There will probably never be a last word on masterful composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim (1930-2021). As I write, I’m sure students are researching theses. Revival of the iconoclast’s works is more frequent than ever. Richard Schoch, a Professor of Drama at Queens University Belfast, proposes (soundly) that response to a piece of art is determined by how it speaks to us personally.
One of his subject’s great skills, the author writes, was to deconstruct life, to “lay it bare…” like taking apart one of the puzzles of which Sondheim was so fond. This book explores a dozen musicals as if walking through mazes, examining everything from construction to journey and intention. At the end of each chapter, he posits, “We know things now/Many valuable things/ That we hadn’t known before.” Little Red Riding Hood (Into the Woods)
Schoch’s background imbues hypotheses with observations on music, lyrics, plot, and/or depth of character. Writing is smart and thoughtful, if sometimes a bit dense. Sondheim fans will readily agree with some conjectures and dispute others. Is the volume a sample of “You gotta have a gimmick” as Sondheim wrote for Gypsy or is it earnest self-reflection? Your call. Examples:
Gypsy – How to Be Who You Are: “Jung said the heaviest burden for a child to bear is the unlived life of a parent.” When Louise accidentally becomes a stripper, she fully sees herself, a metaphor for self-realization, shedding clothes of the past. She’s no longer trying to complete her mother’s life… “Rose’s Turn” begins on a plunging low note, tough for a singer, because the song excavates emotion…”
Company – Overcoming the Fear of Intimacy: Marriage, friendship, dating – Bobby is stuck and his “good and crazy friends” mean to keep him that way. “Intimacy is not easy. When he cries out for someone to sit in his chair, it’s not to erase his burdens, but to make them bearable…Everyone who sings “Being Alive” must decide for themselves whether to believe Bobby.”
Follies – How to Survive Your Past: “No, don’t look at me,” Sally sings, hoping for just the opposite. The author examines how Sondheim’s music affects lyrics, often changing or adding to a message. “We torture ourselves reliving all the untaken roads…”
A Little Night Music – How to Handle Your Regrets: The show’s first song describes not the union of lovers, but their division. “Don’t be tricked…Every day brings a little death.” Origin of “Send in The Clowns” is shared. “While many vocalists make it pretty, Sondheim himself declared, ‘it’s quite angry…’” The show’s interpreted message? “Where amends can be made, make them. Where circles can be closed, close them. Where hearts can be healed, at least try…”
Pacific Overtures – How to Be a Part of the Whole: This chapter is epitomized by the song “Someone in A Tree,” being part of history, yet finding it only in fragments. “It raises the question of how we give meaning to the past…We are, all of us, whether we realize it or not, inserted already into history.”
In 1976, Frank Rich interviewed Sondheim and librettist John Weidman for television’s Camera Three.
The result was Anatomy of a Song.
Sweeney Todd – How (Not) to Deal with Injustice: “How fitting that a Fleet Street barber should be transfigured into an angel of vengeance, for his life’s mission is to cut away the badness…” Schoch refers to us Francis Bacon’s essay on revenge. That Sondheim would’ve been familiar with it requires no stretch of the imagination. “The lesson is not to take revenge, but not to let the desire destroy us.” Merrily We Roll Along – How to Grow Up: “Our Time” is appealing not because it’s sung with the confidence of youth, but because it’s heard with the regret of age.
Sunday in the Park with George – How to Be An Artist: honors, Shorch surmises, the lost art of paying attention. It’s his theory that rather than depicting “an insider’s game,” Sondheim believed being an artist is a natural state for all of us. This chapter may evoke serious discussion.
Into the Woods – How to Choose the Right Path: The Baker’s Wife is the only character not from a traditional fairytale. Schoch calls her a stand-in for the audience, scrutinizing her journey. Assassins–
How to Let Darkness In; Passion – How to Love – both rife with philosophy, and finally, prefaced as Exit Music.
Here We Are – Sondheim’s last show (with David Ives) for which he intentionally wrote only one
act of music before passing. “The task is not to fix our lives, but to have lives. Life is less about solving a puzzle than putting up with puzzlement,” Schoch summarizes.
All unattributed quotes are Richard Schoch
Cover art and author photo courtesy of the publisher
Opening: Sondheim 1970 – Photographer unknown (Public Domain)
How Sondheim Can Change Your Life
Richard Schoch
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