(Sondheim by Hirschfield)
As I was saying. . .
(Elaine Stritch “Broadway Baby”)
Off-Broadway (WAY off) he wrote songs for a production of Aristophanes’ The Frogs performed in the swimming pool at Yale. Meryl Streep was one of the original singer-swimmers
(The Frogs, Instructions to the Audience)
But Steve’s a Broadway Baby at heart. So much so that the power and the majesty of Follies overflowed straight into the audience where sat this dude
(Alain Resnais)
Who saw the show’s themes as inextricably connected to a film he was planning to make
And so he asked for a Sondheim score. And part of it consisted of music not used in Follies
(Stavisky “Beautiful Girls”)
(Stavisky main theme)
And then came something more “mainstream” and wildly successful
(A Little Night Music)
A musical version of Ingmar Bergman’s delicious 1955 romantic comedy Smiles of a Summer Night the show was a luscious roundelay of love -- young and old, clear-eyed and cynical. And it produced the most famous song Sondheim ever wrote.
It was written for Glynnis Johns.
(Glynnis Johns)
Since then all sorts of people have sung it.
(Bernadette Peters “Send in the Clowns”)
(Elizabeth Taylor)
(Sondheim teaches “Send in the Clowns”)
After that Sondheim took off into a completely different direction with librettist John Weidman to make a musical about the opening of Japan to the west.
Every gay man with a Japanese lover went to see it -- along with some very confused heterosexual American couples who just wanted a nice musical. It was very nice. But very odd.
Here a teenager named Gedde Watanabe
(Gedde Watanabe)
(soon to wreck havoc in Sixteen Candles) is unleashed on an unsuspecting world.
(“Someone in a Tree” Pacific Overtures, Gedde Wattanabe)
And then came something both successful and outre
Which was also turned into a highly successful movie musical
(“Epiphany” George Hearn)
Here’s NPH with the song that became the big hit of the show.
(“Not While I’m Around” Neil Patrick Harris)
While
He was equally inspired by a film that greatly impressed him as a teenager.
There is a moment in Hangover Square where the score the anti-hero John Bone (Laird Creager in a performance he never lived to see) can be seen on a piano stand. Sondheim went back to see the film again and again to copy down the score. And he wrote a fan letter to its composer, the great Bernard Herrman.
(Bernard Herrman conducts Hangover Square)
(Scene from Hangover Square -- the whistle used in Sweeney Todd)
That orchestral squeal, cueing John Bone’s madness, can be heard right at the start if Sondheim’s musical.
(“The Ballad of Sweeney Todd” George Hearn, Angela Lansbury)
Yet for all that it’s tender too.
(“Pretty Women” “Not While I’m Around” Jane Harvey)
Then came something very close to him that he thought would be popular.
It wasn’t
Based on a play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart Merrily tells the story of three friends and the dissolution of their friendship
Backwards.
Sondheim thought it would work because the show begins in a dark mode that gradually lightens. But as the great Nat Shapiro said at intermission “Aha -- the plot thins!”
Hal Prince’s direction problematized the matter even further. The show was performed by a youthful cast playing members of the graduation class of the anti-hero’s school wearing sweat shits that said “Best Friends,” “First Wife,” “Agent” and the like. Sets were minimal as were orchestrations. However as the show was about to close an original cast album was made and this album kept the show alive. Every bit as much as Follies, Merrily We Roll Along is a homage to musicals. The thing is it’s a homage to musical that were being written at the time Sondheim himself was beginning to blossom. In other words it’s very Comden and Green.
For once in his life Sondheim elected to try for a hit single. And so he took it to The Chairman of the Board.
(Frank Sinatra “Good Thing Going”)
Lovely, isn’t it? And so is the mood of this number
(“Opening Doors” ECU production)
On the other hand there’s this.
(“Franklin Shepard Inc.” Raul Esparza)
Best of all there’s this.
(“Not a Day Goes By” Bernadette Peters)
Sondheim reworked the show and a later production that premiered in La Jolla led to an off-Broadway revival that had a decent run. It’s a show I dearly love.
(Last sentence of Finishing the Hat) “And then I met James Lapine"
(Sunday in the Park with George)
Clearly a show about pointillist master George Seurat is about as far from Broadway as you can get.
Or is it?
("It’s Hot Up Here” original cast)
(“Sunday” original Cast)
A lovely show for the happy few. It’s been successfully revived
And it was followed by an even bigger success.
(Into the Woods)
Bruno Bettelheim set to music.
(Into the Woods Act I opening, NYU)
Here’s my favorite number -- a good old-fashioned vaudeville song and dance.
(“It Takes Two” Into the Woods NYU, Abby Baum and Will Cohen)
Bernadette takes it all home.
(“Children Will Listen/ Finale” Into the Woods)
And then -- going Sweeney Todd one better -- a musical about political assassinations.
(“Everybody’s Got the Right” Assassins)
And here’s a tribute to what America loves the most.
(The Gun Song” From KAT's 2006 Production)
Of course no musical is complete without a love song. Assassins has two in one.
(“Unworthy of Your Love” Ron Menin and Malorie Charak)
Then came a show I find rather problematic, Passion
(“Loving You” Donna Murphy)
A tad too heavy for my taste.
In a lighter mode Sondheim has also written songs for the movies.
(“Sooner or Later” Dick Tracy, Madonna)
(“Sooner or Later” Bernadette Peters)
(Audra MacDonald “What Can You Lose?” /”Not a Day Goes By”)
And now we come to his most problematic show. First it was called Wise Guys, then Gold, then
(Bounce)
Then
(Road Show)
It was based on the book
(The Legendary Mizners)
It was about a pair of brothers. One a con-man, the other an artist manqué. The latter was also gay
(Road Show)
Starting with their deaths it flashes back across their tumultuous lives. And in the process of so doing gives Sondheim the opportunity to pen the lyric he’s been waiting to write all his life --
“I’m the one that you fucked!”
Here’s a tender ballad sung by the tender Gavin Creel
(Gavin Creel “Talent” Bounce)
Gavin’s so lovely, so talented and so out. Here he is again. Tilt your head
(Gavin Creel “What Can You Lose?)
to conclude with a Fait Diver
September 23, 2005: Scalia Defends Government's Right to Deny Art Funds
By DANIEL J. WAKIN
Justice Antonin Scalia of the United States Supreme Court made an unusual appearance at the Juilliard School yesterday and defended the government's right to deny funds for art it disapproves of, elaborating in person on what he has written on the bench.
He told reporters that choosing what art to subsidize is no different than the stances the government takes all the time in other areas.
"The First Amendment has not repealed the basic rule of life, that he who pays the piper calls the tune," Justice Scalia said. "When you place the government in charge of funding art, just as when you place the government in charge of providing education, somebody has to pick the content of what art is going to be funded, what subjects are going to be taught.
"The only way to eliminate any government choice on what art is worthwhile, what art isn't worthwhile, is to get the government totally out of the business of funding," he said.
In a 1998 decision, Justice Scalia wrote a concurring opinion upholding a Congressional decency test for grants awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was at the center of a furor over grants to Andres Serrano, Robert Mapplethorpe, Karen Finley and others.
The idea was not new, but the circumstances were. The justice, an opera lover and a strict conservative, was part of a Juilliard symposium on American society and the arts that put him in the company of the soprano Reneé Fleming, the composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim, and the historian David McCullough. He acknowledged the incongruity.
"The program reads like some kind of weird I.Q. test: 'Which of the following is out of place: diva, author, composer, lawyer,' " he told the audience at the Juilliard Theater. "The main business of a lawyer is to take the romance, the mystery, the irony, the ambiguity out of everything he touches."
Justice Scalia expounded on his view that the First Amendment has limited application to artistic expression; of the importance of copyright law and the nature of fair use of creative materials. With Juilliard's president, Joseph Polisi, as moderator, the participants ranged over issues like the difference between art and entertainment, commercial pressures on art, and art as an expression of history.
The tone was often jocular and nonconfrontational, but with a genteel strain of debate between Justice Scalia and Mr. Sondheim.
It began at the news conference, when the justice was asked to follow some generic comments by Mr. Sondheim about the difference between "Art with a capital A" and "art with a small a." "I concur," Justice Scalia said simply. "I take it back," Mr. Sondheim quickly rejoined with a smile.
Later, Justice Scalia returned to the idea that denying funds to some artists was unavoidable, because choices must be made. When Mr. Polisi said that National Endowment grants were peer-reviewed, Mr. Sondheim said, "The problem with choices is who does the choosing, and who chooses the choosers, and that's where you get into a thicket."
In response to a question from the audience on how to increase arts attendance by minorities, Justice Scalia said that a "large number" of minority children come from broken homes and do not have the parental attention they need to push for interest in the arts. But race has nothing to do with it, he said.
Mr. Sondheim said the cause was also economic. "Tickets are expensive," he said.
They even parted ways in a discussion of the definition of art. Mr. Sondheim said one element was a work's ability to endure. Justice Scalia said that the Abbott and Costello routine "Who's on First?" would certainly last a long time. But "it will never be art!" he said.
The composer took issue with the example, saying it was not that old and that half the people in the theater probably did not even know it. Justice Scalia called for a show of hands, and many shot up. "Ask anybody under 30," Mr. Sondheim said. "They won't know."
NPH and Thersa McCarthy will sing us out.
(“Take Me To the World” Evening Primrose, Theresa McCarthy and Neil Patrick Harris)
----
*
p.s. Hey. And there is the mighty conclusion of David Ehrenstein's Sondheim extravaganza. Your weekend is set, and please continue your voyage herein and thoughts thereof. I had a very long day and night yesterday, which I guess I will sort of detail below, and today will probably match yesterday, but by Monday things should be as far along as they're going to get. Which is to say ... something I can't remember. Bad sleep last night. Anyway, I'll stop while I'm not ahead exactly but not as far behind as I could be if I keep trying to say whatever it is I'm trying to say. ** David Ehrenstein, Further massive gratitude to you for this masterpiece, my friend. I caught/fixed the typos you referenced, and I fixed the video link in today's post. If there are more fixes, let me know, and I'll get to them when I get back to the internet, probably late tonight my time. ** D Cairns, Hey, thank you very much for being here and for your thoughts. ** MANCY, Awesome if you can make it work. Paris, I mean. Well, France, I mean. Fingers crossed. ** Chilly Jay Chill, Hi, Jeff. Thanks for sending the book. Oh, I'll go check your email when I finish here. Maybe I haven't opened it yet. It's been a blur here in Brest. Listening to, me? The new Tim Hecker 'Ravedeath' a lot. An advance copy of Mark McGuire's 'A Young Persons Guide'. The new Toro Y Moi, Lykke Li. Jefferson Airplane live at the Matrix. I've gotten back into Family, the experimental/prog band from the 70s, whom I love and am dwelling upon at the moment. Otherwise, this and that. Curious to hear that new Ex LP, cool. Thanks much, man. ** NYCMagus, Hey, welcome. Thanks a lot for the really rich words here yesterday. It's greatly appreciated. ** Bollo, Sure, man, no problem. Just tell me the specifics and what you need me to do. You can tell me by email, if you want: dcooperweb @gmail.com. Hope your computer chaining paid off. ** The Dreadful Flying Glove, Hey! I'm glad the Colossal Cave thing seemed okay, and thank you again tremendously for that tip. It also is paying off in dividends in my thinking re: the big maze piece we're working on. So, yeah, I really owe you on that. Wow, how cool that Dennis Jerz saw it and passed it along. That's amazing! Yeah, the Japanese quake is really intense and very rattling, worrying. It makes everything feel very off and wrong. Ha ha, the work we've been doing revolves around a zillion little messy drawings too. You'll see in the pix that I guess I'll post here. Good weekend doing what you do, man. ** Tosh, Hi, Tosh! Thank you, pal! ** Thomas Moronic, Hi, T. Me? I'm a wreck today. Explanation below. But I'm okay apart from temporary wreckage. If preparatory things work out for the 'LS' piece in the next couple of days, I'll feel great. Yeah, I know, the never to be resolved thing with your parents. Just yesterday, I was thinking of so many things I wish I had asked them just to know one way or another. Death is so fucked up. Ugh. That said, have a great weekend, man. ** _Black_Acrylic, I'm trying to keep my dying laptop alive too for a while longer. Until I can afford a newy. Scary. Nice idea about the Trash Humpers piece. Yeah, sounds tasty and like an interesting interface with the film's shape. That sounds cool about the YnY collab with the gallery. I'd like to hear what's what about that when the time is right. ** Steevee, Ha ha, that human mash-up gave me the chills. ** Christopher/ Mark, Hi, Mark! How are you? Much love to you! ** Andrew, FratPad ... don't know it. 'Frat' isn't a fetish of mine. I suppose by now I can google my way into seeing this guy quite easily. Excellent weekend to you. ** Misanthrope, Hey, G. I think that, vis a vis Lauper, it probably really helps not to have lived through the era when one actually watched MTV all the time and she seemed to be in its every detail 24/7. Obviously, best of the best of luck on the proofing, and, of course, don't sweat the Day while you have that on your desktop. ** Inthemostpeculiarway, Hi. Yeah, Danny Boyle doesn't do it for me as a director. Or not fully, only in parts. Well, I did like the 'Trainspotting' movie. We finally did pick a new frontispiece for 'TMS', and it's really, really nice, but I'll let you wait to see it 'cos unless you've read the book, it won't sound that cool in description. The hotel has lost its charm, let's say. I'll explain. Wow, now there you go, and not to harp yet again on your writing wonders, but that scene with the chocolate rings leading to the woman's conversation and circle drawing was amazing! Keep that for your novel. Seriously. I think I know what you mean about empty lived-in houses as opposed to totally empty houses. That was really good too. I'll have to watch that link thing later because I'm due elsewhere and my computer is acting slow and bizarre like the keyboard is under water or something. Hope the Vicodin made your back into the best back ever! My day: So, after I finished the blog, I showered and shaved in a rush, and I walked to the alternative art space where we're doing the 'Last Spring' piece. It's uphill all the way, and everything's fucked up because they're putting in a tram system, so you have to walk in this zigzag pattern like in a videogame or something, so it's kind of a drag. When I got there, I set to work. First we -- me, 7 art student volunteers, and sometimes crew members -- drew the little maps on the set's walls for hours. And they were setting up the lights, so we had to keep stopping because it was too dangerous to be there. Gisele, Peter, Stephen, and some tech guys were working on the programming for the robot boy, and it was more difficult than they had thought, requiring many trips to buy things at electronics stores and stuff. We broke for lunch at this local restaurant that wasn't too bad, decent vegetarian plate, and then back to work. We kept checking in on the Japan earthquake/ tsunami situation and finding out if our friends and collaborators there were okay, like Fujiko and Shiro who made the fog and holograms in 'TIHYWD', and the band Boris and the musician Jim O'Rourke, who worked on the piece's music, and everyone eventually turned out to be safe and unharmed albeit freaked out. We finally finished the set drawings, but not until after 6 pm when we'd hoped to have that done by noon, and the preparations re: getting the robot up and running took until about then too, so we only ended up starting to work on the robot's programming then when we'd thought we would be on our way 'home' by that point. The robot thing is very complicated because we have to choreograph its movements with the text, the lights, and the sounds so the robot will act out everything with the right timing. There's the talking part, and then the lighting is going to do a complicated show while the robot talks and blinks and breathes and moves its hand puppet in a particular way, and the mechanical noise of the robot is going to be manipulated and magnified into a kind of accompanying ambient soundtrack, and we only barely made headway by the time we were too exhausted to go on at midnight, so today is going to be very long and intense. Then I kind of stumbled home to the hotel only to find that they were having some kind of techno club going on in the bar, and my room was being completed blasted and literally shaking from the thumps. I went down to complain, and there were a bunch of guests there complaining, but the hotel manager was, like, too bad, deal with it. So, there were a lot of angry people and words going on, and we eventually gave up because they weren't going to turn the music off. So, I tried to sleep, but it was impossible because it was so loud, and it went on until after 4 am when the club finally stopped. Then I had to wake up early today, so I'm really zoned out and tired from the exhausting work and then hardly any sleep. So, this hotel is no longer on my Xmas list, let's say. And that was my day in a nutshell. I hope by Monday I can tell you of our artistic victory in a rested state, but we will see. For now, please enlighten me in regards to your hopefully lovely weekend. ** Bill, Very best luck pulling out whatever you can pull out by Monday. It'll be great, whatever it is. Trust me. Yeah, what a week in the world it has been, holy shit. ** Chris (British), Oh, okay, re: the football writing. If you feel like sharing any of your writing or posts or whatever, I'm always interested. You can still get codeine in things very easily in France. Kind of weird. They don't allow Melatonin to be sold here, but codeine is okay. Yeah, I've been talking about the maze piece for a while and, for better or worse, I'll be talking about for probably the next year as we actually make it. Mortality is for the birds. Actually, it shouldn't even be for them either, although I guess there'd be a lot of birds if they didn't die. Well, a lot of humans too. We just can't win, man. That Rankin book does sound funny. I'll check it out. Okay, I'd better skedaddle. I hope your weekend gives you increasing pleasure. ** Please continue on your Sondheim-ish way between now and Monday, and do say stuff to your host Mr. E, okay? I'm going to go drag myself through a long day and maybe another long day tomorrow, and then I will be back to check in with you. Take care.
No comments:
Post a Comment