It always amazes me to know that Sondheim was mentored by Hammerstein and Bernstein, and then that he encouraged and mentored Jonathan Larson (Rent) and Lin-Manual Miranda. What a royal lineage of musical theatre!
Just read Bernstein’s private letters for some research, and found one where he talks about introducing someone new to the West Side Story project, “a new young lyricist called Stephen Sondheim who is going to work wonderfully”. The beginning of such a great legacy.
I can't listen to No One is Alone without shedding a tear, despite the hundreds of thousands of times I've listened to it. God what a blessing he was to the world.
This video is a masterpiece. Sondheim was my gateway to opera and inspired me to pursue music and theatre in college. His music has always been an escape for me whenever I am having turbulent moments and need comfort. That's what his music is for me. Even something as dark as Sweeney Todd still evokes this feeling of comfort as if to remind the listener that this monster is still human. There are a lot of people that don't understand the significance of Sondheim. I ask that they pick any of his major works at random, put on some headphones, close your eyes... and just LISTEN. Sondheim's death to me has the same significance as the death of Wagner. Their works are not just entertainment, but a deeply personal expression of a human being's complete and total mastery of art.
I only found out about Sondheim when the Into The Woods movie came out. When I saw it, it didn't feel right, it felt like so much was missing. So I watched the original production and immediately fell in love. I couldn't get enough. The complexity and wit in his lyrics, the simplicity and honesty of his melodies, but most of all the utter humanness of his music. May his memory be a blessing.
The Regents Park outdoor version -- even better than the movie - or the original BW production, I think. ruclips.net/video/Q4mGoOkvPnA/видео.html&ab_channel=ChrisSandiford
@@rixx46 i only watched the prologue and i respect the creative choices (making the narrator a child is very cool idea) but i’m afraid the original is still my favorite!
Same here, but I actually liked the movie (Meryl Streep is my fav witch XD ). I listen to the songs from the movie (except for _It Takes Two_ ) but I only ever rewatch the play. Now tell me, what version was it that the person whose comment disappeared recomended?
@@gomesbandrey just came across this and even though this comment is a while ago, I imagine they’re talking about the Regent’s Park production with Hannah Waddingham as The Witch. They have a child as a narrator. Its like a site specific production. They also did a version in central park but I haven’t seen that one my self.
I've seen so many tributes to Sondheim since his passing, and it strikes me how they are all so deeply personal. I think it's because of exactly the quality you name: his work's humanity. Because it's so vulnerable and honest, it resonates with all of us.
I didn't "discover" Sondheim until I saw Marriage Story two years ago. Adam Driver's rendition of Being Alive awoke my deepest connection with humanity, and made me instantly infatuated with Company as a whole. Just the "Bobby, Bobby" motif alone is enough to make me emotional. God what a man. Rest in Peace.
I love this. I love that a featured song in a film got someone to look into his work. I had already started to appreciate the connection to humanity in art, just a couple years prior to discovering Sondheim, but his writing [as he said about art] brought much order out of the chaos. Others addressed the chaos in inspired ways, but Sondheim made so much of it make sense. Very few talents have this ability, in my opinion. I continued to learn from multiple re-listens of his work, and I hope you have the same kind of experiences. :)
"while her withers wither with her" "we'll have leontyne Price to sing her medley from Meistersinger" "Life is often so unpleasant / You must know that, as a peasant / Best to take the moment present / As a present for the moment"
Company was my gateway show into Sondheim as well. As a singer, Not Getting Married Today is so good not only for the things you point out in the video, but for the word choice! All of Amy’s patter lyric sits at the front of the mouth, so while you’re singing you don’t have to put forth extra effort trying to make sound from the back of the throat or use the tongue except for what it does right behind the teeth. If it wasn’t for the speed of the line, it’s a relatively easy lyric to sing! I was watching another Sondheim doc yesterday and in it he mentions how when he’s writing lyric he thinks like a singer, and I don’t know of a more perfect example than that. ♥️
Sondheim's work is like a massive onion. You keep peeling away endless layers of complexities and nuances about life and be entertained in the process.
Perhaps it's that Sondheim's loss is so fresh, no doubt a part of my reaction. But it's the beauty of this video and your personal commitment to the subject which makes it so glorious. You had me in tears by the end.
I started to listen to sondheim three months ago, his music quickly Stick with me for reasons that i didn't really understand, the First thing that i listened to was: Into the woods, i was blessed by the fantastic music, narrative and the interation of musical material. So when i read about Is death i was speechless, so much that i went to my parents and said " a Genius died". Truly an Immortal figure, Will never be forgotten, his geniality and him.
What a tremendous gift this video is to all who love Sondheim and the craft of musical theatre. Created with so much care and featuring such interesting and gorgeous production values.
So beautiful, thoughtful and personal. This is quite moving. In interviews, I recall Sondheim describing his approach in such pragmatic terms. As I recall, of Send In The Clowns, Mr. Sondheim said, Glynis Johns was not able to sustain notes. Mindful of this, he arrived at using short questions, using words that would not require Ms. Johns to hold notes. In Send In The Clowns, he was honest and practical about the artist who would be performing the song, and, he simply, honestly and, elegantly solved a puzzle. Listening to him speak about his work, it’s my impression that he was utterly, and, unflinchingly pragmatic about all of his work.
He may have had a profound impact on your young life, but I assure you that even at 64, that hearing "Finishing the Hat" again - and your heartfelt discussion of Sondheim's mastery - brings tears to my eyes. Love Your Work.
3:58 Beth Howland is probably the only Amy who ever got this exactly right-the right pitches, the right places to take a breath, the right manic energy. More than fifty years on, her Getting Married Today is still the gold standard.
I went through a pretty rough time a few years ago, and wound up rewatching Burton’s Sweeney Todd at some point in the middle of it. By the Sea absolutely laid me out - the song is funny as hell, but it’s funny because the idea of Todd, now, ever belonging in the life he feels he deserved *is a joke.* Which is just an incredibly dark and sophisticated idea. And in that reprise of Joanna, he fixates mindlessly on repaying the violence that’s been done to him while Anthony, you know, actually gets out and tries to find Todd’s missing family. How easy it is to see yourself as one while inadvertently becoming the other. Anyway, I wound up watching that movie three or four times during that period. I don’t even know exactly what darkness Sondheim helped me avoid there, but his writing was a much-needed map in unfamiliar terrain.
Jonathan Tunick is the orchestrator on most of these shows. He really made Sondheim's music sparkle. Other than maybe Robert Russell Bennett, there's no one better.
The very last shot of your video of Sondheim saying "that's terrific" brings something else to mind. I have NEVER seen a video in which he castigates, demeans, insults, or dismisses a performer. His teaching videos are just that; telling the artist what he, the writer, wants from the song or scene. To me, this demonstrated that he was enamored of the world of theater. He loved shows and respected the actors. I like to think he would go to an amateurish 8th grade production of any of his works and take the time to go back stage and tell the students what a good job they did and keep up the good work. It took me a while to fully appreciate Sondheim's work because his show were so different from the Rogers and Hammerstein-type musicals I grew up with. Now, I love his work and truly appreciate, as you said, his humanity.
I remember auditioning for a production of Sweeney because I "liked the Johnny Depp movie." I think I was 15 and had no clue what I was about to get myself into. It became an obsession. I feel honored to have lived in the same lifetime as Mr. Sondheim.
I was in a production of Company recently, and I fell head over heels in love with the show. It's so layered and gorgeous. My dream role is Baker's Wife, as I adore her wit and the range of her musical moments. One day.
This video was like a balm to a morning soul. Sondheim's music was so personal to me and ever since his death I have not been able to mourn. Thank you for this tribute, it really meant a lot.
This was a beautiful tribute. I’ve been in love with Into the Woods and Company for years but it wasn’t until the pandemic that i started diving into Sondheim’s other works and just being devastated each time by his capacity to describe the human experience. His music made me feel seen, which is something I am only now realizing because you worded it so beautifully here. Thank you for sharing :)
My parents introduced me to the American musical at a young age, then a friend said to me one day that we should see Company before it closes. It was a matinee and by the end I was spellbound, speechless, maybe stunned, but certainly a convert. There had never been anything like it before, and over and over he kept producing more and more musical magic and iconic theater experiences. What Sondheim added to my life and the theater at large can never be measured.
What an evocative, thoughtful, and personal tribute to Sondheim! You have a remarkable talent for translating the power and complexity of song in a clear and comprehensible way for those of us with no training in the musical arts. Thanks for being a great teacher.
What a beautiful, personal, and uplifting story you’ve shared. I’m ashamed to admit that I don’t know enough of Sondheim’s music, but that which I know I truly do love.
I think that Sondheim was the first major Broadway composer whose music consistently had a rock beat. His songs could never be classified as "rock songs"--they were most definitely "Broadway"--but there is a contemporary rhythm behind most of them (even behind "Comedy Tonight" from A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM; I don't think it would have been written the same way had it been written ten years earlier, in the pre-rock n' roll era). His music, I think, was able to appeal to younger people who grew up on rock n' roll, and it was also able to appeal to older people who remembered going to Broadway in the 1930s and 1940s. So Sondheim was a songwriter who spanned the generations. I also find that Sondheim is one of the relatively few strictly Broadway (as opposed to Broadway/concert composers, like Bernstein) who is universally respected within the classical music/opera world.
Deeply moving. Thank you. And so illuminating. When I was about 18, I paid $4 to sit in the last row of the balcony for the first Broadway production of "A Little Night Music." I was so uncultured that I did not know who Sondheim was and I left at intermission because I couldn't understand the lyrics--especially coming from Hermione Gingold. Still not knowing who Sondehim was, I subsequently went to the first Broadway production of "Follies" and was completely blown away. I've since, of course, seen many productions of all of his shows for which he did the lyrics and the music and lyrics and have been blown away countless times--especially a Menier production of "Sunday in the Park with George" that left me and my friends in a puddle of tears. Twice. There is really no one like Sondheim. Most musical theater composers these days are turning out wholly unmemorable scores and songs characterized by belted-out anthems with no subtlety whatsoever. There are a few exceptions, of course, but they have not learned from the master.
God this was so good. Judi Dench started singing and I started crying lol. Sondheim is a love hate dynamic for me personally, and I think you pegged the reason in you video. Complexity. I love his slow, emotionally charged pieces, but the chaos makes me feel crazy and I want to turn away. The cacophony of voices overlapping makes my head hurt :p. Probably says a lot about me as an individual lol. Brilliant vid. Loved it.
Thank you so much for making this video! I've loved and admired Sondheim since I was a teenager too and your video pointed out things that I'd never properly thought about (e.g. his melodies). "Humanity" is absolutely it - he was such a wise and compassionate human being. And the choice to end with that clip of Sondheim doing that masterclass ❤️
A wonderful video essay on how amazing Sondheim’s music is. I feel that people praise his lyrics so highly (and rightfully so), that people often forget his deeply layered musical language. His music is rich in harmonies and tightly structured. His point was to never “dumb down” the music, just like people don’t dumb down science and math. I feel that when people said things like, “Sondheim’s music is not hummable” (which drove Mr. Sondheim up the walls), people were simply complaining because his music dealt so much with every side of life in general, which they were afraid to face. His legacy will reside in everyone’s heart forever! P.S. it’s an odd coincidence that you made a video on Ravel (whom Sondheim was influenced by so much) before this video ;)
God man what a great tribute to Stephen Sondheim. Like always you make me cry every damn time man lol. Loved this one a lot and really you help me understand just why his music means a lot to me. I never could understand why lol.
Beautiful video. Each time I see a tribute to SS I cry - not out of sorrow for his death (although my heart goes out to those he left behind), but from gratitude for the sheer volume of masterwork he left behind. His characters ached, fumed, bubbled and strode with such tremendous humanity. We should be studying him in schools alongside Shakespeare or Aristophanes.
I was the Baker in my high schools production of Into to Woods -- it was the first musical I ever did. That experience got me absolutely hooked on Sondheim's music and the stories he tells. It's absolutely life changing.
Many thanks to this heartfelt and very personal homage to the great, and sadly, recently late, Steven Sondheim: the ‘Shakespeare’ of musical theatre. RIP. December 2021. 🙏☀️🇬🇧🙏
Well spoken! In 2001 I met Stephen, and we became friends. I assure you he was the rare hero you should meet, contrary to the old saying. Knowing him was the honor of my life.
These video essays are truly awesome...obviously rich in content information-wise, but also the presentation is really remarkable - little details like showing us the Sondheim score extracted in its original ca. 1980s blurry badly-kerned Times New Roman font as well as Sondheims handwriting makes the whole thing more immersive...well done!
I too have been super lucky to play a fair few characters in Sondheim shows: David in company, Charlie in Merrily, the footman in Into the Woods, Czolgosh in Assassins and Pseudolous on various amateur stages. Missed out on young buddy because I'm too short! All rich interesting characters and a total privilege to play.
I did not know Judi Dench had done musicals!? How much talent can one person have? Well that shows how little I know of music theatre I guess.... thanks for this lovely video, it is wonderful loveletter to Sondheim.
I totally love "Agony (reprise)" from Into the Woods. Such fantastic storytelling within the song ending with the keyword as the last word. Just fantastic.
Thank you for this. You are right about the humanity in Sondheim’s music. His musicals tend to hit me at certain times in my life that i would dismiss it once but love later on. This was ‘Sunday in the Park with George’ with me. Saw it first when i was in elementary but revisited later with a different production that drove me to tears. When they announced his death, i wept and then listened to Sunday in the Park again. RIP Mr. Sondheim.
I sang Happy Birthday (8Oth) to Mr. Sondheim as part of the audience he was giving a talk to. The most emotional happy birthday I had ever sung collectively to anyone! Never met him personally but know him somehow????
Bravo! I'm always puzzled when I hear it said that his shows are unemotional or too intellectual. He's always found emotion in the places where other composers and lyricists do not dare to go. He is an observer of human foibles, which perhaps is a product of his sexuality, which often cast him as an outsider; but there is no lack of compassion, nor generosity, nor insight. He himself was easily given to tears and laughter, and he put them into his music and his lyrics. He venerated the role of the teacher, having been well taught himself; but not just in a narrow didactic sense. His stories, engrossing and experiential, often have something to tell us about ourselves, and how we find our way in the world. You are not alone in finding your encounters with Sondheim formative, transformational and affirming.
beautifully expressed. SUNDAY IN THE PARK... has always spoken to me -- its depths are something I rediscover often. My wife and I saw the original Broadway run -- our first REAL Broadway musical. We found it overwhelming -- the shift of time and place for the second act -- and Sondheim's songs are very demanding the first time you hear them! It took us a while until we were able to truly appreciate it. This leads me to dive deeply into his work, and to this day I find him to be one of the primary literary heroes. (I have been a screenwriter for 40 years)... So tragic that his genius has been lost -- but his works remain timeless.
I went through a phase (am still in it sometimes) where I would frequently just shut off whatever music I was listening to and switch on a Sondheim cast recording because no other music was even half as interesting.
I discovered Sondheim through Gypsy and Bernadette Peters (on which I argue is THE foremost Sondheim interpreter!)! He literally saved my life through his music, I also celebrate my birthday a week after his so I just felt that I am somehow connected to him. HE is the BEST composer and lyricist of my time. I remember crying the day he died. Good times and bum times, Thank you Steve! And this analysis is just so beautiful and a wonderful love letter to Steve ❤
One of my favorite Sondheim songs is Losing my Mind from Follies, it's haunting, grieving and gorgeous and it never fails to remind me why I love theatre so much and how much Sondheim has impacted me. Gorgeous video thank you so much. Speaking of Losing my Mind, it's the song Beniot Blanc sings in the car in Knives Out which is just a nice little tidbit.
Into the Woods is the catalyst for pretty much my entire trajectory in life upto this point. If it wasn't for one little production of that show, my world would be very different.
Sweeney Todd was my first musical. Sounds like a crazy one to be introduced to in theatre, but I wouldn’t change it. Such a great experience! And it makes it all the more special!
What a lovely tribute to a truly great man. I'm so grateful to have seen Sweeney Todd, Pacific Overtures, A Little Night Music, and Candide in original Broadway productions. I grew up listening to Sondheim and rejoice that he walked among us! Thanks.
How lucky you are to have been in so many Sondheim shows! My first introduction to Sondheim was my middle school’s production of Into the Woods. Then I saw Sweeney Todd at my local high school and was blown away. I remember going to blockbuster (yes I’m old) the next day and renting the Tim Burton version on dvd because I couldn’t get the songs out of my head. The way you describe his music is spot on. His melodies give me full body chills, his clever lyricism always makes me smile. But what I find so compelling about his shows is that even the darkest themes and most tragic stories are imbued with beauty and, as you put it, humanity. Thank you for this beautiful video.
Your essays have had me in tears for a few hours. Your explanation of music’s relationship to the world is extremely affecting-even to those of us that are basically clueless about music theory. But the way you express the relationship between music and lyrics and then further, music/lyrics and emotion, and then further music/lyrics/emotion and the world just resonate so deeply with me. Especially this essay on Sondheim. You NAILED it! “Humanity!” Thank you so much for the work you do. I adore your essays. “Into the Woods” (the video and the cast recording) helped a young farm boy in Utah struggling with his sexuality to find his way out of the shadows. For that, it will remain my favorite musical of all time. I don’t know what would’ve happened to me without it… my next Sondheim discoveries being “Sunday” and “Assassins” before I explored any of the earlier works. Every show (sans maybe Pacific Overtures and Road Show) are deeply meaningful to me. {sorry…tangent} I just wanted to thank you for your insight and musical expertise and your gorgeous essays. I had to stop after the one about “When She Loved Me” from Toy Story 2. You are a very special young man. Very, very special-articulate-and emotionally connective. THANK YOU!!!!!
You could be me, from that early exposure to Company and forward, but express it so much better than I could have, so beautifully, a magnficent tribute.
Beautiful heartfelt tribute! I have been in two productions: at age twenty in the ‘74 Yale production of The Frogs (as a singing swimming frog being taught changes by the man himself) and many years later in a community theatre production of Sweeny Todd in ‘06 in the chorus with my wife, and our late son in the role of Tobias. Sondheim’s music has been important in my life.
What a beautiful reflection. Thank you for sharing. We did three Sondheim plays back to back to back back in college (University, as you would say it), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Into the Woods, and Merrily We Roll Along. It was only years later that I realized that Sondheim's music doesn't allow you to get lost in moments of self-indulgence in sweeping melodies. You always have to be in the moment or you will get lost. Makes for a more genuine performance, I think.
Holy moly, you must've been in one heck of a program to be able to pull off so many Bernstein and Sondheim shows! What a blessing!! I love this video so much. Sondheim was a genius and his legacy will live on through his work
Oh my god I love this video. As someone who has fallen deeply in love with Sondheim, who has been moved and changed by his work, it's so lovely to find many of my own feelings about him spoken from someone else's mouth. Beautiful video.
It will always be Sweeney Todd for me...... that is hands down my favorite of his. I would dance around my room trying to keep up with Michael Cerveris in "Epiphany", and eventually mastered "Worst pies in london" and "god that's good". christ. hurts just typing that.
I wholeheartedly agree. He was a wonderful and witty lyricist. His songs are also specifically written for each show and therefore not interchangeable.
So much soul in your video, dear man! I also used Sondheim to "be the narrative of my theatrical life". I began as Maria in WSS then Anne in Little Night Music as a very naive 16 year old, so naive that the director had to explain what she was singing about! Next was many concert versions of Sweeney Todd, first as Johanna then the Beggar Woman, and finally as Mrs. Lovett. Next was a semi-staged Follies, so lucky to play older Sally and sing that glorious "Losing My Mind". That song has followed me to the present, and really has become my anthem. What a loving and thoughtful tribute to the very human Stephen Sondheim! I agree that growing up with his music and lyrics has a profound effect on an actor and it allowed me to "escape" into a better and safer world when my own was upside down. Thank you 💗
oh my god this made me WEEP. This is so beautifully done and also sums up why he was - IS - my favorite composer of all time. Thank you for making this. May his memory be a blessing.
Singing ensemble in a summer stock production of SWEENEY TODD, and getting to see the DVD of SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE the same summer, made me totally fall in love with Sondheim's work.
Thank you so much for this video. Like you, Sondheim was a big part of my adolescence and education in musical theatre writing. I was lucky enough to play The Baker my senior year of high school, and it was truly a life changing experience. Steve's music is the ultimate masterclass - and I frequently go back to his interviews whenever I'm stuck writing something of my own. His passing was and will probably be the hardest celebrity death of my lifetime. He meant so much to me, and your video perfectly summed up WHY. Thank you (:
Masterful work. You weaved analysis with emotion and ultimately your own story. I hope you’re as proud of this piece as I enjoyed it! Thank you for what you do, you’ve uncovered more of why these songs mean so much to us.
In 1966 at the Camden County Music Fair in New Jersey I played "Baby John", in Sondheim and Bernstein's musical "West Side Story". Since that time I have performed in or directed productions of "Follies", "Sweeney Todd", "Into The Woods", "A Little Night Music", "Gypsy", "Company", "Merrily We Roll Along" and in different productions of "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum" I have played Pseudolous, Senex, Hysterium, Miles Gloriosis, and a Protean and have directed it twice. Without planning or intention, Stephen Sondheim has been a major part of my performing life for over 55 years. In June of this year (2023) I will be performing several of Sondheim's songs from "Passion" at the Provincetown, MA Cabaret Festival. I am 71 years old - and there are still a lot of Sondheim's songs to sing or sing again.
Spring 1971 I was lucky enough to see Company on Broadway. I had the album for 30 yrs, now I have the cd. I've seen other productions of Company but none have come close to the original
This is one of the most moving videos I've ever watched. Sondheim's music means the world to me and this puts some of those feelings into words in a way I never could.
I'm still new to Sondheim, but I'm learning to appreciate his works more and more every day. The 'Into the Woods' film adaptation was the start of this journey for me.
Sweeney Todd was my first musical that I did since elementary school. I did it my sophomore year, and to this day, its still my favorite show ever. I just fell in love with it. Sondheim's music has this quality about it that I've seen no one able to replicate.
I grew up hearing Sondheim before I knew it was Sondheim or what musicals the songs were from--mostly from Barbara Streisand's Broadway album. So I was really surprised to hear "Pretty Women" and "No One's Gonna Harm You" when I watched Sweeney Todd for the first time. Such beautiful songs in such a dark story, but not out of place at all.
One of my favorite Sondheim musicals is Assassins, about the assassins or attempted assassins of the presidents and their stories. Classic Sondheim work mixed with a view on history and showing why these people did why they did.
The conclusion was a beautiful tribute to Sondheim and his great contribution to humanity. Thank you for explaining so well why he was our giant in the sky and how he made being alive such a worthwhile and enriching venture. ❤️
Hi Barnaby. After I too dried my tears after watching this I recalled having found your YT site during Covid (and subscribing) and being fascinated by your ability to explain such difficult subjects so simply and succinctly. Discussing harmonic dissonance (in a few of your other videos); you might as well have been talking about a temporal rift (as in Torchwood) but your charming manner, lilting cadence and obvious brilliance made me stay until the end of several of your other videos. Listening to your own composition in the LSO video made me hope that somehow you were able to write to and send Sondheim a few of your compositions. One can definitely hear the Sondheim influence in that composition. I've got a definite feeling he would have instantly understood you and your music and would have thought it and you brilliant. And of course adorable. One can't help but notice the ring on your finger; I hope you've found the love of your life - Steve's inability to find love during his youth and into middle age allowed him to write about such angst and loneliness for so long; I'm not too sure he would have advised it of everyone - after all, once you're in love there's the entire other side of said previous angst and loneliness to write about. Anyway, your videos and you are brilliant; keep up the great work.
I don't know why, but whenever I hear even one musical sentence that is Sodheim's work, I start to get very emotional- that's why I tend to look at these stuff when I am alone ;) A bit more difficult if I need to sing Sondheim in front of someone though...Thank you for your beautiful video!!
not me crying at 8 in the morning. :'] beautiful work
Sorry. I seem to have the effect. If it’s any consolation, I was crying whilst writing this.
A Jon Cozart comment with
babe,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, i ship it
Literally me at 9:24am.
Same. Very much the same. He’s so precious to many of us. Having heard him as a pubescent, his work is knit into my psyche. What a loss.
It always amazes me to know that Sondheim was mentored by Hammerstein and Bernstein, and then that he encouraged and mentored Jonathan Larson (Rent) and Lin-Manual Miranda. What a royal lineage of musical theatre!
Yes, he definitely "paid it forward," encouraging, teaching, and mentoring many artists.
I think that, harmonically speaking, Adam Guettel is the one who learnt the most from him.
He might have learned from Bernstein, but Hammerstein was his true mentor
he didn’t mentor them in the way that Hammerstein mentored him. He gave them advice on their respective projects when they asked
I like to think that the first thing Stephen Sondheim did when he got to heaven was find Jonathan Larson and offer some notes on Rent.
Just read Bernstein’s private letters for some research, and found one where he talks about introducing someone new to the West Side Story project, “a new young lyricist called Stephen Sondheim who is going to work wonderfully”. The beginning of such a great legacy.
You’ve been Candide, Buddy, Jack, AND Anthony?! Jesus! That’s impressive!
And it sounds like a _school_ doing Company, Candide, Follies and Sweeney?
Issa flex imo
God, that's good!
I can't listen to No One is Alone without shedding a tear, despite the hundreds of thousands of times I've listened to it. God what a blessing he was to the world.
Ditto for me: No-one's gonna harm you...
This song is a gut wrencher
I sang at sondheim’s 75th birthday party when I was 11 and didn’t realize what an incredible honor that was until adulthood. He truly was a gem
How wonderful!!!
This video is a masterpiece. Sondheim was my gateway to opera and inspired me to pursue music and theatre in college. His music has always been an escape for me whenever I am having turbulent moments and need comfort. That's what his music is for me. Even something as dark as Sweeney Todd still evokes this feeling of comfort as if to remind the listener that this monster is still human. There are a lot of people that don't understand the significance of Sondheim. I ask that they pick any of his major works at random, put on some headphones, close your eyes... and just LISTEN. Sondheim's death to me has the same significance as the death of Wagner. Their works are not just entertainment, but a deeply personal expression of a human being's complete and total mastery of art.
This monster is a human. To find the humanity in even the abandoned and disgraced. 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
I only found out about Sondheim when the Into The Woods movie came out. When I saw it, it didn't feel right, it felt like so much was missing. So I watched the original production and immediately fell in love. I couldn't get enough. The complexity and wit in his lyrics, the simplicity and honesty of his melodies, but most of all the utter humanness of his music. May his memory be a blessing.
The Regents Park outdoor version -- even better than the movie - or the original BW production, I think.
ruclips.net/video/Q4mGoOkvPnA/видео.html&ab_channel=ChrisSandiford
@@rixx46 i only watched the prologue and i respect the creative choices (making the narrator a child is very cool idea) but i’m afraid the original is still my favorite!
Same here, but I actually liked the movie (Meryl Streep is my fav witch XD ). I listen to the songs from the movie (except for _It Takes Two_ ) but I only ever rewatch the play. Now tell me, what version was it that the person whose comment disappeared recomended?
@@gomesbandrey just came across this and even though this comment is a while ago, I imagine they’re talking about the Regent’s Park production with Hannah Waddingham as The Witch. They have a child as a narrator. Its like a site specific production. They also did a version in central park but I haven’t seen that one my self.
@@Lamnia95 Oh, I watched a bit of the Central Park one. Chip Zien as the Father, Amy Adams as the Baker's Wife, if I recall correctly
I've seen so many tributes to Sondheim since his passing, and it strikes me how they are all so deeply personal. I think it's because of exactly the quality you name: his work's humanity. Because it's so vulnerable and honest, it resonates with all of us.
Beautifully put. Vulnerable and honest.
I didn't "discover" Sondheim until I saw Marriage Story two years ago. Adam Driver's rendition of Being Alive awoke my deepest connection with humanity, and made me instantly infatuated with Company as a whole. Just the "Bobby, Bobby" motif alone is enough to make me emotional. God what a man. Rest in Peace.
Company is hands down my favorite musical
I love this. I love that a featured song in a film got someone to look into his work.
I had already started to appreciate the connection to humanity in art, just a couple years prior to discovering Sondheim, but his writing [as he said about art] brought much order out of the chaos. Others addressed the chaos in inspired ways, but Sondheim made so much of it make sense. Very few talents have this ability, in my opinion.
I continued to learn from multiple re-listens of his work, and I hope you have the same kind of experiences. :)
Wow! It’s all new to you that’s amazing you have so much to discover
@@thelmamaria Watched Spielberg's West Side Story last week, amazing story and music!
Talk about complexity: “It’s your father’s fault that the curse got placed and the place got cursed in the first place.” (from Into the Woods)
"while her withers wither with her"
"we'll have leontyne Price to sing her medley from Meistersinger"
"Life is often so unpleasant / You must know that, as a peasant / Best to take the moment present / As a present for the moment"
Good lord. You people are fascinated by the “depth” of tongue twisters and middle-school-caliber plays on words.
@MondoMiami it's the fact that he was able do it over and over while not loosing any of the momentum of the music
@@MondoMiami doing it and making it sound pleasant, over complex but beautiful accompaniment, and making it fit seamless is the impressive part
Company was my gateway show into Sondheim as well. As a singer, Not Getting Married Today is so good not only for the things you point out in the video, but for the word choice! All of Amy’s patter lyric sits at the front of the mouth, so while you’re singing you don’t have to put forth extra effort trying to make sound from the back of the throat or use the tongue except for what it does right behind the teeth. If it wasn’t for the speed of the line, it’s a relatively easy lyric to sing!
I was watching another Sondheim doc yesterday and in it he mentions how when he’s writing lyric he thinks like a singer, and I don’t know of a more perfect example than that. ♥️
Sondheim's work is like a massive onion. You keep peeling away endless layers of complexities and nuances about life and be entertained in the process.
Perhaps it's that Sondheim's loss is so fresh, no doubt a part of my reaction. But it's the beauty of this video and your personal commitment to the subject which makes it so glorious. You had me in tears by the end.
I started to listen to sondheim three months ago, his music quickly Stick with me for reasons that i didn't really understand, the First thing that i listened to was: Into the woods, i was blessed by the fantastic music, narrative and the interation of musical material. So when i read about Is death i was speechless, so much that i went to my parents and said " a Genius died". Truly an Immortal figure, Will never be forgotten, his geniality and him.
Sounds like manic rubbish to me!
What a tremendous gift this video is to all who love Sondheim and the craft of musical theatre. Created with so much care and featuring such interesting and gorgeous production values.
So beautiful, thoughtful and personal. This is quite moving. In interviews, I recall Sondheim describing his approach in such pragmatic terms. As I recall, of Send In The Clowns, Mr. Sondheim said, Glynis Johns was not able to sustain notes. Mindful of this, he arrived at using short questions, using words that would not require Ms. Johns to hold notes. In Send In The Clowns, he was honest and practical about the artist who would be performing the song, and, he simply, honestly and, elegantly solved a puzzle. Listening to him speak about his work, it’s my impression that he was utterly, and, unflinchingly pragmatic about all of his work.
He may have had a profound impact on your young life, but I assure you that even at 64, that hearing "Finishing the Hat" again - and your heartfelt discussion of Sondheim's mastery - brings tears to my eyes. Love Your Work.
We have lost the greatest genius of musical theater. RIP, Stephen Sondheim.
3:58 Beth Howland is probably the only Amy who ever got this exactly right-the right pitches, the right places to take a breath, the right manic energy. More than fifty years on, her Getting Married Today is still the gold standard.
I went through a pretty rough time a few years ago, and wound up rewatching Burton’s Sweeney Todd at some point in the middle of it. By the Sea absolutely laid me out - the song is funny as hell, but it’s funny because the idea of Todd, now, ever belonging in the life he feels he deserved *is a joke.* Which is just an incredibly dark and sophisticated idea. And in that reprise of Joanna, he fixates mindlessly on repaying the violence that’s been done to him while Anthony, you know, actually gets out and tries to find Todd’s missing family. How easy it is to see yourself as one while inadvertently becoming the other.
Anyway, I wound up watching that movie three or four times during that period. I don’t even know exactly what darkness Sondheim helped me avoid there, but his writing was a much-needed map in unfamiliar terrain.
Jonathan Tunick is the orchestrator on most of these shows. He really made Sondheim's music sparkle. Other than maybe Robert Russell Bennett, there's no one better.
As responsible for the impact of Sondheim as Sondheim himself. A musical giant.
The very last shot of your video of Sondheim saying "that's terrific" brings something else to mind. I have NEVER seen a video in which he castigates, demeans, insults, or dismisses a performer. His teaching videos are just that; telling the artist what he, the writer, wants from the song or scene. To me, this demonstrated that he was enamored of the world of theater. He loved shows and respected the actors. I like to think he would go to an amateurish 8th grade production of any of his works and take the time to go back stage and tell the students what a good job they did and keep up the good work. It took me a while to fully appreciate Sondheim's work because his show were so different from the Rogers and Hammerstein-type musicals I grew up with. Now, I love his work and truly appreciate, as you said, his humanity.
I remember auditioning for a production of Sweeney because I "liked the Johnny Depp movie." I think I was 15 and had no clue what I was about to get myself into. It became an obsession. I feel honored to have lived in the same lifetime as Mr. Sondheim.
You made me tear up at the end. May Sondheim's memory be a blessing and may his work continue to have meaning for people.
“Merrily” blew my mind at 15 too. There’s some research that 14 is an important age. Great essay, he did change music.
I was in a production of Company recently, and I fell head over heels in love with the show. It's so layered and gorgeous. My dream role is Baker's Wife, as I adore her wit and the range of her musical moments. One day.
This video was like a balm to a morning soul. Sondheim's music was so personal to me and ever since his death I have not been able to mourn. Thank you for this tribute, it really meant a lot.
This was a beautiful tribute. I’ve been in love with Into the Woods and Company for years but it wasn’t until the pandemic that i started diving into Sondheim’s other works and just being devastated each time by his capacity to describe the human experience. His music made me feel seen, which is something I am only now realizing because you worded it so beautifully here. Thank you for sharing :)
My parents introduced me to the American musical at a young age, then a friend said to me one day that we should see Company before it closes. It was a matinee and by the end I was spellbound, speechless, maybe stunned, but certainly a convert. There had never been anything like it before, and over and over he kept producing more and more musical magic and iconic theater experiences. What Sondheim added to my life and the theater at large can never be measured.
What an evocative, thoughtful, and personal tribute to Sondheim! You have a remarkable talent for translating the power and complexity of song in a clear and comprehensible way for those of us with no training in the musical arts. Thanks for being a great teacher.
What a beautiful, personal, and uplifting story you’ve shared. I’m ashamed to admit that I don’t know enough of Sondheim’s music, but that which I know I truly do love.
I think that Sondheim was the first major Broadway composer whose music consistently had a rock beat. His songs could never be classified as "rock songs"--they were most definitely "Broadway"--but there is a contemporary rhythm behind most of them (even behind "Comedy Tonight" from A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM; I don't think it would have been written the same way had it been written ten years earlier, in the pre-rock n' roll era).
His music, I think, was able to appeal to younger people who grew up on rock n' roll, and it was also able to appeal to older people who remembered going to Broadway in the 1930s and 1940s. So Sondheim was a songwriter who spanned the generations.
I also find that Sondheim is one of the relatively few strictly Broadway (as opposed to Broadway/concert composers, like Bernstein) who is universally respected within the classical music/opera world.
Deeply moving. Thank you. And so illuminating.
When I was about 18, I paid $4 to sit in the last row of the balcony for the first Broadway production of "A Little Night Music." I was so uncultured that I did not know who Sondheim was and I left at intermission because I couldn't understand the lyrics--especially coming from Hermione Gingold. Still not knowing who Sondehim was, I subsequently went to the first Broadway production of "Follies" and was completely blown away. I've since, of course, seen many productions of all of his shows for which he did the lyrics and the music and lyrics and have been blown away countless times--especially a Menier production of "Sunday in the Park with George" that left me and my friends in a puddle of tears. Twice. There is really no one like Sondheim. Most musical theater composers these days are turning out wholly unmemorable scores and songs characterized by belted-out anthems with no subtlety whatsoever. There are a few exceptions, of course, but they have not learned from the master.
God this was so good. Judi Dench started singing and I started crying lol. Sondheim is a love hate dynamic for me personally, and I think you pegged the reason in you video. Complexity. I love his slow, emotionally charged pieces, but the chaos makes me feel crazy and I want to turn away. The cacophony of voices overlapping makes my head hurt :p. Probably says a lot about me as an individual lol. Brilliant vid. Loved it.
Thank you so much for making this video! I've loved and admired Sondheim since I was a teenager too and your video pointed out things that I'd never properly thought about (e.g. his melodies). "Humanity" is absolutely it - he was such a wise and compassionate human being. And the choice to end with that clip of Sondheim doing that masterclass ❤️
A wonderful video essay on how amazing Sondheim’s music is. I feel that people praise his lyrics so highly (and rightfully so), that people often forget his deeply layered musical language. His music is rich in harmonies and tightly structured. His point was to never “dumb down” the music, just like people don’t dumb down science and math. I feel that when people said things like, “Sondheim’s music is not hummable” (which drove Mr. Sondheim up the walls), people were simply complaining because his music dealt so much with every side of life in general, which they were afraid to face. His legacy will reside in everyone’s heart forever!
P.S. it’s an odd coincidence that you made a video on Ravel (whom Sondheim was influenced by so much) before this video ;)
My favorite thing about this is realizing there are other people completely in love with Sondheim! I love all the comments!
Dang it. It only took two notes to make me cry.
I’m so happy I was alive in his time; what a master of the soul. What a wonderful tribute.
God man what a great tribute to Stephen Sondheim. Like always you make me cry every damn time man lol. Loved this one a lot and really you help me understand just why his music means a lot to me. I never could understand why lol.
Beautiful video. Each time I see a tribute to SS I cry - not out of sorrow for his death (although my heart goes out to those he left behind), but from gratitude for the sheer volume of masterwork he left behind. His characters ached, fumed, bubbled and strode with such tremendous humanity. We should be studying him in schools alongside Shakespeare or Aristophanes.
I was the Baker in my high schools production of Into to Woods -- it was the first musical I ever did. That experience got me absolutely hooked on Sondheim's music and the stories he tells. It's absolutely life changing.
Many thanks to this heartfelt and very personal homage to the great, and sadly, recently late, Steven Sondheim: the ‘Shakespeare’ of musical theatre. RIP. December 2021. 🙏☀️🇬🇧🙏
Well spoken! In 2001 I met Stephen, and we became friends. I assure you he was the rare hero you should meet, contrary to the old saying. Knowing him was the honor of my life.
These video essays are truly awesome...obviously rich in content information-wise, but also the presentation is really remarkable - little details like showing us the Sondheim score extracted in its original ca. 1980s blurry badly-kerned Times New Roman font as well as Sondheims handwriting makes the whole thing more immersive...well done!
I too have been super lucky to play a fair few characters in Sondheim shows: David in company, Charlie in Merrily, the footman in Into the Woods, Czolgosh in Assassins and Pseudolous on various amateur stages. Missed out on young buddy because I'm too short! All rich interesting characters and a total privilege to play.
I did not know Judi Dench had done musicals!? How much talent can one person have? Well that shows how little I know of music theatre I guess.... thanks for this lovely video, it is wonderful loveletter to Sondheim.
I totally love "Agony (reprise)" from Into the Woods. Such fantastic storytelling within the song ending with the keyword as the last word. Just fantastic.
Thank you for this. You are right about the humanity in Sondheim’s music. His musicals tend to hit me at certain times in my life that i would dismiss it once but love later on. This was ‘Sunday in the Park with George’ with me. Saw it first when i was in elementary but revisited later with a different production that drove me to tears. When they announced his death, i wept and then listened to Sunday in the Park again. RIP Mr. Sondheim.
I sang Happy Birthday (8Oth) to Mr. Sondheim as part of the audience he was giving a talk to. The most emotional happy birthday I had ever sung collectively to anyone! Never met him personally but know him somehow????
Bravo! I'm always puzzled when I hear it said that his shows are unemotional or too intellectual. He's always found emotion in the places where other composers and lyricists do not dare to go. He is an observer of human foibles, which perhaps is a product of his sexuality, which often cast him as an outsider; but there is no lack of compassion, nor generosity, nor insight. He himself was easily given to tears and laughter, and he put them into his music and his lyrics. He venerated the role of the teacher, having been well taught himself; but not just in a narrow didactic sense. His stories, engrossing and experiential, often have something to tell us about ourselves, and how we find our way in the world. You are not alone in finding your encounters with Sondheim formative, transformational and affirming.
beautifully expressed. SUNDAY IN THE PARK... has always spoken to me -- its depths are something I rediscover often. My wife and I saw the original Broadway run -- our first REAL Broadway musical. We found it overwhelming -- the shift of time and place for the second act -- and Sondheim's songs are very demanding the first time you hear them! It took us a while until we were able to truly appreciate it. This leads me to dive deeply into his work, and to this day I find him to be one of the primary literary heroes. (I have been a screenwriter for 40 years)... So tragic that his genius has been lost -- but his works remain timeless.
I went through a phase (am still in it sometimes) where I would frequently just shut off whatever music I was listening to and switch on a Sondheim cast recording because no other music was even half as interesting.
I discovered Sondheim through Gypsy and Bernadette Peters (on which I argue is THE foremost Sondheim interpreter!)! He literally saved my life through his music, I also celebrate my birthday a week after his so I just felt that I am somehow connected to him. HE is the BEST composer and lyricist of my time. I remember crying the day he died. Good times and bum times, Thank you Steve!
And this analysis is just so beautiful and a wonderful love letter to Steve ❤
One of my favorite Sondheim songs is Losing my Mind from Follies, it's haunting, grieving and gorgeous and it never fails to remind me why I love theatre so much and how much Sondheim has impacted me. Gorgeous video thank you so much.
Speaking of Losing my Mind, it's the song Beniot Blanc sings in the car in Knives Out which is just a nice little tidbit.
That's my go to shower singing song.
Into the Woods is the catalyst for pretty much my entire trajectory in life upto this point. If it wasn't for one little production of that show, my world would be very different.
Sweeney Todd was my first musical. Sounds like a crazy one to be introduced to in theatre, but I wouldn’t change it. Such a great experience! And it makes it all the more special!
Oh wow you have lots of great musical theater roles under your belt! I hope your still doing some cause you sound very inspired by musicals!
What a lovely tribute to a truly great man. I'm so grateful to have seen Sweeney Todd, Pacific Overtures, A Little Night Music, and Candide in original Broadway productions. I grew up listening to Sondheim and rejoice that he walked among us! Thanks.
How lucky you are to have been in so many Sondheim shows! My first introduction to Sondheim was my middle school’s production of Into the Woods. Then I saw Sweeney Todd at my local high school and was blown away. I remember going to blockbuster (yes I’m old) the next day and renting the Tim Burton version on dvd because I couldn’t get the songs out of my head.
The way you describe his music is spot on. His melodies give me full body chills, his clever lyricism always makes me smile. But what I find so compelling about his shows is that even the darkest themes and most tragic stories are imbued with beauty and, as you put it, humanity.
Thank you for this beautiful video.
Seeing as Sideways is apparently gone, this is a pretty damn great substitute. More professional too.
Your essays have had me in tears for a few hours. Your explanation of music’s relationship to the world is extremely affecting-even to those of us that are basically clueless about music theory. But the way you express the relationship between music and lyrics and then further, music/lyrics and emotion, and then further music/lyrics/emotion and the world just resonate so deeply with me. Especially this essay on Sondheim. You NAILED it! “Humanity!” Thank you so much for the work you do. I adore your essays. “Into the Woods” (the video and the cast recording) helped a young farm boy in Utah struggling with his sexuality to find his way out of the shadows. For that, it will remain my favorite musical of all time. I don’t know what would’ve happened to me without it… my next Sondheim discoveries being “Sunday” and “Assassins” before I explored any of the earlier works. Every show (sans maybe Pacific Overtures and Road Show) are deeply meaningful to me. {sorry…tangent} I just wanted to thank you for your insight and musical expertise and your gorgeous essays. I had to stop after the one about “When She Loved Me” from Toy Story 2. You are a very special young man. Very, very special-articulate-and emotionally connective. THANK YOU!!!!!
You could be me, from that early exposure to Company and forward, but express it so much better than I could have, so beautifully, a magnficent tribute.
My favorite saying of Sondheim's was "funny is always better than clever". Stephen was a very clever man.
Beautiful heartfelt tribute! I have been in two productions: at age twenty in the ‘74 Yale production of The Frogs (as a singing swimming frog being taught changes by the man himself) and many years later in a community theatre production of Sweeny Todd in ‘06 in the chorus with my wife, and our late son in the role of Tobias. Sondheim’s music has been important in my life.
What a beautiful reflection. Thank you for sharing.
We did three Sondheim plays back to back to back back in college (University, as you would say it), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Into the Woods, and Merrily We Roll Along. It was only years later that I realized that Sondheim's music doesn't allow you to get lost in moments of self-indulgence in sweeping melodies. You always have to be in the moment or you will get lost. Makes for a more genuine performance, I think.
Holy moly, you must've been in one heck of a program to be able to pull off so many Bernstein and Sondheim shows! What a blessing!! I love this video so much. Sondheim was a genius and his legacy will live on through his work
6:28 ... "He's just showing off here..."
wow, brilliant video by the way
Oh my god I love this video. As someone who has fallen deeply in love with Sondheim, who has been moved and changed by his work, it's so lovely to find many of my own feelings about him spoken from someone else's mouth. Beautiful video.
What a beautiful tribute. Thank so much for "putting it together!" You've lifted my day.
It will always be Sweeney Todd for me...... that is hands down my favorite of his. I would dance around my room trying to keep up with Michael Cerveris in "Epiphany", and eventually mastered "Worst pies in london" and "god that's good". christ. hurts just typing that.
I wholeheartedly agree. He was a wonderful and witty lyricist. His songs are also specifically written for each show and therefore not interchangeable.
I love your videos. In addition to the theme, there is impeccable assembly work.
So much soul in your video, dear man! I also used Sondheim to "be the narrative of my theatrical life". I began as Maria in WSS then Anne in Little Night Music as a very naive 16 year old, so naive that the director had to explain what she was singing about! Next was many concert versions of Sweeney Todd, first as Johanna then the Beggar Woman, and finally as Mrs. Lovett. Next was a semi-staged Follies, so lucky to play older Sally and sing that glorious "Losing My Mind". That song has followed me to the present, and really has become my anthem. What a loving and thoughtful tribute to the very human Stephen Sondheim! I agree that growing up with his music and lyrics has a profound effect on an actor and it allowed me to "escape" into a better and safer world when my own was upside down. Thank you 💗
The most beautiful tribute to Steve that’s been produced. Stunning work, thank you.
Thank you, Brian
This is a very beautiful and I was moved to tears by the end. Sondheim’s work is truly something to marvel.
I got a box set of Sondheim DVDs when I was about 14. Life changing.
Brilliant video. Sondheim had such an insight to the human experience that it feels like he can speak to whatever is on someone's mind.
oh my god this made me WEEP.
This is so beautifully done and also sums up why he was - IS - my favorite composer of all time.
Thank you for making this. May his memory be a blessing.
I had NO CLUE about the Merrily Clip with him performing in it. I ADORE that musical, and I want to produce that show everywhere.
Singing ensemble in a summer stock production of SWEENEY TODD, and getting to see the DVD of SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE the same summer, made me totally fall in love with Sondheim's work.
That transition between send in the clowns and no one is along was so good
Thank you so much for this video. Like you, Sondheim was a big part of my adolescence and education in musical theatre writing. I was lucky enough to play The Baker my senior year of high school, and it was truly a life changing experience. Steve's music is the ultimate masterclass - and I frequently go back to his interviews whenever I'm stuck writing something of my own. His passing was and will probably be the hardest celebrity death of my lifetime. He meant so much to me, and your video perfectly summed up WHY. Thank you (:
Masterful work. You weaved analysis with emotion and ultimately your own story. I hope you’re as proud of this piece as I enjoyed it! Thank you for what you do, you’ve uncovered more of why these songs mean so much to us.
In 1966 at the Camden County Music Fair in New Jersey I played "Baby John", in Sondheim and Bernstein's musical "West Side Story". Since that time I have performed in or directed productions of "Follies", "Sweeney Todd", "Into The Woods", "A Little Night Music", "Gypsy", "Company", "Merrily We Roll Along" and in different productions of "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum" I have played Pseudolous, Senex, Hysterium, Miles Gloriosis, and a Protean and have directed it twice.
Without planning or intention, Stephen Sondheim has been a major part of my performing life for over 55 years.
In June of this year (2023) I will be performing several of Sondheim's songs from "Passion" at the Provincetown, MA Cabaret Festival. I am 71 years old - and there are still a lot of Sondheim's songs to sing or sing again.
Spring 1971 I was lucky enough to see Company on Broadway. I had the album for 30 yrs, now I have the cd. I've seen other productions of Company but none have come close to the original
This is one of the most moving videos I've ever watched. Sondheim's music means the world to me and this puts some of those feelings into words in a way I never could.
I'm still new to Sondheim, but I'm learning to appreciate his works more and more every day. The 'Into the Woods' film adaptation was the start of this journey for me.
Please watch the Broadway production video…..infinitely better!!!!
@@kmwa1234 I have watched it! I showed it to my sister after we saw the movie to prove the musical was even darker in tone!
My baby loves Follies. Not my fav of Mr. Sondheim's shows, but he's mad for it!
Sondheim has always left me breathless…so touching…so funny…so human. Thank goodness for him.
Didn't think I would cry watching this, but well, here we are. Beautiful words and an even more beautiful tribute. Thank you for sharing this with us.
These heartfelt/personal yet educational videos have become my favourite ones on youtube. Thank you for this.
Sweeney Todd was my first musical that I did since elementary school. I did it my sophomore year, and to this day, its still my favorite show ever. I just fell in love with it. Sondheim's music has this quality about it that I've seen no one able to replicate.
I grew up hearing Sondheim before I knew it was Sondheim or what musicals the songs were from--mostly from Barbara Streisand's Broadway album. So I was really surprised to hear "Pretty Women" and "No One's Gonna Harm You" when I watched Sweeney Todd for the first time. Such beautiful songs in such a dark story, but not out of place at all.
One of my favorite Sondheim musicals is Assassins, about the assassins or attempted assassins of the presidents and their stories. Classic Sondheim work mixed with a view on history and showing why these people did why they did.
The conclusion was a beautiful tribute to Sondheim and his great contribution to humanity. Thank you for explaining so well why he was our giant in the sky and how he made being alive such a worthwhile and enriching venture. ❤️
Hi Barnaby. After I too dried my tears after watching this I recalled having found your YT site during Covid (and subscribing) and being fascinated by your ability to explain such difficult subjects so simply and succinctly. Discussing harmonic dissonance (in a few of your other videos); you might as well have been talking about a temporal rift (as in Torchwood) but your charming manner, lilting cadence and obvious brilliance made me stay until the end of several of your other videos.
Listening to your own composition in the LSO video made me hope that somehow you were able to write to and send Sondheim a few of your compositions. One can definitely hear the Sondheim influence in that composition. I've got a definite feeling he would have instantly understood you and your music and would have thought it and you brilliant. And of course adorable.
One can't help but notice the ring on your finger; I hope you've found the love of your life - Steve's inability to find love during his youth and into middle age allowed him to write about such angst and loneliness for so long; I'm not too sure he would have advised it of everyone - after all, once you're in love there's the entire other side of said previous angst and loneliness to write about.
Anyway, your videos and you are brilliant; keep up the great work.
I don't know why, but whenever I hear even one musical sentence that is Sodheim's work, I start to get very emotional- that's why I tend to look at these stuff when I am alone ;) A bit more difficult if I need to sing Sondheim in front of someone though...Thank you for your beautiful video!!
oh my god that final line... Sondheim helped me navigate the same challenges in the same way and man, that really hit.
I keep coming back to this video - absolutely incredible explanation of how Sondheim's music touches the human soul