Sisyphean Times/June, 2014 11
"He's God!"
MUS
I
CAL
THEATRE
EVERYONE has something they are weirdly passionate about. That something may be sports, or literature, or cooking.
I am weirdly passionate about musical theatre.
I NEVER- and my friends can attest to this - light up quite like I do when I'm discussing musicals. I grew up with Disney musicals by the Ashmen/Menken dream team. My first Broadway musical was Jonathan Larson's Pulitzer Prize-winning Rent. And yet, those are just gravy on Sondheim's meat and potatoes.
SONDHEIM'S musicals are meals, and he has been feeding Broadway for decades. Those who aren't part of this community may be familiar with at least the film versions of his musicals, like Tim Burton's adaptation of Sweeney Todd. However, these stage productions are so rich, and layered, it is almost impossible to capture their magic on film.
THE SONG, even in a few short lines, shows his mastery of lyrics. The only trouble with Sondheim lyrics is that they sometimes go by too quickly, and you miss how clever they are.
SO WHAT is so great about Sondheim? If you really want to know, check out Sunday in the Park with George. But failing that, what I love about Sondheim is the way he develops characters through songs (music and lyrics). No Sondheim character is perfect - each one is deeply flawed and deeply human. During a number, they seem to want to leap off the stage. Somehow, they are larger-than-life, but remain easy to identify with.
MY FAVOURITE Sondheim show is Sunday in the Park with George. It is his most intensely personal show. While George is, at times, unlikeable, we see how he is torn between his art and his lover, and my heart, at least, breaks for him. I like Sondheim because his music makes me feel something. It's that simple, and that difficult.
THE MUSICAL revue "Sondheim on Sondheim" opens its second act with a self-satirizing song called "God" penned by Sondheim himself.
“You have to have something to believe in / Something to appropriate, emulate, overrate / Might as well be Stephen / or to use his nickname: God!"