(Sondheim “Merrily” Pic)
Q: Did you know Stephen Sondheim when you went to summer camp together?
Tom Lehrer: Yes, I knew him in the years 1937 to 1939. However, I was two years older than he was -- and I still am -- and a ten-year-old young man does not buddy with an eight-year-old kid. We recently had a delightful reunion after 59 years. I would like to add that he is the greatest lyricist that the English language has ever produced. And that's a fact, not an opinion.
If You Can Find Me I’m Here
Finding Stephen Sondheim is no simple task
Here’s what the Wiki says: “Stephen Joshua Sondheim (born March 22, 1930) is an American composer and lyricist for stage and film. He is the winner of an Academy Award, multiple Tony Awards (eight, more than any other composer) including the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, multiple Grammy Awards, and a Pulitzer Prize. His most famous scores include (as composer/lyricist) A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods, and Assassins, as well as the lyrics for West Side Story and Gypsy. He was president of the Dramatists Guild from 1973 to 1981.”
Well that’s pretty simple. As for his (ahem) “personal life” --
“In The Times in 2009, Alan Franks wrote: "Sondheim came out as gay only when he was about 40, and did not live with a partner until he was 61. This was Peter Jones, a dramatist; the two lived together for several years, until 1999." Sondheim discussed relationships in an interview with Frank Rich, who wrote, "His long solitary spell, he says, didn't faze him.... Well, in his case, does being gay play a part in it? 'Homosexuality, certainly it's a part of it. But the outsider feeling - somebody who people want to both kiss and kill - occurred quite early in my life.'" Sondheim's social life in the NYC gay scene is also discussed in many books by Alan Helms.” Well there’s only one Helms book, actually.
As for Tony Perkins he and Sondheim had an affair of a sort -- the “sort” being the kind possible for gay men before Stonewall -- closeted and ambivalent. I cannot imagine what they said to one another in bed. Or how long it lasted. It did produce one Absolute Masterpiece, a television musical version of John Collier’s story Evening Primrose in which a poet, tired of the world los=sk himself away in a department story to be along and work, only to duiscover a secret society of elderly people, and one young girl (Charmaine Carr) with whom eh of course falls in love. Directed by Paul Bogart, the book of the show was by James Goldman , and it’s just recently become available on DVD. (Sondheim has nothing to say about it in Finishing the Hat)
His other Perkins collaboration was the script for The Last of Sheila, a comic murder-mystery with an all-star cast directed by “The lovely Herb” (as he was known by his non-friends)
(The Last of Sheila 1973)
Fun, but just.
(Sondheim took another stab at something similar many years later with the play Getting Away with Murder on which he collaborated with George Furth It was not a success.)
But as Edward Albee would say, that’s just blood under the bridge.
As Rich’s NYT profile notes.
“Sondheim lived alone until he was 61, when he met Peter Jones, a young songwriter. His long solitary spell, he says, didn't faze him. "God knows I spent enough hours on the psychiatrist's couch discussing it, but it's partly what you're used to as a kid. I grew up entirely, as one friend puts it, as an 'institutionalized child' in that I was brought up either by a cook, a nanny or a boarding school or camp." He thinks of himself as never having had parents, "so I never had any role models of what it was like to have a family feeling. I was not miserable; at least I didn't think I was, so I didn't miss it.
Sondheim is now living alone again, though he and Jones are "still close and seeing each other." His daily routine is fairly regimented: work into the evening, exercise and a late dinner. He's not a habitue of the New York show-biz party-and-premiere circuit. "I like writing, and because I don't have a family, I don't have an awful lot else in my life."
Oh I wouldn’t say that.
(Sondheim in the 70’s)
Lately Sondheim has had a lot to say.
(Finishing the Hat)
Sondheim interview re Finishing the Hat
(“Finishing the Hat” Raul Esparza)
But it’s high time we got back to the beginning, and Saturday Night
(Saturday Night)
According to the Wiki this adaptation of the Julius J and Philip G. Epstein play Front Porch in Flatbush was scheduled to premiere in the 1954-55 Broadway season.
Announcements of the production appeared in the New York Times, and auditions were held in mid-1955, following some revisions to the music brought about by backers' auditions. In the summer of 1955, it appeared that Saturday Night would be Sondheim's musical debut on Broadway that fall. However, in August 1955, lead producer Lemuel Ayers died, leaving the production with little morale and even less cash. The production was scrapped, and the musical material shelved. Although a handful of songs from the musical have appeared in revues and on Sondheim compilation albums, the score as a whole went unperformed until 1997.”
Had it been premiered in the 54-55 season would it have changed Sondheim’s fortunes? One wonders. It’s a delicate little thing that might have run for a season. But no more. In any event it produced his first great song
(“So Many People,” Saturday Night Melanie Field)
With one stillborn musical under his belt Sondheim had to start all over again.
He did all sorts of things. Among them he was a writer for the TV sitcom version of that great 30’s comedy Topper
(Topper)
He also (thanks to circumstances too complicated to detail) worked a few days as an assistant director on the great Huston-Capote insanity Beat The Devil
(Beat the Devil)
His next assignment as a lyricist was for something truly spectacular
(West Side Story Prologue and Jet Song)
A transposition of Romeo and Juliet to the mean streets of New York, West Side Story was the work of four brilliant gay men: Leonard Bernstein (music) Arthur Laurents (libretto) Jerome Robbins (choreography -- and there was a ton of it) and Steve. There was nothing like it before and there’s been nothing like it since.
(“I Feel Pretty”)
Sondheim came to dislike “It’s disarming how charming I feel.”
But “America” really worked.
(“America“)
Most important of all there was --
(Tonight”)
Not to mention--
(“Somewhere”)
A gay anthem? Sondheim has said “somewhere’ obviously meant New Jersey.
I’m sure he wasn’t thinking of Snooki.
And then came one of the greatest musicals of all-time
(Gypsy)
(Dainty June and Newsboys)
Again Laurents wrote the book, Robbins directed and choreographed. Jule Styne wrote the music this time on Ethel Merman’s insistence. She didn’t want to trust that job to a new kid like Steve. So he write the lyrics again. And what lyrics. The story of Gypsy Rose Lee’s insanely ambitious “stage mother” became King Lear set to music. It’s the crowning glory for any singing actress to attempt it. Recent reports would have it that La Streisand is contemplating the role. Nous nous voyons.
Here’s the finale to Act One. Baby June (later June Havoc) has left the act.. Louise her sister, who has no talent that she or anyone else knows of (and has been playing a chorus boy in her sister’s act) has been elected by Mama Rose to be “Our New Star.”
Mama Rose has clearly lost her mind. Invariably taken as an anthem of optimism, it’s in fact the cri de coeur of bi-polar disorder.
(“Everything’s Coming Up Roses” Patti Lupone)
Next to Rose and Louise the most important character in the show is Tulsa. He’s the “Newsboy” / “Farmboy” who runs off, ostensibly with Baby June. But it’s pretty obvious that Tulsa is gay -- and has usually been played by gay performers (ie. Paul Wallace in the original production and film, David Burtka in the revival starring Bernadette Peters). Tulsa is the first character to treat Louise like a an actual girl. Jerry Robbins poured his heart and soul into this number -- which Merman of course wanted cut. She didn’t get her wish
(“All I Need is the Girl” Tony Yasbeck as Tulsa)
And then Sondheim wrote one of his most famous verses
("You Gotta Have a Gimmick”)
Yep: “Once I was a schlepper now I’m Miss Mazeppa.”
In his super book Place For Us: Essay on The Broadway Musical, D.A. Miller explains why gay men of his generation (ie. mine) love musicals. He speaks of his relationship to musical theater, particularly original cast albums, He cites many examples of importance before honing in on Gypsy and The Mother of All 11 O’Clock Numbers
(“Rose’s Turn” Ethel Merman)
The Merm was a knockout.
But this version went her one better.
(“Rose’s Turn” Chris Colfer)
And speaking of Teh Ghey, around the same time Sondheim made this contribution to The Mad Show using the moniker “Esteban Ria Nido”
(“The Boy From" The Mad Show)
Then success struck!
A play by Plautus turned into a marvelously rowdy burlesque, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way To the Forum gave Zero Mostel one of his greatest roles and went on to serve such great clowns as Phil Silvers, Frankie Howerd and --
(“Comedy Tonight” Nathan Lane)
It was the ultimate “Tired Businessman’s Musical.”
Interestingly according to Meryle Seacrest, Sondheim didn’t know that Burt Shevelove was gay.
(“Everybody Ought To Have a Maid” Zero Mostel, Michael Hordern, Jack Gilford Forum movie)
Here’s a number that was cut that subsequent productions have put back in
(“The House of Marcus Lycus”)
And then came Broadway’s most famous cult flop. It only ran for 16 performances in a season that produced Funny Girl, Fiddler On the Roof and Hello Dolly!
Sondheim said he and Arthur should have been slapped for trying to be so clever with this pop allegory
(Anyone Can Whistle, “Me and My Town” Angela Lansbury)
Angela Lansbury was of course “doing” Kay Thompson.
(“Clap Yo Hands” Funny Face Kay Thompson and Fred Astaire)
(from the Rich interview)
Well, in his case, does being gay play a part in it?
"Homosexuality, certainly it's a part of it. But the outsider feeling -- somebody who people want to both kiss and kill -- occurred quite early in my life. I was an only child. I was the youngest and got the best marks in the class -- I won't say the smartest. Right away that means some people love you and some people hate you. “
Anyone Can Whistle was about this. It’s biggest number makes this clear.
(“Simple” part 1)
(“Simple” Part 2)
See? It’s “Who’s gay and who’s straight?” set to music.
There was also an anthem spelling this out
(Everybody Says Don’t)
Here’s a great number that got cut.
(“There’s Always a Woman” Carol Burnett, Ruthie Henshall)
And then there’s this
(With So Little To Be Sure of -- original cast)
Here’s a digest of the show via the Encores revival
(Encores)
My favorite performance remains the concert version done as a benefit for the Gay Men’s Health Crisis in 1995 Half the audience was dying (literally) at the time.
Then Sondheim took a break to work with Richard Rodgers
(Do I Hear a Waltz)
It wasn’t a good match. In Finishing the Hat Sondheim notes that Rodgers was cold and homophobic. Ah well.
(“Do I Hear a Waltz?” Carol Burnett and George Hearn)
Still . . .
And then --
(Company)
(from the Rich interview)
“Was the rap on Company in 1970 -- some found it "anti-marriage" -- in part a coded antagonism to the possibility that the show's creators covertly intended Bobby to be gay?
"That's not what we intended. And if that's what we unconsciously meant, then that's what we unconsciously meant. We were talking about somebody unable to make an emotional connection. Period. It's about how difficult it is to live with somebody. And there are millions of men around who are Bobbies, who just will not make an emotional commitment to a woman. What is all this that it's got to be gay? There's the myth that one of the problems of homosexuality is that people can't commit. There are plenty of homosexuals who are committed emotionally to others. And there are plenty who are not."
I’ve always been partial to the first draft of the 11 O’Clock Number that eventually evolved into “Being Alive.”
(John Lloyd Young “Multitudes of Amys”)
Take Two
(Dolan Bloom “Multitudes of Amys”)
But Michael Rupert is the best.
(Michael Rupert “Multitudes of Amys”)
Back to business.
(Sondheim teaches “Getting Married Today” from Company)
(Beth Howland “Getting Married Today” Company)
(Stritch “Ladies Who Lunch”)
And here’s a Stritch-in-progress.
(“Ladies Who Lunch” Camp)
Finally --
(“Being Alive” Dean Jones Company)
Jones fled the production into the arms of Christian Fundamentalism, where he resides to this day.
Meanwhile Company has been revived by John Doyle in a conception I find problematic. Still, Raul Esparza is a a great Bobby and the production allowed Sondheim to put “Marry Me a Little” back in the show. It was written for the original production and cut. Craig Lucas went on to create a whole show of cut and/or obscure Sondheim called Marry Me a Little. To me it represents what “Gay Marriage” is about. It’s also Sondheim’s cri de coeur. He’s had an exceptionally difficult time over the course of his 80 years connecting with another person. He’s just too damned complicated. And I feel for him more than words or music can say.
(Company part 8)
And then came --
Frank Rich, in the first review of his ever published called it “The Musical of Musicals.” And he was right. It started as a murder mystery set in the world of retired showgirls. Eventually Sondheim, Hal Prince and Michael Bennett got rid of the mystery and stuck with the showgirls. Now older, married and presumably “settled” they come to a reunion to confront a past that has never really gone away.
(“Too Many Mornings” Follies George Hearn and Barbara Cook)
Here’s the number that put the show on its feet. Try to imagine that grand old dyke Mary McCarty singing the lead and showgirls dancing in tandem with incarnations of their younger selves.
(“Who’s That Woman?” Phyllis Newman, Donna McKechnie, Dee Hoty)
A touch of Rudolph Friml
(“One More Kiss”)
And the Big Number. Originally this came out of discussion Sondheim had with Yvonne DeCarlo. The number he’d written for her, “Can That Boy Foxtrot” wasn’t really working. So over lunch they talked. And out of that he wrote --
(Eartha Kitt “I’m Still Here”)
Follies was a show that in its original (overwhelming)form was designed to stir an audience’s tender sentiments toward sthe musicals of the past, particularly those that were staged between the wars. The original cast -- Alexis Smith, Dorothy Collin, Gene Nelson, John McMartin, Yvonne DeCarlo -- carried with them their own individual nostalgia. And then there were supporting players like Mary McCarty, Fifi D’Orsay and Ethel Schutta. The show brought them forth for a moment of glory, acknowledged its ideal audience’s feelings and them told them their dreams were dust, their marriages over and they were going to die.
CURTAIN!
(“Could I Leave You?” Lee Remick)
Follies ended with a deluge of production numbers -- one more nightmarish than the last.
(“Loveland” original production in 1971)
(“Buddy’s Blues” Bronson Pinchot)
(“The Story of Lucy and Jesse” Lee Remick)
For the British production Sondheim replaced Lucy and Jessie with --
(“Ah But Underneath” Dee Hoty)
(Dorothy Collins “Losing My Mind”)
Encore!
(Twiggy)
And then the massive nervous breakdown of the finale (This is Laurence Guitard in the Paper Mill Playhouse production)
(Follies Finale)
Follies is hands down the greatest musical I have ever seen.
a suivre
----
*
p.s. Hey. So, last weekend we had the vast, you-made Joy Division Days, and, purely by chance but interestingly, this weekend we get a kind of very other sonic bookend in d.l. David Ehrenstein's monumental, two part look at the work of composer and musical theater titan Stephen Sondheim. It's a real fest of entertainment as well as a valuable education in this important artist's oeuvre -- full of background, insight, dish, and you name it. Enjoy the first half today, and please talk to Mr. E about what it makes you think. Thanks, and massive thanks to you, David, for the huge and great gift. ** David Ehrenstein, And there you are! It's a great honor, sir. Thank you again and again. My friend Bruce Hainley was going to write a book about or partly about Tom Hompertz at one point, and, if memory serves, Hompertz died in the 1980s, I think of a drug overdose. I'll ask Bruce next time I see him for the details. No, I've never had any encounters with Trintignant in the real world. Really love his work, of course. Great if he came back to work. ** Tonyoneill, Hey, Tony. I came to gaming a little too late to have ever played any of the interactive fiction games. The closest I got were the aftermath ones like 'Myst' and its derivatives, which seemingly come out of that tradition. It's really interesting to imagine what it would have been like to play them. Yeah, your novel sounds like it's been through a lot since you last talked about it. All that violence to it sounds, well, familiar, I guess, and positive. I like that title, yeah. It kind of has this genre straddling or confusion thing that I really like. Well, I'm calling mine 'The Marbled Swarm', which is different but not entirely, you know? ** Sypha, Hey. Yeah, there's no one right way to try to do good work. We all follow our noses. I don't buy that 'nothing new under the sun thing' at all. I think that the 'nothing can be original anymore' attitude is cynical and infected by nostalgia. It's the kind of thing that people start thinking when they get older and lose their enthusiasm for new things and start constructing hierarchical judgements that favor them over the young and that make the increasing proximity of death seem less scary. There are new and original things all the time. The problem is that people look immediately for the thing that is familiar in something new and then they construct their judgement of the book or art or whatever they're assessing with that familiar thing as the false center of their assessment, which, in most cases, creates a total distortion of the work they're addressing. The problem is that people become intimidated and frightened by originality as they get older. They don't want to accept that generations younger than theirs might know something they don't, and they're too lazy to try to reconstruct their pre-set perceptions. So, yeah, I think originality is happening all the time, and the only problem lies in the hardening and defensive stance of people's critical faculties. And about Ligotti's quote, sure, but entertainment is where you find it, you know? ** MANCY, Busy, yeah, I hear that. Interesting about the possible place to live and work instead of rent idea. I'm glad to hear that Seattle isn't a blank in any case. If you get to France, it'd be cool if you could get to Paris, and we could meet up. I'm not sure where Claviers is. Hm, I'll look it up. ** Alan, No, no hardcover. I don't think HP does hardcover books. I'm actually very happy to have that elitist way station out of my books' paths. Good thoughts and suggestion to Sypha re: Robbe-Grillet. Really well put, man. ** Math, Hey. Oh, no, my 'Mm ...' was just a sad attempt at dry humor without illustrative emoticon, ha ha. So sorry about the migraine, pal. I hope it has fully faded away. That raffle thing for your friend is really cool. I don't know shit about the server thing, but let me pass along your query. Everyone, please listen up to Math and help out if you can, okay? Her words: 'hey locals- can anyone who hosts their own website/blog/etc recommend a hosting company? i've been using 'PowWeb' out of Santa Monica and they just blow. pleasureiseasy.info is currently down for 72 hours because my domain names, registered thru PowWeb as part of my hosting packaged, weren't auto-renewed for no good reason. annoying enough that it went down in the first place, but 72 hours to fix now that i've renewed? really? anyways, any rec's would be appreciated.' ** Tomáš, Wow, hey, T! Long time no hear! Great to see you! Yeah, I saw the Larry Clark show. It was really good, of course. My only beef was that there wasn't enough of his work from the '90s and early '00s. Yeah, 'TIHYWD' in April, Paris. Come, man. It would great to see you too, obviously! ** Steevee, Oh, that's too bad about 'Submarino'. I'll deprioritize it. I was hoping. ** Thomas Moronic, Hey, man. Oh, yeah, I remember enthusing to you about that post. I'm glad you liked it, and of course I'm really you picked up on the connection with the R-G post. That was no accident, naturally. How's stuff? When do we get to celebrate your good news in public? ** Esther Planas, Hey, pal. Really dug the 'Cats are Grey' thing too. Really ace, that Dirty Snow. I'm cursing the fact that I probably won't get to see that show you're curating. It sounds super interesting. I hope it'll be documented well for looky-loos like me. ** Chris (British), Ha ha, I'm bemoaning my inability to find enough time to play video games at the moment, but I get the lovely excuse that, due to our big upcoming maze piece, all game playing is also research and development on the work I'm doing. Yeah, that emotional switching sounds intense. I've had that happen, but it was always a drug -- usually LSD -- induced thing. You guys still have pseudoephedrene there? That got killed off in States in the 90s, and I don't France allows it either. I'm glad you feeling at least okayish at the moment. Are you enjoy the writing about football? Can this writing be seen somewhere, somehow? ** Mark Gluth, Hi, Mark! Wow, and holy crap about that visa news thing. It'll never happen, I fear. The US wouldn't let it. I mean, French citizens have to get visas to come to the US, and it's just so unlikely that the US would let Russians fly in unchecked-out given the terrorist stuff going on over there. I mean, it would be the total godsend, but I would guess that Putin's offer is more of a political spin gesture than anything else. But wow. I'm sorry you're feeling bummed, man. It happens. I think I'd be way bummed right now if I wasn't too busy to be bummed. ** Andrew, You never know about the interactive thing re: 'Last Spring'. Tons of possibilities are on the table, and we want to do a whole of prequel pieces and actions. Congrats on the In Touch score. Oh, really, about the 'Real World' guy? What's his porn name? ** Misanthrope, Dude, if that's true about the cute face thing, you should be able to get laid all the time. You just have to find the gay ones and edit out the ones who charge by the hour. 'Zelda' is definitely in that line. I haven't played 'Halo'. But, yeah, the games I like to play tend to have evolved from those pure fiction games, it's true. Nope, haven't seen that Lauper clip. She make my ears scrunch into my head. I so do not want to watch that jar video. Jesus. ** Allesfliesst, You're already in Japan. Man, that earthquake! I was reading about that all this early morning. 8.4, right? That's humongous. I don't know how you can be careful exactly, but, yeah, please do. Holy shit! I mean, really interesting to be there for that, I guess. Wow. ** Bill, Sorry about your new piece's obstinance. Maybe the brutal hacking will carve out something unexpectedly great due to the wrenching aspect? I don't know. Best of the best of luck, Bill. Obviously, I want to know what you end up making. ** L@rstonovich, Hey, bud! Yeah, I missed you. This is great! Glad the posts seemed cool, and, yeah, the Wisconsin thing, what can one say? I hope and even think it could inspire a hyper wakefulness and heavy action/ reaction. Yeah, sometimes you have just have to drift until the you hit the iceberg portion of the muse. I bet it'll be swarming you straight away. Anyway, great to see you back, man. Much love to you too. ** Postitbreakup, Hey. The dice rolling thing is Stephen's idea. It's, uh, labor intensive, let's say. But we should have that part done today, I hope. The maps, 700 of them, are cut up pieces of the blueprint of the big maze we'll use in the 'Last Spring' proper piece. They're clues. I guess I have a good work ethic. But I think I just really like doing creative stuff. When I was a kid, I organized a theater company employing kids in the neighborhood, and I wrote plays for them, and we built a theater in our attic and put on shows. And I would organize kids to help me build haunted houses in our basement and then charge people to go through them. And every summer I organized other kids to help me turn our backyard into this big carnival with booths and rides and shows and stuff. So, yeah, I guess I was always like I am now, basically. But I don't know exactly where it comes from -- a total love of doing stuff like that, basically. Getting older, that energy got focused into writing and doing the small press and now the blog, I guess. Earlier, it was kind of flying all over the place. I think it's mostly about just letting yourself have a blast making stuff and not worrying that you're not good enough to do it or worrying that people won't like it. I don't know. ** Tender prey, Hey, Marc. Really interesting answer and thoughts. 'I have to give myself license to do certain things that are manifestly 'unoriginal'': Yeah, sure. Me too. They just have to be transformed and personalized. I think working with the familiar is interesting and very useful. It's just a matter of not surrendering to it, I guess. Using it as a clue for yourself and for the viewer/ reader or something. 'The idea of work establishing its difference and uniqueness by negotiating within quite a narrow margin of possibility': Totally, me too. That's one of the many things I learned from Bresson. I'm rushing off to the theater now, so I'm in the same boat you were. Not able to be so clear, I mean. But, yeah, I totally understand what you mean, I think, and I relate to it. ** Bollo, Hey. Wow, that residency in New York sounds incredible. Yikes, If you need a rec. letter or reference or anything, just let me know. Cool. I'm running late again, so I've got to zoom, but take care, man, and hopefully talk to you tomorrow. ** Schlix, There are old CD-rom games I played that completely haunt me. Sometimes I want to pull them out and look at them again, but I'm sure I'd end up being disappointed by the elderly graphics and stuff now, so I don't. ** Okay, I'm late, I'm late. You have plenty of glorious things to read, look at, and ponder today thanks to Mr. E and Mr. S, so please do, and I will report to you from my things, etc. tomorrow.
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