No Loose Canon: Hunting for common tropes across Sondheim’s work
Four Broadway Blasts link Company to Sweeney to Woods and beyond
Shalom, Broadway lovers!
In today’s FREE Premium edition of MARQUEE: The Broadway Maven’s Weekly Blast: four Broadway Blasts finding linkages across various Sondheim shows; a Broadway Maven video with Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 50 best melodies; a review of the recent Rodgers & Hammerstein anniversary concert; a Piano Talk about Andrew Lloyd Webber’s School of Rock, a homework video examining the song “I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Misérables; and a Last Blast about My Fair Lady.
Sondheim’s works have been extensively studied for their wit, sophistication, playfulness and depth of character, but perhaps most of all for themes and structures. What’s less discussed is the thematic and structural links across his works. Here are four Broadway Blasts that each identify one such throughline.
BROADWAY BLAST: Toward the end of Into the Woods, the Baker’s Wife sings, “Sometimes people leave you halfway through the wood,” and indeed major characters in Sondheim’s work often leave the other characters (or die) at the end of the First Act: Riff and Bernardo in West Side Story, June in Gypsy, Dot in Sunday, and Pirelli in Sweeney. I have looked – hard – and can confidently say that very few if any non-Sondheim musicals use this plot device, other than Billy Bigelow in Carousel and John Laurens in Hamilton.
BROADWAY BLAST: In two of his works, Sondheim uses birds to show a female character’s sense of being trapped. Johanna in Sweeney Todd sings “Green Finch and Linnet Bird” to ask her avian friends how to sing as a mechanism to cope with her captivity. Cinderella in Into the Woods asks the birds to go further and help her escape by picking the lentils out of the ashes (strangely, this scullery maid whose name means “Little Ashes” doesn’t know that water washes ashes off vegetables). In each case, the birds represent aspirations for freedom, even though only one leads in that direction. Incidentally, though the choice of bird name may not have been deliberate, Sondheim had lots of choices and there is only one other major use of “finch” in the Broadway canon: the protagonist of the Pulitzer Prize-winning How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, J. Pierrepont Finch. Johanna is presented singing her song by looking through a window (a word that appears seven times in the show’s score). Perhaps Sondheim is on some level expressing Johanna’s wish to fly through her window to join Anthony below by using the name of Broadway’s most famous window-washer.
BROADWAY BLAST: In Act Two of Into the Woods, Cinderella’s Prince tells the Baker’s Wife, “I was raised to be charming, not sincere.” The two words are quite apt, because they perfectly encapsulate the themes of the two acts of the show. The enchanting Act One (which is often performed as a stand-alone by and for children) is charming, whereas Act Two (which tackles major themes of legacy, responsibility, complexity, and interdependence) is sincere. The charming/sincere dichotomy is a useful lens to consider in Sondheim’s oeuvre), since other shows have a similar structure. The first act of Gypsy is filled with cutesy children’s numbers (“May We Entertain You”) and charm songs like “All I Need is the Girl” and “If Momma Was Married.” By contrast, the second act examines serious themes like Louise’s quest for independence and Madame Rose’s descent into madness. Or take Company, in which most of the light humor (“You Could Drive a Person Crazy”; “Getting Married Today”) is in the first act, whereas songs that explore deeper themes like “The Ladies Who Lunch” and “Being Alive” are kept for the end of the show. And the reverse-chronology Merrily We Roll Along is the exception that proves the rule, moving from sincere to charming, exploring deeper conflicts and complications in the first act than we see in the lighter second act.
BROADWAY BLAST: Sondheim’s works not only constantly revisit many of the same ideas, but thematic tropes saturate Sondheim's portfolio well beyond just lyrics, music, and dialogue. For example, the central sets of two Stephen Sondheim musicals – A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and Into the Woods – consist of three houses. And going from left to right, each pair of houses plays parallel roles in characterization and plot. In Forum, the House of Lycus is a brothel in which beauty is commodified and celebrated, whereas in Woods, Cinderella’s house is where she transforms her lowly scullery maid’s appearance into a lovely maiden who eventually becomes a princess. The center houses, which are where naïve young men Hero and Jack live, are the focal point of youthful dreams and aspirations, whether it’s to wed Philia or to save a beloved pet. Finally, the houses on the right are about the desire for parenting, with Erroneous searching for his long-lost children and the Baker and his Wife desperate to have children in the first place. Themes of beauty, youth, and parenting permeate many of his shows (I’m looking at you, Sunday), but his first musical as a composer-lyricist as well as one of his last materialize those themes directly onto the set.
BROADWAY MAVEN VIDEO: Here’s a video spotlighting my choices for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 50 greatest melodies.
REVIEW: At the end of March, in honor of the 80th anniversary of Rodgers & Hammerstein, a celebratory concert was livestreamed, and I got to watch it. What a terrific viewing experience. Entitled “My Favorite Things,” the show certainly included many of mine.
The structure of the performance was refreshing: the songs were presented roughly chronologically, as opposed to thematically or in a series of random medleys. So from the first notes of the show (the overture from Oklahoma!) to the last song (diva Audra McDonald singing “Climb Every Mountain” from The Sound of Music) the highlights of the career of the pioneering composer-lyricist duo were center stage.
Some of the fun performances were by Broadway stars reprising their most notable Rodgers & Hammerstein roles, whether it’s McDonald singing “Mister Snow” from Carousel, Patrick Wilson singing “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning” from Oklahoma! or Daniel Dae Kim singing “A Puzzlement” from The King and I.
Some of the duo’s lesser-known works (like State Fair and Allegro) are included, and the dancing was surprisingly sophisticated for the very small stage. And probably the highlight of the show involved no singing at all; the private testimonies of 92-year-old Rita Moreno and musical theater composer extraordinaire Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Unfortunately, the show is not currently streaming but even for casual fans it’s worth looking out for a return engagement.
PIANO TALK: This week, music educator Mateo Chavez Lewis examines the way Andrew Lloyd Webber uses rock music in School of Rock by comparing one number from the show with a song from the rock band Genesis. He shows the way repetition can help the ear get used to nearly any kind of music.
HOMEWORK: For Monday’s Les Miz class, watch these performances of “I Dreamed a Dream.” Which impressed you most and why? Explain your answers in the comments.
On Monday, April 8th, The Broadway Maven invites you to an immersive exploration of Les Misérables, a musical that captures the essence of hope, redemption, and revolution. This FREE, interactive Zoom session, accessible at noon and 7:00 PM ET, offers a deep dive into the musical's rich tapestry of unforgettable melodies, profound lyrics, and a compelling narrative that continues to resonate worldwide. Participants will gain insights into the musical genius of Claude-Michel Schönberg, the lyrical depth of Alain Boublil and Herbert Kretzmer, and the story's powerful depiction of 19th-century France. This event is a must-attend for both seasoned fans and newcomers eager to discover the layers behind the enduring legacy of Les Misérables. Space is limited, so register now to ensure your participation in this captivating journey into the heart of musical theatre, shared with a community of like-minded theater lovers.
NEW COURSE: For the first time, The Broadway Maven will present an advanced course on Broadway music theory and Broadway history. Taught by both Broadway Maven David Benkof and music educator Mateo Chavez Lewis, this class will delve deep into Broadway’s mechanics and its past. David will be presenting 40 Broadway shows in the context of American history that shaped them — and they helped shape. Mateo will focus on the music theory behind Broadway shows, with lots of examples provided from his piano. Every Sunday in April and May starting April 7 at 4 pm ET. Note the registration page mistakenly lists it as being a single class in May, but it’s an 8-week course.
Note: links to register for ALL classes are always available at TheBroadwayMaven.com.
• Sunday, April 7 4 pm ET: History and Harmony: A Broadway MasterClass begins (cost for series: $89)
• Monday, April 8 Noon and 7 pm ET: Les Misérables, FREE
• Sunday, April 14 4 pm ET: History and Harmony: A Broadway MasterClass session 2 (cost for series: $89)
• Sunday, April 21 4 pm ET: History and Harmony: A Broadway MasterClass session 3 (cost for series: $89)
• Sunday, April 28 4 pm ET: History and Harmony: A Broadway MasterClass session 4 (cost for series: $89)
• Sunday, May 5 4 pm ET: History and Harmony: A Broadway MasterClass session 5 (cost for series: $89)
• Sunday, May 12 4 pm ET: History and Harmony: A Broadway MasterClass session 6 (cost for series: $89)
• Sunday, May 19 4 pm ET: History and Harmony: A Broadway MasterClass session 7 (cost for series: $89)
• Sunday, May 26 4 pm ET: History and Harmony: A Broadway MasterClass session 8 (cost for series: $89)
NOTE: As always, ALL-ACCESS Passholders do not have to sign up or pay for anything. Just show up!
LAST BLAST: The most common and expected subject of casual chit-chat is the weather. And that’s the anodyne curriculum Henry Higgins offers his pupil Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady. He teaches Eliza “proper” pronunciation with meteorological subjects. Not only does she learn her vowels with “the rain in Spain,” she learns to pronounce the letter H with a phrase about the places where “hurricanes hardly happen.” The fact Higgins couldn’t teach her with more substantive sentences underscores his disregard for her. By contrast, Eliza’s linguistic progress changes her profoundly, both in terms of her self-worth and her ambitions. Eliza's journey from phonetic exercises to asserting her independence in society exemplifies the transformative power of language, challenging the rigid class distinctions of Edwardian England.
Broadway Maven David Benkof helps students further their appreciation of musical theater through his classes, his YouTube channel, and MARQUEE: the Broadway Maven’s Weekly Blast. Contact him at DavidBenkof@gmail.com.