Word: sondheims
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...particular, Sondheim is known for writing songs for characters in the midst of a personal crisis. “I love to write nervous breakdown songs,” he said. “I understand them so well.” The number “Epiphany” in “Sweeney Todd,” for example, marks the turning point of the show, when Todd transforms from a tragic hero into a man thirsty for blood and vengeance. The success of this particular number is crucial, because it has to justify this character?...
...overwhelming success in the United States, where it first opened. “I used to watch the audience’s faces as they were watching Sweeney Todd singing this lovely little love song and slitting people’s throats,” Sondheim said. “They were mesmerized. They weren’t turned off. They were turned...
...wouldn’t say they hated it,” Sondheim said. “They just thought we were idiots.” In England, the character of Sweeney Todd is often thrown around as an empty threat to scare disobedient children. Consequently, English audiences viewed Sondheim’s play as seriously as Americans might regard a musical about the Boogie Man. Nevertheless, the hostile reception still stung...
...double hurt to me because I’d become an Anglophile, and this was my love letter to England,” Sondheim said...
Even through the challenges brought on by negative reviews, Sondheim has maintained his love of the creative process. In “Sunday in the Park with George,” the song “Finishing the Hat” is his ode to the delight of creation; he writes, “However you live / there’s a part of you always standing by / mapping out the sky / finishing a hat... Look, I made a hat / where there never...