RIP Stephen Sondheim

Internet tiff over not including a link to a very special Youtube comment about Judy Collins’ version of “Send in the Clowns” is an amazing start to my day.

 

If we are going to talk about Send in the Clowns performances.

 

I thought bassoon but it looks like an oboe

 

As someone raised on musical theatre, I physically winced at this.

 

My first Sondheim musicals were in high school, playing in the pit for "A Little Night Music" and "West Side Story" (okay, lyrics only but GREAT lyrics). Then I went off to university and became a singer. Home from school in 1986 and staying at my best friend's house, she went to take a nap and I started flipping channels and hit PBS just as they began showing the original Broadway production of "Sunday in the Park with George". My friend woke from her nap to find me a weeping mess on her couch.

It remains my all-time favourite Sondheim show and "Sunday" always makes me cry. This tribute dissolved me.

https://www.broadwayworld.com/video...mes-Square-to-Honor-Stephen-Sondheim-20211128

 

The Fresh Air three day tribute of Sondheim is well worth a listen. Always respected his work, but hearing him talk about the struggle between being technically strong, and true to the story at the same time was incredibly illuminating. I figured most composers crank out some songs and make the book writer work around the lyrics for the set-ups and the segues - but hearing Sondheim talk about how he crafted Send In the Clowns for non-singer Glynnis Johns is tremendous. You could argue that the strength of the song is that it is built so well, that there is no way it can be sung in anyway other than as a lament - rather than an ode type show-stopper.

 

English horn. Bassoon is much larger and couldn't carry that solo as well as the English horn. In contrast, it's too large to be an oboe, which looks similar to a clarinet in length (sub in double-reed for the clarinet's single reed and the slighter rounder bell on the other end).

 

I've been fortunate to see my daughter play Tobias in Sweeney Todd twice, once with a small professional company that performed the show in an actual pie shop. (The restaurant was two levels with a spiral staircase that had a platform, and they managed to fit about 60 seats for an audience. It was so fun.)

Anyway, the company spent a full month of rehearsal just on the music and harmonies before any blocking. It's probably the hardest she was ever pushed at the time musically.

She never complained once. That's the power. Even when it was work - hard, long, grueling work, and even more of it at home - the material was so good it never, ever felt like it to her.