Liars and Saints

Sondheim's "Hat Box" makes me a little sentimental; specifically, it makes me think of Matisse in old age, finding ways to make cut-outs after his physical powers had started to fly away. (Maybe Sondheim would hate this comparison.) My favorite part of "Hat Box" is a discussion of the first line of "Sweeney Todd": "Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd." You hear it, and maybe you don't think much about it. But here's what Sondheim thought. He thought: (1) The alliteration is (covertly) memorable. "Tend, tale, Todd." He thought: (2) It's great to have a slightly archaic use of "attend" in this musical. "Attend," in Victorian times, could mean "PAY ATTENTION TO." Content should dictate form. Of course your Victorian hosts would say: "Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd." I think he noted, also, (3) "the tale of...." is a pleasingly old-fashioned way of packaging a messa...

"Good Thing Going" is maybe the most famous song from "Merrily We Roll Along" and, given that we're talking about Sondheim, a few things are happening here, all at once. The song is an item Frank writes for a show, about the slow, quiet death of a relationship. Something is counterintuitive here: No one is a spectacular villain in the breakup song. It's more a slightly queasy statement of ambivalence, a prolonged shrug. "And if I wanted too much, was that such a mistake at the time? You never wanted enough--all right, tough. I don't make that a crime. And while it's going along, you take for granted some love will wear away...." I'm reminded of the speaker from "Marry Me a Little"--a person too "in his head," afraid to live. "You can be my best friend; I can be your right arm. We'll go through a fight or two--no harm, no harm. We'll look not too deep....We'll go not too far...." Sondheim...

The Kushner/Spielberg adaptation of "West Side Story" is on the way, which inspires some thoughts-- -This musical was the work of four affluent gay white men. The men were: Jerome Robbins, Arthur Laurents, Stephen Sondheim, and Leonard Bernstein. The men (with the possible exception of Sondheim) were/are insufferable, and they fought a great deal. Sondheim was a Young Turk, and he had to be deferential to his elders. (Though this bothered him. Also, he wanted to be both lyricist and composer in his career. He wouldn't even get to do this on his *next* big project, "Gypsy.") -As gay men in an earlier era, Robbins, Laurents, Sondheim, and Bernstein were all contending with the Love that Dare Not Speak Its Name. And this is the best way to understand "West Side Story." It's about forbidden love. Easier to graft that story onto an undercooked racial-tension plot--than to tell the blunt truth. For this reason, I wonder if it's really a good idea...