The shows tell the story: West Side Story. Gypsy. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Company. Follies. A Little Night Music. Sweeney Todd. Sunday in the Park With George. Into the Woods. Stephen Sondheim has been a major force in creating many of musical theatre’s most enduring works and done more to move the art form forward than any one artist in the past five decades. So what is it like to make his masterful work work, to tackle that intricate music, those matchless lyrics, from the inside? With the composer visiting Austin this week for an onstage conversation about his career (conducted by this writer), the Chronicle invited three award-winning local musical directing pros to appraise the artistry of Stephen Sondheim.
Allen Robertson (Sweeney Todd, ’96) Sunday in the Park With George was the first Broadway musical I ever saw. It was on a senior trip to New York City. Most of my friends left the production wishing we had been able to see Cats twice, but I was hooked. It was music unlike any I had heard before. I was used to hearing music that intricately and subtly expressed emotion, told stories, lifted the spirit, provided humor. But here was music that also expressed a character’s complex subtext, expressed a philosophical idea, deconstructed impressionistic visual art and re-created it in a pure exhilarating aural form.
Music had so much potential that I hadn’t realized before. Why have characters in conflict come to blows or even argue? Sondheim can make their themes battle each other in the accompaniment while their surface words and actions remain supremely civil. Suddenly music wasn’t just an emotional language more powerful than words that could speak directly to the heart; it was also a logical mathematical language that could tantalize the intellect and a cultural language that in three notes could summon history and geography. And, in the hands of Sondheim, a language that was working on all these levels simultaneously.
I immediately devoured every Sondheim show I could get my hands on. I started writing musicals of my own that included many pale imitations of Sondheim-esque musical traits. I listened and read and watched and played hundreds of musicals looking for someone else with these same amazing skills. But there’s no one quite like Sondheim. A unique voice. A treasure.
Lyn Koenning (Assassins, ’08) My first serious foray into the music of Sondheim as a musical director came in 2006, when I served as assistant director and pianist for the Omni Singers at St. Edward’s University. My first assignment: a musical revue titled “Art Isn’t Easy: The Musical Mind of Stephen Sondheim.” In six weeks, I learned, rehearsed, and coached 40 of Mr. Sondheim’s songs from virtually every show he had written; familiar ones (“Broadway Baby”), naughty ones (“Can That Boy Foxtrot!”), bawdy ones (“Let Me Entertain You”), patter songs (“Getting Married Today”), haunting ones (“The Miller’s Son”), biting ones (“Another National Anthem”), and on and on. In essence, it was a tremendously challenging but absolutely rich immersion into Sondheim’s music and lyrics, giving me a deep appreciation of his genius, teaching me so much about the art of musical storytelling, and making me a fan for life.
My greatest pleasure nowadays is introducing, through my vocal repertoire and musical theatre history courses at the University of Texas at Austin, the depth and variety of Sondheim’s musical legacy to students who have either never before experienced it or only know him through one or two musicals (Into the Woods, typically).
True, Mr. Sondheim, “art isn’t easy,” but you sure make it wonderful.
Michael McKelvey (Sweeney Todd, ’09; A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, ‘08; Assassins, ’07; Into the Woods, ’02) Since I first heard the score of A Little Night Music and performed in one of the first productions of Assassins following its original off-Broadway run, Sondheim’s music and lyrics have always brought me the greatest joy and frustration as a musical director. The wit and intelligence of his lyrics leave me in awe. His incredible ability to turn any phrase and weave the most challenging rhyme is matched only by that of Broadway’s greatest wordsmiths: Hart, Porter, Gershwin, Hammerstein, Comden and Green. As a composer, he makes the most difficult music sound simple to the novice audience member and a challenge to the most trained musician. His use of rhythm is rivaled only by the likes of Bernstein, and his sense of melody stands alongside that of Rodgers and Gershwin.
Conducting Sweeney Todd gave me fits because of its ever-changing meters, and the tremendous amount of vocal patter, challenging harmonies, and large vocal ranges made the show quite a challenge for my whole cast. The interesting thing was that once it was all taught and rehearsed, it all made perfect sense.
A Conversation With Stephen Sondheim will take place Thursday, Nov. 12, 8pm, in Dell Hall at the Long Center for the Performing Arts, 701 W. Riverside. For more information, call 474-5664 or visit www.thelongcenter.org.
This article appears in November 6 • 2009.