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Sondheim

Sondheim's "Company" is in the news, because it will almost certainly return to Broadway next year, and because John Mulaney has written a spoof. And so it's time to look at "The Little Things You Do Together." This is not one of Sondheim's favorites among his own songs--I think because it doesn't build to anything. It's merely a list song. It's not a one-act play.

Still, what a list song! It takes a cliche and turns it upside-down. The cliche is: "The greatness of marriage derives from the little things you do together."

And, so, Sondheim's song begins by embracing this cliche: "Hobbies you pursue together....Savings you accrue together...." But, then, a worm in the apple: "Looks you misconstrue together..."

Gradually, the worm pops up more and more often: "Concerts you enjoy together....neighbors you annoy together....children you destroy together..."

Eventually, Sondheim digs into his fondness for seemingly innocuous sentences that conceal daggers: "Nobody said that!" And: "Who brought the subject up FIRST?" These sentences seem harmless, but of course they are sentences that lead nowhere positive. The button for the song is surprising and inevitable: Among the many joys of marriage is "getting a divorce together"--! And: curtain.

So much bleakness can be off-putting, I guess, but if you're exasperated at work, for example, or in a taxing, passive-aggressive friendship, then a pitch-black description of existential agony can be amusing and helpful. We're all in one stormy sea together. If this is Sondheim's B-plus effort, then, still, I'm very happy to have it in the canon.
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