If you haven’t figured it out yet, I am a bit of a theatre buff.
I have directed several shows and I am a “would be” actor. Both of my teaching assignments have allowed me to direct high school theatre, every- thing from musicals (Anything Goes, Annie, God- spell, Guys and Dolls, The Fantasticks and, my favorite, Into the Woods) to comedies (See How They Run, Don’t Drink the Water and, an edited for a Catholic high school version of Bleacher Bums), to serious dramas (Inherit the Wind, The Diary of Anne Frank and Kindertransport). On stage, I was involved in several shows at a local community college and with community theatre. I’ve likewise been in musicals (West Side Story, Little Shop of Horrors, as the plant, Big, Fiddler on the Roof, 1776 3x!, Man of LaMancha, and Working), comedies (Noises Off, Arsenic and Old Lace) and serious dramas (Of Mice and Men, The Boys Next Door). And yes, I have even done Shakespeare. It was all fun. (Except The Front Page, a show I have been trying to forget for 30 years.)
And so it was with sadness that I heard of the passing of Stephen Sondheim, a truly revolution- ary figure in American Theatre. Here is a sam- pling of his shows: West Side Story, Gypsy, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Company, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods, Assassins. The amazing thing about Sondheim is that even his flops are amazing. His three bo- nafide flops are Anyone Can Whistle, Merrily We Roll Along and Pacific Overtures. All are challeng- ing, thought-provoking and wondrous. Even when he failed, he was remarkable. (Merrily We Roll Along prompted a great documentary Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened, and is currently being made into a film which will be filmed over the next twenty years. It plays in reverse, but is being filmed in sequence. I hope I am still alive to see it.)
Sondheim was criticized for his “unhummable” tunes, but that is not fair. I hum them all the time. What he is celebrated for is his amazing wordsmith flair. A few examples. From A Little Night Music’s The Miller’s Son: It’s a very short road from the pinch and the punch to the paunch and the pouch and the pension. From my favor- ite Sondheim show Into the Woods: It’s your father’s fault that the curse got placed, and the place got cursed in the first place. The whole song of Gee, Officer Krupke is brilliant, though not exactly appropriate for a parish bulletin.
As I said, Sondheim transformed American Musical Theatre. The themes of his shows are like none other which were ever attempted. Take for instance, Sondheim’s favorite song from one of his shows, Someone in a Tree from Pacific Overtures (I have yet to see it live). The musical is about the opening of Japan to the West in the 19th century. This song is about the story of the first negotiation of Japanese representative with American representatives, a truly historic mo- ment. The song is simultaneously simple, subtle and complicated. It concerns two minor characters (played by three people!) who witnessed the moment, but in a piecemeal and fragmented way, one only sees from his perch in a tree, the other only hears from below the floor. It is about memory and how memory can deceive us. It is about being next to history, outside of it, yet being a constitutive and necessary part of it nevertheless. It is a song about the common people being part of uncommon occurrences. It is about how all these fragmentary elements help give a clear picture of what really occurred on that fateful day. “If I weren’t, who’s to say things would happen here the way that they’re happening?” (I’ve done a terrible job trying to explain this, watch the song on YouTube.)
I have been in one Sondheim show, West Side Story. I played the bad guy (I play the villain a lot), Lt. Schrank. (Had to smoke onstage.
Thought I was cool, in reality, got woozy.) I have directed one Sondheim show, Into the Woods, in 1994. A month into production my father passed away unexpectedly. Suddenly, that show took on a much deeper, much more profound meaning.
As the characters from that show sing: Some- times people leave you, halfway through the woods. Do not let it grieve you, no one leaves for good. That show, and indeed all of Sondheim’s words and works, needless to say, had a profound impact on my life.
So, Rest in Peace, Stephen Sondheim.
Someday, somewhere We’ll find a new way of living
We’ll find there’s a way of forgiving Somewhere, somewhere, somewhere