Eureka! Six Surprising Sondheim Blasts

"Putting Together" some fresh takes for Sondheim August

Shalom, Broadway lovers!

Registration is now open for August classes:

• a Sondheim Master Seminar on four Tuesdays in August at Noon ET: Company (August 8); A Little Night Music (August 15); Merrily We Roll Along (August 22); and Into the Woods (August 29). It’s $12 per class or $39 for all four. This course is co-taught by Broadway Maven David Benkof and author and critic Peter Filichia.

• a Sunday series meeting at Noon ET: Gershwin on Broadway (August 6); The Pajama Game/Damn Yankees (August 13); Ragtime/Parade (August 20); and Wicked (August 27). It’s $9 per class or $29 for all four.

An August ALL-ACCESS Pass includes all eight classes for a total of $59 — a savings of $25. You can buy that through either of the above links.

This Weekly Blast contains:

A) Six BLASTS with surprising thoughts on Sondheim shows;

B) a Peter Filichia’s BROADWAY video commentary in which Peter discusses Evita;

C) a NEWS ROUNDUP;

D) SURVEY RESULTS from the BroadwayCon Sondheim survey;

E) HOMEWORK VIDEOS on AABA songs and Sondheim’s œuvre; and

F) LAST BLASTs about Fiddler on the Roof and Guys and Dolls.

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In honor of Sondheim August kicking off on Tuesday, here are several Blasts about Stephen Sondheim and his work, in chronological order:

BLAST: "Something's Coming" from West Side Story shows how Tony doesn't fit in as a Jet. While the name of his gang suggests sleek, modern, and artificial, the imagery in Tony's "I Want" song is thoroughly naturalistic, using words like sky, river, beach, tree, rose, air, and moon. This way, even before meeting Maria, he aligns himself symbolically with the Puerto Rican Sharks -- who have a name from nature.

BLAST: The line “something familiar, something peculiar” that kicks off “Comedy Tonight” from Stephen Sondheim’s A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum is an apt description of Sondheim’s career as a whole. He took things that were familiar (a fairy tale, a famous painting) and problematized them, making them peculiar so we can view them from a different angle. In fact, starting with 1970’s Company, Sondheim made the very concept of a musical peculiar, with spectacular results.

BLAST: At the start of A Little Night Music, Madame Armfeldt observes that the summer night smiles three times: one for the young, who know nothing; once for the fools who know too little; and once for the old, who know too much. But it’s summer in Sweden, which is at a latitude where the summer night is very brief and sometimes doesn’t exist at all. So in Night Music, the smiles are very brief, which makes sense for a show in which most everyone is rather unhappy. That makes the line about the summer night a subtle, yet poignant, nod to the fleeting joy and the lingering dissatisfaction experienced by most characters in the show.

BLAST: The conflict between composer Franklin Shepard and the lyricist Charley Kringas in Merrily We Roll Along reflects an attitude Stephen Sondheim had toward his own art. He always wanted to write his own music to go with his lyrics, and after a few false starts (he wrote the lyrics but not the music to West Side Story and Gypsy), his career success is largely due to shows in which he wrote both the lyrics and the music. So perhaps the conflict in Merrily, best represented by Kringas’s bitter song “Franklin Shepard, Inc.,” is a reflection on the difficulty of lyricists and composers to work together to create a unified whole.

BLAST: The character name "Dot" in Sunday in the Park with George refers to the pointillistic painting techniques of little dots of color. But it also refers to the dotted notes in the complex, multilayered score.

And finally…

BLAST: Sondheim loved anagrams, and remarkably three anagrams for STEPHEN SONDHEIM refers to aspects of his shows: “HE PENS DEMON HITS” could refer to Sweeney Todd or Assassins; “PHONINESS THEMED” could refer to Company and A Little Night Music, and “SENSE DEPTH ON HIM” could apply to any of his shows, but especially thoughtful works like Sunday in the Park with George and Passion.

Did any of these resonate with you? Why? What are your unique observations about Sondheim? Put your comments below.

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PETER FILICHIA’S BROADWAY: The author of The Book of Broadway Musical Debates, Disputes, and Disagreements, longtime critic and commentator Peter Filichia has seen more than 12,000 shows. He makes a video for every issue of The Weekly Blast. In this episode, Peter discusses Evita:

• what's great (and not great) about Tim Rice's lyrics; and

• the role of "Another Suitcase in Another Hall."

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NEWS ROUNDUP: HE WRITES THE SONGS. The new musical Harmony from Barry Manilow (music) and Bruce Sussman (book and lyrics) has released its first single. Refreshingly, Harmony isn’t a jukebox musical (ack) of Manilow songs but rather an original story about a real-live singing group called The Comedian Harmonists who were extraordinarily successful in Europe and America in the 1920s and 1930s, even if they are largely forgotten today. Since half the sextet was Jewish (and another was married to a Jew) the Harmonists ran into trouble with the rise of the Nazis. It’s the most promising Jewish musical coming down the pipeline since The Band’s Visit. If the new single, “Harmony,” is any indication, the show will be tuneful, peppy, and pretty darn Jewish (one of the singers goes by the moniker “Rabbi” — which he is). The show has had a long road to Broadway, with an initial run set for 2004 being canceled for lack of funds. A six-week off-Broadway engagement last year was well-received both critically and commercially, and now producer Ken Davenport (a former Broadway Maven guest) is working hard to shepherd the show to its first performance October 18. Opening Night is November 13.

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SURVEY RESULTS: The attendees of the BroadwayCon Sondheim session filled out a survey about their favorite Sondheim.

Favorite Madame Rose: WINNER Patti Lupone

Second Place: Bernadette Peters

Best Score: WINNER Sweeney Todd

Second Place: Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods, Company (tie)

Best Lyrics: WINNER Company

Second Place: Sweeney Todd, Into the Woods (tie)

Best Book/Script: WINNER: Into the Woods

Second Place: Sweeney Todd

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For your Gershwin homework, watch the video below about AABA songs. Come up with a Broadway AABA song not included in the video and list it in the comments below the video. What is the B section?

For your Company homework (part of Sondheim August), watch the video below introducing the basics of nine Sondheim shows. Which are you most interested in seeing, or seeing again? Explain your answers in the comments.

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Note: links to register for ALL classes are always available at TheBroadwayMaven.com.

• Sunday, August 6 Gershwin on Broadway (Noon to 1:00 pm ET, $9 or $29 for the Sunday series)

• Tuesday, August 8 Company (Noon to 1:15 pm ET, $12 or $39 for the Sondheim series)

• Sunday, August 13 The Pajama Game and Damn Yankees (Noon to 1:00 pm ET, $9 or $29 for the Sunday series)

• Tuesday, August 15 A Little Night Music (Noon to 1:15 pm ET, $12 or $39 for the Sondheim series)

• Sunday, August 20 Ragtime and Parade (Noon to 1:00 pm ET, $9 or $29 for the Sunday series)

• Tuesday, August 22 Merrily We Roll Along (Noon to 1:15 pm ET, $12 or $39 for the Sondheim series)

• Sunday, August 27 Wicked (Noon to 1:00 pm ET, $9 or $29 for the Sunday series)

• Tuesday, August 29 Into the Woods (Noon to 1:15 pm ET, $12 or $39 for the Sondheim series)

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LAST BLAST: Considering Jewish law, the antagonism in Fiddler on the Roof between dairyman Tevye and butcher Lazar Wolf makes perfect sense. The tradition is to keep milk and meat as separate as possible! In fact, the coming together of Tevye and Lazar in the song “L’chaim” may represent the mixing of milk and meat, symbolizing further the breakdown of Jewish traditions.

LAST BLAST: "Luck" in the Guys and Dolls song "Luck Be a Lady" refers to three things — Sky Masterson's craps roll and his wager to get the "sinners" to the mission, of course. But there's another luck: the fact “mission doll” Sarah Brown was the first person to appear after Sky told Nathan he would take any woman to Havana.

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Broadway Maven David Benkof helps students further their appreciation of musical theater through his classes, his YouTube channel, and his Weekly Blast. Contact him at DavidBenkof@gmail.com.