Over the course of the many years I’ve been doing interviews, one of my favorite subjects to discuss is composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim. The man who gave us Sweeney Todd, A Little Night Music, Company and Follies turns 90 today.
In celebration of his birthday, here are comments from his many collaborators and fans about what makes Sondheim special to them.
Kristin Chenoweth
As I’ve gotten older his work has spoken to me in a much more powerful way. When I listened to Send in the Clowns, I didn’t understand it. Now it hurts. When you listen to Being Alive and what that means to me now, it’s just different. His work, I wouldn’t say I’m late to the party, I’ve always known he’s a genius. Let’s just say as I get older, I’m really connecting to him.
Harry Groener (Mandy Patinkin’s replacement in the original production of Sunday in the Park with George)
First of all, I never thought I’d get to do a Sondheim musical. Because it was that show and it was Sondheim and a dream come true for me, I wasn’t scared at all. I was in a beautiful fantasy and a beautiful dream.
One afternoon I had a session with Steve and he said the best thing to me. “Look, I know that you are concerned about the singing and doing it right and making it sound well. I know you’re worried. Yes I’d like the score to be sung as written. But if you ever feel you aren’t going to hit the note or it won’t be right, just act it.” He was so nice and so supportive and understanding. I can’t tell you how appreciative I was.
Patina Miller (Tony winner for Pippin; appeared as The Witch in Into the Woods at the Hollywood Bowl)
I just love the chances that he takes. I love the music. I like the way the melodies change and the moods are different in the songs. You can listen to the music and it’s beautiful, but there’s something that goes on in the music that makes you feel a certain way and it’s something you can’t ignore. He composes from a place deep within his heart. All of those things are in every song, every lyric, every minor and every major note.
Joy Franz (cast member in the original productions of A Little Night Music, Assasins and Into the Woods)
I think audiences have been educated and have become more aware with the sensibilities and the insights Steve has. He’s just so progressive and was just way ahead of his time in writing. I mean no one else really wrote like him with shows that went into the psychology of the people he wrote about – which was all part of him I believe.
Gedde Watanabe (cast member in the original production of Pacific Overtures; “Charles Guiteau” in the recently postponed East West Players production of Assassins)
God I was so young. I was nervous, but he seemed always calm to me or he was tired. I can’t figure it out. He was just always calm and a completely different energy than [director] Hal Prince had. They took on the role of father figures. Someone in a Tree was beguiling to me – I’m having flashbacks – because of the rhythms and the notes. They weren’t easy. I was surprised I could do it. Most of the theatre you love and adore – and I find intelligent – is way ahead of its time. The grace of it is people catch up to it. There is something very valuable to that.
Herbie Hancock
He has a way of putting words together that is so deep and has multiple levels of impact. That is one of the many things that makes him so so great.
Tim Minchin (composer/lyricist of Matilda and Groundhog Dog)
There’s a bit in Matilda that sounds really Sondheim-y and it’s definitely because I think Sondheim is a genius. One of the great joys in my life is I’ve gotten to meet him as a man and I think he’s an amazing human. Everybody’s trying to write a bit like Sondheim.
Barry Manilow
For every composer, Sondheim is the guy they go back to. We don’t try to do that. He does it the best. You can’t copy that. You can’t do it. He does it. We try to stay away from that. We just admire him.
Jason Robert Brown (Tony Award-winning composer/lyricist for The Bridges of Madison County and The Last Five Years)
I like people who can work and create vigorously. What resonates in Steve’s work is what inspires me. I’m not that disciplined. I’m much more intuitive. I have a little more faith if I throw my hands at these notes and it feels right, I’m willing to trust that. There’s an underpinning of structure in the work and that’s something I learned from Steve. How to have enough of a foundation so I can be free on the 5th and 6th floor to do crazy things on the 11th and 12th floor.
James Lapine (Tony Award-winning co-creator of Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods and Passion)
I think it’s timeless. It’s that simple. It’s like a time capsule that doesn’t age. Somebody says he’s our Mozart and that’s true. It’s a level of work that stands up to reinterpretation. You go to a museum and don’t look at the art once. Same here.
Laura Benanti (Tony Award-winning actress who appeared in the 2008 revival of Gypsy and the 2002 revival of Into the Woods)
To me his music is musical theatre. It’s the music that I feel in love with because even though it is so technically interesting and difficult, it cuts straight to the core. No extraneous expression. Straight to the feeling, the emotion. I relate to almost every single song in a very deep way. Beyond the technician is a tremendous ability to look into the heart and soul of humanity.
Tony Yazbeck (appeared with Laura Benanti in the same revival of Gypsy)
I think Stephen Sondheim uses powers of the mind and the heart and your willpower all together. It forces you to feel something that perhaps you have been complacent about for awhile. It forces you to start thinking and feeling something that perhaps was too hard for you to do on your own. It’s so authentically genuine. He’s the master of that.
Photo of Stephen Sondheim at a rehearsal of Merrily We Roll Along by Martha Swope/Courtesy of the New York Public Library Archives