well, That's Show Biz, 04-30-2023 2-5 Sondheim Remembered part 5

Sondheim Remembered part 5

“Well, That’s Show Biz!”

04-30-2023

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• Welcome to “well, That’s Show Biz!”. I am your host, Jeremy Freedman, and every 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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• Back in November, I began a look at the works of the composer Steven Sondheim whose innovations in musical theater changed the nature of what musicals could be and influenced many of today’s composers and lyricists. The first 4 parts reviewed his career in mostly chronological order. In this final part 5, we will look a little bit more in depth into what made him so innovative and so influential. If you are interested in delving further than we can do today in an hour, I recommend that you read Sondheim’s own books about his lyrics and lyric writing, Finishing The Hat, and Look, I Made A Hat.

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• We are going to start with West Side Story, Sondheim’s first professional work where he wrote the lyrics to Leonard Bernstein’s music. Sondheim was too untested to argue too much with Bernstein about how lyrics should be written. Most lyricists wrote for a particular character trait, the shy girl, the macho man, rather than for a specific character with a history and baggage behind them. This is why he hated the song “I Feel Pretty” that we find delightful. He felt that a young woman from Puerto Rico, newly arrived in the U.S., would not sing lines with internal rhymes.  Take a listen to “I Feel Pretty” from the movie version of West Side Story.

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• You just heard “I Feel Pretty” from West Side Story, a song that its lyricist, Stephen Sondheim, hated for its internal rhymes that he didn’t feel were true for the character of Maria.

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• He much preferred his lyrics to the next two songs, more in-line with the characters. We are first going to hear the original Tony, Larry Kert, sing “Something’s Coming”. Then, Sondheim wanted to be the first lyricist to use the “F-word” in a Broadway musical. He took a melody that Bernstein had original written but didn’t use for his musical Candide, which became the song “Officer Krupke” in West Side Story. Sondheim was talked out of it and admitted that the compromise worked out better. Take a listen first to “Something’s Coming”.

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• You just heard “Something’s Coming” and “Officer Krupke” from West Side Story as we delve deeply into the art of Stephen Sondheim today on “well, That’s Show Biz!”.

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• We are delving deeply into the art of Stephen Sondheim today and later, if there is time, I will tell you about the time I met him.

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• Writing for a specific character rather than a character trait was not his only innovation. He felt that lyrics should be conversational in nature. This would make the songs not only truer to the character but would push the plot along more than songs ever did in musical theater. We are going to hear two songs that showcase this conversational tone. First, we are going to hear the lengthy song “Now / Later / Soon” from A Little Night Music as the characters basically sing about having sex. The music also shows great complexity as the three separate musical themes are combined at the end. The second song is “We Do Not Belong Together” from Sunday In The Park With George. Here’s “Now / Later / Soon” from A Little Night Music.

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• You are listening to “well, That’s Show Biz!” on [Station ID].

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• This is our final look at the work of composer Stephen Sondheim and you just heard examples of how he made his songs conversational and true to the characters with the songs “Now / Later / Soon” from A Little Night Music and “We Do Not Belong Together” from Sunday In The Park With George. You can also see from that song why people love to sing Sondheim. Because the songs are character driven, performers can bring their acting abilities to their song interpretations.

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• To better show you the difference between pre-Sondheim songs and the songs that he revolutionized, we are going to hear two similarly themed songs. Both songs involve killing people. The first is the Rodgers and Hart song “To Keep My Love Alive” which was written for the 1943 revival of their 1927 musical A Connecticut Yankee. The clever lyrics outline the many ways that the character, Morgan Le Fay, killed her 15 husbands so that she could be unfaithful to them. This version is by Mary Martin with Richard Rodgers on the piano. The other song is Sondheim’s “A Little Priest” from Sweeney Todd. Take note of the differences between a song with clever lyrics and song, not just with clever lyrics, but one that is fully integrated into characters and plot. Here’s “To Keep My Love Alive” from Rodgers and Hart’s A Connecticut Yankee.

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• We just compared two similar songs, “To Keep My Love Alive” from Rodgers and Hart’s A Connecticut Yankee and Sondheim’s “A Little Priest” from Sweeney Todd, to highlight how Sondheim changed and advanced musical theater in the later half of the 20th century.

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• We are delving deeply into the influences the late Stephen Sondheim had on musical theater today on “well, That’s Show Biz!” If you would like to assist with future shows, you can send me your theme and song suggestions to wruushowbiz@gmail.com. And if you are enjoying today’s show, contact the station at WRUU.org and let them know.

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• You can hear the influences that Stephen Sondheim on other composers and lyricists when you listen to composers that have come afterward. Two people that he helped mentor were Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jonathan Larsen and his influences can be heard in their works even though musically they had very different styles. In fact, Jonathan Larsen wrote a tribute to Sondheim in his musical, tick, tick…Boom! First, we are going to hear “Sunday” from Sondheim’s Sunday In The Park With George, and then Larsen’s homage to Sondheim with his own “Sunday” from tick,tick…Boom!. Here’s Mandy Patinkin and Andre Garfield and their respective ensembles with their “Sunday”s.

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• You just heard “Sunday” from Sunday In The Park With George and “Sunday” from tick, tick…Boom! as we are almost at the end of our dive into the influence of Stephen Sondheim on musical theater.

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• Before we end today’s show, I promised that I would tell you of the time that I met the great Stephen Sondheim. In the 80s, I went to see a high school acquaintance playing the role of Arab in a revival of West Side Story during its previews. I knew that Sondheim was in the building because at intermission, I saw him in the lower lobby talking to someone as I peered over the balcony from the upper lobby of the theater. After the show I waited for my acquaintance at the stage door which was inside a vestibule. The stage door was actually an elevator which brought people down to street level from the backstage areas. As I waited in front of the elevator doors, they opened and standing in front of me was Stephen Sondheim. He stood there looking at me as I stood in front of him like a deer caught in the headlights. My jaw must have been scraping the floor as my mind was saying “Hummina, hummina, hummina”. After a brief period of time, which felt like an eternity, Sondheim stepped out of the elevator, walked past me as I continued to stare at the empty space where he had previously stood. The elevator doors closed which broke my immobility. That was story of the time that I met Stephen Sondheim.

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• To close out today’s show, In 1980, a revue of songs that were cut from Sondheim’s shows was developed called Marry Me A LittleU, its title song having been cut from his show Company. It has since been put back into Company and we are going to end with Raul Esparza singing “Marry Me a Little” from the 2006 revival of Company. Have a listen.

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• You just heard “Marry Me a Little” from Company as we close out our dive into the works and influences of the late great composer, Stephen Sondheim. See you next week.