Word: sondheimer
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...women characters cheerily introduce themselves as "the lesbians from next door." But then, only Falsettos, which capped off the Broadway season last week to wide critical acclaim, has music and lyrics by the quirky, quixotic, querulous and unquenchable William Finn. Depending on your ears, Finn is either Stephen Sondheim's natural successor or merely his canniest imitator. (Both are graduates of Williams College, and Sondheim, it is said, thinks the resemblance stops there...
...Like Sondheim, Finn is prone to write tinkly, brittle art songs that break off in midphrase and to fill them with lyrics so clever they reward, and maybe require, repeated hearing. Like Sondheim, he is witty, wistful and wickedly funny. But Finn is readier to satisfy the playgoer's yearning for a hummable phrase. In Falsettos he gives every character a big ballad, ranging from the tender What More Can I Say to the abandoned wife's showstopper I'm Breaking Down to the AIDS patient's edgy, sardonic You Gotta Die Sometime. In all, the three dozen musical numbers...
...years later, Finn advanced Marvin's story in March of the Falsettos, which begins with Marvin envisioning his old and new lives merging into one big, happy family and ends with him alone. The narrative was shaped with director James Lapine, who vaulted from that into becoming Sondheim's director and librettist on his two most recent Broadway musicals, Sunday in the Park with George and Into the Woods. But Finn could not seem to capitalize on his new opportunities...
...DENNIS MILLER SHOW (syndicated, weeknights). The former Saturday Night Live newscaster has made a surprisingly smooth transition to the talk-show couch. Miller's esoteric references (from Stephen Sondheim to Herman Melville) are sometimes too self-conscious, but he's hip, intelligent and -- a rarity on TV -- authentically curious...
American Love Songs for Valentine's Day--Soprano Nancy Armstrong, baritone Robert Honeysucker, violinist Daniel Stepner and Laura Jeppesen, viola de gamba, perform Broadway hits by the Gershwins, Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Sondheim and others. Museum of Fine Arts, Remis Auditorium, 465 Huntington Ave., Boston. Friday, Feb. 14, 8 p.m. $15; $12 for students and seniors...