Word: songful
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...most important of a production, as it sets up the plot and informs the audience of what to expect from the rest of the show; the major flaw with “Forum,” according to Sondheim, was the mood set by the opening number, a song called “Love...
...telling the audience that this is a low comedy; you’re telling them that it’s a charming show,’” Sondheim recalled. When Sondheim replaced “Love is in the Air” with a new song, “Comedy Tonight,” there was an almost instant change in the show’s reception. “Comedy Tonight” is a farcical number that prepares the audience for what Sondheim described as “low comedy presented in an elegant...
...music. Although some Sondheim fans were disappointed that Burton cut the recurring chorus, “The Ballad of Sweeney Todd,” the composer said he approved of the choice; in his opinion, choruses in musicals, during which nonessential background characters suddenly join the leads in song, have a “peasant on the green mentality”; his technique is ineffective in films, where the focus lies more on dramatizing interior emotions than creating theatrical spectacle...
...notoriously bloody tale about cannibalism, “Sweeney Todd” ran to 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...
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...