Word: sondheimer
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...greatest hero, unquestionably, is Broadway musical composer Stephen Sondheim. "He is the best living composer of musical theater," Schubert says, "He knows musically what to do with every lyric, and lyrically what to do with every bar of music." Ironically, Schubert's first Harvard-performed musical score was for the Hasty Pudding production, "A Little Knife Music," which parodied several of Sondheim's shows. Sondheim bought tickets to see the show, but was prevented by bad weather from seeing it. "At the time I was disappointed. But looking back at it, I'm very relieved," Schubert says...
Elsewhere, Sondheim resorts to an amalgam of garish Music Hall tunes, catchy Broadway melodies, and pseudo-classical arias. The nadir occurs with the bouncy "By the Sea," which sticks out lie a toenail in a meat...
...Sondheim's lyrics convey a sense of character wholly lacking in his music. Whether ghoulishly preparing a menu of "shepherd's pie peppered/with actual shepherd" or acrimoniously bristling...
...gentility of a shouting match leave us frustrated. Though nearly always glittering, certain lyrics seem gratuitous as Hugh Wheeler's book parcels out plot in neat bits of dialogue. With such a story-laden vehicle, tangential songs become tiresome; we yearn for songs with more plot in them. Sondheim and Wheeler sensed this tendency for Sweeney to drag and judiciously chopped out half of an appallingly dull number in moving the show from New York to Boston...
Despite its flaws, Sweeney Todd will attract an audience. In this age where we crave "cheap" thrills people will mindlessly spend $25 a seat for a package expertly stuffed with surprises, shocks, and the star appeal of Ms. Lansbury. Using art's name, Messrs. Sondheim and Prince lamentably succumbed to this trend, producing an illconceived, ill-begotten extravaganza. Their estimable talents should not be wasted in this manner...