week we will go back to our regularly changing themes and come back to part 3 at a later date.  If you liked today’s show, please contact the station at WRUU.org. And if you would like to contribute to future shows, email me your theme or song suggestions to wruushowbiz@gmail.com. See you next week.