The Husband: “ I can't belive that you still have not cracked Look, I Made a Hat: Collected Lyrics (1981-2011) with Attendant Comments, Amplifications, Dogmas, Harangues, Digressions, Anecdotes & Miscellany that you just had to have even though you never finished Finishing the Hat: Collected Lyrics (1954-1981) with Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines & Anecdotes. Stephen: "Some things are so cherished that I can't bear to soil them. I am treasuring it, waiting for the perfect afternoon to spend with it. I will know when that moment is right. As Sondheim said in Into The Woods: 'I was raised to be charming, not sincere'." Today is such a day. With a light dusting of springtime snow last night, I am enjoying an unexpected day off, warm & toasty at Post Apocalyptic Bohemia, drinking tea & wasting the day away.
The greatest composer/lyricist for the theatre & I have some history together.
In the spring of 1973, I saw A Little Night Music in the pre-Broadway tryout in Boston. I was my late teens, 2500 miles from home, & sporting a huge red afro; I sat in the darkened, half-filled theatre & let the magic & enchantment wash over me. This was not my 1st Sondheim. I had, of course, seen West Side Story & Gypsy!. When 17 years old, I had talked my parents into letting me go to San Francisco all by myself to see the original cast (minus Dean Jones) of Company (I had more than just a little fun freely footloose & 17 in San Francisco in 1971). I had worn out the Original Cast Album of Follies the same year.
5 years later, I would play Henrik in A Little Night Music, a fabulous role & the closest I ever came to playing an ingénue. The character plays the cello. Traditionally the orchestra’s cello plays the music while the actor mimes the playing. Because I actually can play the cello, & I was able to do my own cello work. I thought this gave my performance a bit more authenticity, although I had to practice for hours & hours to be able to the play cello & sing at the same time… in character. I found this rather daunting & I worked hard to make it work. I understand that I was rather convincing in this role.
Your Host in A Little Night Music, circa 1977
I did another long run in a sold out, & extended production of Side By Side By Sondheim, a musical revue of collected songs from several produced & un-produced Sondheim musicals. Among the songs I was so very lucky to perform in that show, was my favorite Sondheim tune- Anyone Can Whistle. Via the wonders of Facebook, the director of Side by Side & I reconnected & he sent me a DVD of the show. I am not all that keen for watching myself on screen, but I was pleasantly surprised at how good the show was, how young I looked, how much hair I had, & what a captivating, compelling, curious, & clever vocalist I was 26 years ago. I was also sort of hot, with single digit body fat, curly red hair, & discreet risqué deportment. I totally would have done me.
I sang Not A Day Goes By from Merrily We Roll Along for auditions for a few years in the 1980s, until I decided that singing Sondheim for auditions was cliché & too gay… even for me.
I was aware early on, that Stephen Sondheim was a homosexual, & it did give some solace when I was grappling with coming out. Sondheim came out as gay only when he was 40, & he did not live with a partner until he was 61. He shared his life with writer- Peter Jones, until 1999, living at the Turtle Bay house that has been Sondheim’s home & writing place since the early 1960s. Katharine Hepburn used to live next door. Sondheim: “up one night at about 3, pounding on the piano, writing The Ladies Who Lunch for Company, when I heard this banging on the door. There was Hepburn, in a babushka & no shoes, saying, ‘Young man, I cannot sleep with the noise you’re making’.”
Sondheim: “If I had to live my life over again, I would have children. That’s the great mistake I made. It’s too late now. The idea of being a homosexual & raising children was one that was just not acceptable until, my goodness, I’d say the 1970s or 1980s. You want to live long enough to see your children grow up, they’re not puppies. The joy is not just to have them, but to watch them change & grow. So, yes, that is a great regret. But as Bach proved to a great degree, you can have both. It would be nice to have both. But to have any outlet for creative energy is indeed a very good emotional substitute for not being able to put that energy into the raising of a family.”
There is common thought on Sondheim, that although he can do LOVE in a theatre piece, he struggles when it enters his own life. Even people who follow him closely have assumed that he was single. It came as a surprise in 2006 when he announced: “I have someone else now, his name is Jeff. We celebrated our 7th anniversary. Jeff is a great joy in my life & once I had tasted the joys of living with someone, I wanted to live with someone else when it broke up.”
There is the work though; about 20 major stage shows, music & lyrics: A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum (1962), Anyone Can Whistle (1964), Company (1970), Follies (1971), A Little Night Music (1973), The Frogs (1974), Pacific Overtures (1976), Sweeney Todd (1979), Merrily We Roll Along (1981), Sunday In The Park With George (1984), Into The Woods (1987), Assassins (1991), Passion (1994), Bounce (2003) which later became Road Show (2008), as well as lyrics for West Side Story (1957), Gypsy (1959), Do I Hear A Waltz? (1965), Candide (1973). Plus the revues: Side By Side By Sondheim (1976), Marry Me A Little (1981), You're Gonna Love Tomorrow (1983), Putting It Together (1993/99) Moving On (2001) & Sondheim on Sondheim (2010) that are anthologies of his work as composer & lyricist. For films, he composed the scores of Stavisky (1974) & Reds (1981) & songs for The Seven Percent Solution (1976) & Dick Tracy (1990). He also wrote the songs for the television production Evening Primrose (1966), co-authored the film The Last of Sheila (1973) & the play Getting Away With Murder (1996). In total, his works have accumulated more than 65 individual & collaborative Tony Awards & an Oscar.
Sondheim created cryptic crosswords for New York Magazine in the late 1960s. He was screenwriter for the television series Topper (1953) & The Last Of Sheila (1973, with his friend Anthony Perkins). He appeared as himself in the film Camp (2003).
In March 2008, Sondheim & Frank Rich of the NY Times appeared in an interview/conversation in Portland, titled A Little Night Conversation with Stephen Sondheim. WCK3 & I were fortunate enough to attend. One of my revered revelations from that evening was that Sondheim & I share a favorite non-Sondheim musical in She Loves Me. He was very funny & charming that evening. I am crazy for Frank Rich & I have loved Sondheim’s music & lyrics for 50+ years. I was thrilled.
I feel so damn old. During the Company/Follies era, Sondheim appeared on the cover of Time with the caption- The Boy Wonder of the Theatre. The boy went on to an Academy Award, 8 Tony Awards (more than any other composer) including the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, multiple Grammy Awards including Song Of The Year for Send In The Clowns in 1974, & a Pulitzer Prize.
Sonheim turns 82 today. We both got old & we both got lucky. Oddly enough, he shares this birthday with the British composer of that weird musical with the singing & dancing CATS. Go figure.
"I chose & my world was shaken. So what? The choice may have been mistaken; the choosing was not. You have to move on."
Sunday In The Park With George
