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Stephen Sondheim, b. March 22

 Any memorable story will make use of tension and irony. The first concept is a gap between speech and thought. The second can be "situational": when we're led to expect one event, and the exact opposite is the thing that occurs.


To me, Sondheim's "Putting It Together" is a dramatic masterpiece. It's a scene in which an artist needs to compete for funding. He is constantly saying something at odds with the contents of his heart. What he wants to say is: "Fuck you all, I'd like to work...." Instead, he must say: "I list the contributors on the side of my invention...." Also, to a minion: "You just gotta take it easy!"

Then, the situational irony: An artist's job is to listen and to empathize, but the artist here can do neither. George continuously steps on toes, by saying the wrong thing: "You have no shortage of opinions," "I love your work, lighten up," "Go mingle RIGHT NOW...."

You can see irony all over Sondheim's canvas. In "Sweeney Todd," a maternal figure assures her boy that he is safe from worry--while, in her head, she plots his death. Again, in "Sweeney," the lead figure breaks bread with the local judge (while sharpening his tool of execution, underneath the table). In "Gypsy," a woman ostensibly comforts her lover by promising, "You'll never get away from me." But read that sentence again. It's double-edged.

Sondheim enjoyed the world, and a sense of wonder flows through his work. Things that shocked people in the seventies are still shocking people today.

Happy (belated) birthday!

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