Stephen Sondheim: "Follies"

When Sondheim wrote “Losing My Mind,” he was thinking of Ira Gershwin:

Someday, he’ll come along—

The man I love….

And he’ll be big and strong—

The man I love.

You can see a similar approach to structure, in Sondheim:

The sun comes up—

I think about you.

The coffee cup—

I think about you….

In his bridge, Gershwin plays with the idea of time:

Maybe I will meet him Monday—

Maybe Sunday, maybe not.

Still I’m sure to meet him one day…

Maybe Tuesday will be my “good news” day….

In a similar way, Sondheim takes us from sunrise, to a stagnant afternoon, to 12 am:

I dim the lights and think about you…

Spend sleepless nights to think about you….

The fun twist is that Sondheim—in a Gershwin style—is repudiating Gershwin. The subtext of Gershwin is that love wins; once you find your “man,” you get your Jane Austen ending. But Sondheim suggests that—regardless of the path you take—you are doomed to a life of ambivalence.

Sondheim ends with a question mark. The singer looks lost—and she just walks off the stage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4mbbmxRGo4

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