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Sondheim's Ninetieth Birthday (Part II)

*The male version of Bernadette Peters. That's Mandy Patinkin. Why? Peters is rare for originating major Sondheim AND Lloyd Webber roles on Broadway. Patinkin did the same thing. He was Broadway's first Che, in "Evita," and he was Broadway's first Georges, in "Sunday in the Park."

Patinkin's achievement is possibly more stunning than Peters's achievement, because Che is more iconic than anyone you'll find in "Song and Dance." But Peters originated *two* Sondheim roles. Patinkin? Just one.

*Sondheim's Second-Flashiest Rhyme. Remember: top honors went to "Company."

Second place is from "Into the Woods," and it's Jack's mom, arguing that a dying cow needs to be sold right away. "There's no time to sit and dither....while her withers wither with her." "Dither/ with her" is flashy enough. But "wither," "wither," and "with her" rhyme, or sort of rhyme, as well.

*Sondheim's Favorites. Is Sondheim breathless about Hammerstein, or about Porter? He is not. Hammerstein couldn't really write for distinctive characters. Cole Porter was too distractingly clever.

Sondheim loves DuBose Heyward, who wrote "the good parts" of "Porgy and Bess." ("Summertime, and the livin' is easy...." Sondheim especially loves the AND, and he feels he himself would have chosen a clunky WHEN. "And" has a dreamy, loose quality, appropriate to the song.)

Sondheim also loves Loesser, who gave us "Guys and Dolls." A cad, singing to an uptight princess, who dreams of a dull mate: "You have wished yourself a Scarsdale Galahad...the breakfast-eating, Brooks Brothers type...." Hard to top that.

More later!

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