well, That's Show Biz, 01-29-2023 44 Sondheim Remembered Part 3

Sondheim Remembered Part 3

“Well, That’s Show Biz!”

01-29-2023

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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.

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• At the end of November, we looked back at the career of composer Stephen Sondheim on the one year anniversary of his passing with 2 shows spanning his early career, movies, and his three monumental shows of the early 1970s, Company, Follies, and A Little Night Music. Today, we are doing part 3 of at least a 4 part series.  Today’s show will cover his major shows of the late 70s and 80s, 1979’s Sweeney Todd, 1984’s Sunday in the Park with George, and 1987s Into The Woods. Yes, I know chronologically I am skipping 1976’s Pacific Overtures and 1981’s Merrily We Roll Along. I will get to them in Part 4.

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• When I first saw Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, I thought I was experiencing something completely new.  It wasn’t quite opera, or operetta, or musical comedy, and yet it was all three combined. It was the first Broadway musical thriller and Sondheim’s masterpiece. It opens with the “Prelude / The Ballad of Sweeney Todd” which sets the tone for the piece and introduces us to its main character. We are going to hear the version from the 2012 London cast album. Then we are going to hear from the original Mrs. Lovett, Angela Lansbury, who introduces herself with the song “The Worst Pies in London”. We will then hear Victor Garber, as the sailor Anthony, sing the soaring song about Sweeney’s daughter, “Johanna” who was stolen by the evil Judge Turpin. Here’s “The Ballad of Sweeney Todd”.

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• You just heard “The Ballad of Sweeney Todd”, “The Worst Pies in London”, and “Johanna” from Sweeney Todd as we continue to look at the career of Stephen Sondheim on this edition of “well, That’s Show Biz!”.

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• <PSA>

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• This is part 3 of at least 4 installments of the career of Stephen Sondheim. We are looking at his masterpiece, 1979’s Sweenwy Todd. All of Sondheim’s musicals got mixed reviews from the critics. And I believe that all his shows were simply ahead of their times. However, not all audiences were tuned in to what Sondheim was doing which could be seen by the empty seats of the people who did not return after intermission. The song “God, That’s Good!” opened act 2, as we experience the success of Mrs. Lovett’s meat pies, knowing that the meat used comes from the bodies of Sweeney Todd’s victims. This version of the song, from the 2012 London cast recording stars Imelda Staunton as Mrs. Lovett. She is most known to us as Dolores Umbridge from the Harry Potter movies. And the final song we will hear from Sweeney is “Not While I’m Around” from the 2005 Broadway revival as the boy Tobey puts two and two together. This revival starred Patti Lupone as Mrs. Lovett and was the show where the actors also played the musical instruments. Lupone famously played the tuba. Here’s “God, That’s Good!”

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• We are looking into the mid-career of Stephen Sondheim today and you just heard “God, That’s Good” and “Not While I’m Around” from Sweeney Todd.

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• 1984’s Sunday in the Park with George was Sondheim’s first collaboration with director James Lapine. Most critics and audiences loved the first act which was a fictionalized look at artist George Seurat and the creation of his most famous painting, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. They didn’t, at the time, like the second act about George Seurat’s great grandson and his questioning of his artistic purpose. We are going to hear Jake Gyllenhaal as George Seurat from the 2017 Broadway revival from Act 1 with “Finishing The Hat”.

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• <Underwriting>

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• You are listening to “well, That’s Show Biz!” on [station ID] and this is the third of at least four shows looking at the works of composer Stephen Sondheim. In Act 2 of the original production of Sunday in the Park with George, Mandy Parinkin as George, Seurat’s great grandson, is a modern artist singing about what it takes to be an artist today with “Chromolume #7 / Putting It Together”. And finally, as George questions his ability to create art, he is visited by the spirit of his great grandmother, originally played by Bernadette Peters, as they sing the beautiful and uplifting song “Move On”. Here’s “Putting It Together” from Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park with George.

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• You just heard “Putting It Together” and “Move On” from Sunday in the Park with George as we are looking at the mid-career of composer Stephen Sondheim on today’s edition of “well, That’s Show Biz!”

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• <other show promo>

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• <PSA>

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• You are listening to “well, That’s Show Biz!” on WRUU 107.5FM in Savannah. If you would like to be a part of the show, you can send your theme and song suggestions to me at wruushowbiz@gmail.com and if you are enjoying today’s show, please contact the station at WRUU.org and let them know.

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• We are going to conclude today’s show with two selections from 1987’s Into The Woods, Sondheim’s second collaboration with director James Lapine. Once again critics and audiences at the time loved the first act, which brought fairy tale characters together into an original fairy tale, but hated the second act which tells the story of these characters after their Happily Ever After. There are several ways of looking at these two acts, one being childhood vs adulthood. Sondheim himself looks at the Woods as not a forest but a play on the word, Woulds, W_O_U_L_D_S. Regardless, the show is brilliant. The long opening “Prologue: Into the Woods”, introduces us to all of the main characters and backstories and sets up the tapestry of the tale that the authors weave. And finally, we will hear from the cast of the 2022 revival with the beautiful “No One Is Alone”. Here’s “Into The Woods”.

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• You just heard the “Prologue” and “No One Is Alone” from Stephen Sondheim’s Into The Woods. And that completes part 3 of our look at the career of composer Stephen Sondheim. Part 4 will be in a few weeks. If you would like to help out with future shows, you can send your theme and song suggestions to me at wruushowbiz@gmail.com. If you liked today’s show, please contact the station at WRUU.org and let them know.  See you next week.