In 2014 when I arrived at The Dakota in Detroit for my second-to-last visit with Elaine Stritch, she was sitting up in her bed. Her arms and legs were noticeably thin. Those endless gams of hers had begun to look twig-like. For the first time, she looked frail and vulnerable. As I entered, her hair […]
Read MoreThe End of Pretend, Chapter 2
AUTHOR’S NOTE: This is the second in a series of visits and conversations chronicling the late Elaine Stritch’s final acts. The first appeared in the April/May 2017 print edition of Everything Sondheim. After Elaine’s visit to DeSales University’s campus in January 2009, I sent flowers to her at The Carlyle. She called to thank me. […]
Read MoreAn Inventive “Cast” Party
Fiasco Theatre Company’s touring production of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s cautionary tale of wishes (and witches), Into the Woods, ended its month-long stay in Los Angeles on May 14, 2017, and moved on to Dallas. But before departing LA’s Ahmanson Theatre, the company celebrated its residency in the City of Angels with — what […]
Read MoreNY Festival of Song Celebrated Sondheim
The tributes keep on coming. “Honoring Stephen Sondheim” was the theme of the 2017 New York Festival of Song’s spring gala on April 19, 2017. Leading the cast was Pamela Myers singing “Another Hundred People,” the song she belted into the world as the original Marta in Company. Also on the program: “You Must Meet […]
Read More“Sondheimas Mixtape” at Joe’s Pub in NYC
What would you expect when fans have been known to refer to their favorite composer and lyricist (who wrote a song about it) as God? The Sondheimas Mixtape at the Public Theater in Manhattan on March 20, 2017, was an Advent calendar of treats two nights before Stephen Sondheim’s 87th birthday. A dozen or so soloists, […]
Read MoreHave Your Pie and Eat It, Too
In New York City, the Barrow Street Theatre production of Sweeney Todd (running until at least Dec. 31, 2017) truly extends beyond the normalcy of the fourth wall. More than an immersive experience — cozying theatergoers in Mrs. Lovett’s pie shop next to the Demon Barber himself — the audience gets fed, too. Luckily […]
Read MoreA Work of Art: Sunday in the Park at Boston’s Huntington Theater
Color and light, tension and harmony. These design elements should be fundamental to any stage production, but perhaps none more than Stephen Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park With George. In Peter DuBois’s production at the Huntington Theater in Boston (Sept. 9-Oct. 16, 2016), the designers addressed another of the show’s themes: making an artist’s vision […]
Read MoreBoris Aronson: Vision and Execution
In an extraordinary six-year period, Stephen Sondheim and Harold Prince brought four landmark musicals to Broadway: Company (1970), Follies (1971), A Little Night Music (1973) and Pacific Overtures (1976). All four iconic productions of these remarkably disparate shows featured scenic designs by the same man: Boris Aronson. A son of the Grand Rabbi of Kiev, […]
Read MoreGift That Keeps On Giving: Jim Walton talks about Merrily’s original production
At the age of 25, Jim Walton originated the role of Franklin Shepard in Merrily We Roll Along on Broadway. Walton talks about the highs and lows of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that came his way after being a New York actor for only two years. Walton has gone on to appear in any number […]
Read MoreOpera or Musical? Sondheim made Sweeney to scare an audience
The big revelation instantly splashed across the media was that Stephen Sondheim’s new musical is to have its premiere Off Broadway at the Public Theater in late 2017 — “ if I can finish the score in time.” But in an onstage conversation at Glimmerglass Opera on July 30, Sondheim made what may be an […]
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