Stephen Sondheim (A discussion) – Cheltenham Town Hall (October 13th 2010)

It is very hard for me to write this. You see, just a few hours ago, I spoke to Stephen Sondheim. One of the most influential Broadway composers of all time, and generally considered to be amongst the great American composers of the last Century and one of the best composer/lyricists in theatre history (having such works as West Side Story [lyrics], Gypsy [lyrics], Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street [music & lyrics] and A Little Night Music [music & lyrics] under his belt) . And tonight, he was in Cheltenham. He was giving an interview for the Cheltenham Literary festival.

The event was mainly to publicise his book Finishing The Hat which is a collection of all of his lyrics (cut songs and kept songs) for all of his shows from West Side Story (his professional debut in 1957) to Merrily We Roll Along (his last show with Hal Prince in 1981 until Bounce in 2003).

He goes through in great detail, annotating, showing alternate lyrics and even shows photocopies of original scoring and writing. The book also contains Sondheim’s view of the many people he has associated himself with and worked with throughout his life, from Jerome Robbins to Oscar Hammerstein II.



Mr. Stephen Joshua Sondheim



The start of the interview was marked by the interviewer (who I can’t remember the name of) pointing out that in the book, Sondheim expresses his displeasure for the English lyricists Noel Coward and W.S. Gilbert. OK, so it is apparent that Sondheim is a very critical man. But not critical of the people you understand, he is critical of their lyrics, just like he is critical of his own lyrics. He states that he finds nothing about Gilbert’s lyrics funny and in comparison to Cole Porter, Noel Coward is somewhat more crass and vulgar in his satirical outlook on the upper classes.

Another lyricist who Sondheim is critical of is Oscar Hammerstein II, whose lyrics are said by Sondheim to be ‘too sunshiney’ and his characters to be ‘not actual characters, just a set of characteristics’ – by this he appears to be implying that Hammerstein’s shows are normally made of stock characters who play off one another. This criticism is not completely unfounded though; Sondheim says that is was Hammerstein himself who taught him to be critical. Sondheim was partially raised by Hammerstein, and he refers to the legendary lyricist as his ‘mentor’ and ‘surrogate father’. Sondheim had a hard upbringing with his mother and would it not for Oscar Hammerstein, probably would have drifted into the same low life his mother had led.

As mentioned before, Sondheim is also critical of his own lyrics. He mentions the difficult in writing to fit a specific accent or dialect and also talks of having to re-write some of his lyrics for different audiences. The show containing what Sondheim calls his most ‘embarrassing’ lyrics is probably his most famous. In 1957, Sondheim wrote the lyrics for Leonard Bernstein’s music in West Side Story. And he openly detests many of the ‘overly romantic’ lyrics to this show and things that were completely out of character such as most of Maria’s lyrics in I Feel Pretty. Sondheim personally refers to this stage of his career as his ‘My Fair lady period’.

Sondheim went on to talk about other parts of his career including more on lyrics, how he fits his music together with the lyrics (he writes lyrics first and the tune applies itself to the conversational style of his lyrics) and people who have interpreted his work (he holds a particular affection for Glynis Johns [who played Desiree Armfeldt in the Original Broadway Production of A Little Night Music].)

He then took questions from the audience, which in the most part were quite average (what’s your favourite show of yours) and one particularly embarrassing one, as one man in the audience proceeded to talk about his favourite Sondheim song One from A Chorus Line…only to be interrupted by the man himself to be told that he neither wrote that song or that show.

When the interview had concluded (after a brief discussion about modern musical theatre and how Mr. Sondheim doesn’t agree that contemporary rock and rap music should have a place in the theatre) it was announced that Mr. Sondheim would be doing a signing of his book.

Stephen Sondheim: Finishing the Hat

So all rushed to quickly buy the book (which was a handsome £30) and get it signed by the man himself. Personal photos weren’t allowed, but a friend of mine managed to take a photo of me talking to Mr. Sondheim. And he was very nice, wishing me good luck for my career. He could only sign for half an hour due to arthritis (he was challenged with rhyming that) but many people came away happy with their new book.

It was a truly unique evening for people to meet the man they admire and have a definite divine experience.



My friend and I meeting Mr. Sondheim