So, I turned 40 in 2011! I wasn’t alone in this, among the luminaries who joined me were Ewan McGregor, Mark Wahlberg, Winona Ryder, Mariah Carey and Sacha Baron Cohen, not that it gave many much consolation heading into middle age! ! Still, as Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim’s lavish 80th birthday party revealed, he began a decade of his best work when he turned 40, beginning with the groundbreaking musical concept Company in 1970, which stunned audiences seeking escapism by holding a mirror in front of them in a series of vignettes about Bobby, a single New Yorker unable to commit to a long-term relationship.
Company was followed by Follies in 1971 about a fading Broadway theater scheduled for demolition, allowing the resident company to look back on their lives. Then came A Little Night Music in 1973, the show, which features Sondheim’s most recognizable song, Send in the Clowns, is partly based on Mozart’s Eine kleine Nachtmusik and Ingmar Bergman’s film Smiles of a Summer Night and explores the lives romantic relationships of various couples throughout the course. of a weekend. The distant and esoteric Pacific Overtures opened in 1976, focusing on the gradual Westernization of Japan, seemed like a dark theme for a Broadway show, presented in Kabuki style, closed in fewer than 200 performances.
Sondheim ended the 1970s on a high note with what many consider his masterpiece Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, a macabre musical thriller in the Grand Guignol tradition, the initial Broadway production ran for nearly 600 performances and featured with Len Cariou as Sweeney Todd. and Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Lovett. The show has had numerous reruns and has benefited from Tim Burton’s authentic film adaptation starring Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter. The productions of this challenging but inspiring decade were directed by Harold Prince and his work with Sondheim usually produced a potpourritic response, audiences divided between those who loved the brazen deconstruction of cozy Broadway and those who resisted and preferred one less night. disturbing in the theater.
I was exposed to the world of musical theater and classical composition one Christmas in my teens when the BBC screened Leonard Bernstein’s Harvard Lectures; A natural communicator and contagious teacher, Bernstein covered the history of Western music theory at lightning speed and had me instantly hooked. I wanted to hear anything with his name on it and this led me to West Side Story and consequently to Stephen Sondheim, who started as a lyricist on that show in 1957. I read about Sondheim and tried to get into Sweeney Todd. but my ears weren’t ready, it seemed too dissonant to me at the time, which I find surprising now that tunes like My Friends, Johanna and Pretty Women sound totally irresistible to me and I wonder how my teenage self couldn’t be courted by them. . ; Is this a symptom of turning 40?
A host of Broadway stars gathered at Lincoln Center in New York to celebrate her 80th birthday, including Elaine Stritch, Patti LuPone, Bernadette Peters, Mandy Patinkin and Joanna Gleason. The evening was recorded for the Public Broadcasting Service network and released on region-free Blu-ray by Image Entertainment. As far as I know this has yet to be shown on UK TV so this home release is very welcome. The evening’s master of ceremonies is Frasier’s Niles, David Hyde Pierce, and he not only provides witty retorts and nuggets of notes from Sondheim’s illustrious career, but also manages to sing Beautiful Girls from Follies in a dozen different languages. . All Hal Prince shows are well represented here; including Sweeney Todd, which features two of Broadway’s Sweeneys who coach each other wonderfully.
An unforgettable highlight of the show is a song cycle that features several leading ladies of Sondheim in stunning red gowns, plus Elaine Stritch, who sports red pants and a peaked cap, this allows for some biting banter from Patti LuPone when Ladies sing. Who Lunch, the song that Stritch originated on Company, LuPone emphasizes the line “Does anyone still wear a hat?” and gives Stritch a sly look, but the 85-year-old cop doesn’t flinch, delivering a wonderful rendition of I’m Still Here, a Follies song he’s made his own since his Tony Award-winning one-man show At Liberty. The show ends with the entire cast singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to Sondheim and he walks onto the stage, unfortunately not making a speech, but clearly overwhelmed by the occasion.
The Blu-ray release is pretty basic, there are no extras to speak of, but the picture quality is impeccable at 1080p and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by long-time Sondheim collaborator Paul Gemignani really shines. on the crisp DTS-HD soundtrack. . I highly recommend this release for any musical theater fan, even those unfamiliar with the shows will be surprised by the accessibility of the songs selected here; all are eclectic gems performed in outstanding fashion by artists at the top of their game who clearly owe Stephen Sondheim a debt of gratitude.
