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Sondheim at Ninety

Three Things Right Now:

*Frank Rich interviewed Sondheim on Sondheim’s seventieth birthday. Rich notes that SS interrupted him just once. “When you were growing up, did you find....” And SS cut Rich off. “I never grew up.”

You see that childlike sense of wonder in SS’s (spiritual) autobiography, “Sunday in the Park with George.” An artist rediscovers a (boyish) sense of innocence and excitement, while surveying the world: “Something in the light, in the sky, in the grass, up behind the trees....Things I hadn’t looked at till now....Flower in your hat....And your smile....And the color of your hair.....”

*Of Hammerstein’s works, “What’s the Use of Wond'rin’” ...is the standout. Rich notes that SS does *not* highlight one of the super-famous numbers, e.g. “June Is Bustin’ Out” or “I’m in Love with a Wonderful Guy.” “What’s the Use” is relaxed; there’s no self-consciousness; you don’t sense the writer sweating. The words nicely match the speaker, a sad, defeated, plainspoken apologist: “Something made him the way that he is, whether he’s false or true....And something gave him the things that are his....One of those things is you....”

*SS has an uneasy relationship with Ira Gershwin’s ghost. SS generally dislikes Ira’s overly-labored rhyming, though he likes George’s music. That said, Ira made *some* kind of mark on SS, because Ira’s “The Man I Love” became the germ of SS’s famous “Losing My Mind.”

“Someday, he’ll come along...the man I love...and he’ll be big and strong....the man I love....”

“The sun comes up....I think about you....the coffee cup....I think about you....”

More later!

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