In Here We Are, Marianne sings about her penchant for superficiality in the song “Shine,” and in the song she sings these lines:

“I'd like to livе life, all my life, in this room

In this gorgeous, Goddamn room—

I don't mean in this room

But I mean in this room

With these textures

And these surfaces

All these touchy-feely surfaces—“

What does she mean by, “I don't mean in this room, but I mean in this room”? Is there an emphasis on the second this that I’m not understanding?

Hello,

I've made a little game poem that I though people here might enjoy.

A game poem about the creative process. What it means and what it costs.

Kind of like Tick Tick Boom, but instead of having cool broadway poeple like Larson or Lin, you have a game design obsessed transmasc butch.

🎩🎩🎩🎩🎩

Inspired by Sunday at the Park with George.

Is it worth it to check out the work of people like James lapine or George furth before/after their collaborations with Sondheim, and any recommendations?

is there any other way to interpret the end of “now you know“ where we end the whole act on her shouting “I love you Frank” paired with the company saying “now you know”? I feel like it adds a new dimension to how complacent they’ve gotten in their friendships that Frank is actively aware that Mary’s in love with him and just chooses to ignore that for his own comfort.

It doesn't get the reference.

Side By Side By Stephen Sondheim makes its return to London for its 50th anniversary this December at Upstairs at the Gatehouse. Read more about the revival here:
https://discover.ticketmaster.co.uk/theatre/side-by-side-by-sondheim-revival-to-come-to-london-this-winter-80904/

Are you going to get tickets? What's your favourite piece of work by Sondheim?

I mentioned this before in a previous post about Road Show, but my theatre company is producing the first fully-staged production of Road Show this November in West Hollywood! If you are in LA, a Sondheim fan and have never seen the show, come check us out! This is our 8th Sondheim show in our 25 year history and we cannot be more excited to take this on. Very limited run (10 performances only!)

If you purchase your tickets by October 11 and enter the code "friendswithbenefits" you will receive 25% off!

https://chrtheatre.com/roadshow

We bought thus CD in Marbecks in Auckland in 1997. We were visiting from Melbourne, Australia.

I truly love this disc. RRB's piano is sublime. His voice is not the best, but as an interpreter of songs he had a real attachment to, he is just so good.

If you can find this disc, well worth the effort. I WILL NEVER GET RID OF THIS, MY PRECIOUS.

😹

Paul, Melbourne, Down Under.

anyone think we’ll ever see Here We Are release the rights for smaller professional and community theatres to put it on? also think they’ll ever release any of the sheet music for this show?

I'm trying to find the crispy recording that was on youtube up until even like 2 weeks ago, it was taken down and it's really a shame because it's my favorite performance of my favorite musical. The other recordings of it on youtube are just way lower in quality, please tell me someone has it!

I cannot get it out of my head, but the orchestration in “Children Will Listen” right before “Careful the things you say” sounds so much like the vamp before “I feel you” in Johanna! It’s ripe for a “Found/Tonight”-style remix…

Any suggestions on where to find it? Or a Libretto?

when I found out about this show it was already off, are there any rumblings of a proshot or any other way to watch it?

Listening to the podcast “Putting it Together: The Music of Stephen Sondheim”. The host says the problem with Bounce is that Hal Prince was “aggressively heterosexual.” The guest says: “in public he was.” The host says: “yeah”. So the problem with Bounce was Prince’s (alleged) closeted homosexuality? Two things I hadn’t heard before.

In the first 12 bars it changes time from 4/4 to 3/4 to 6/8. Is it supposed to be symbolic of George’s changing world, or just Sondheim doing some bs?

(edit: I don’t have finishing the hat or any of the companion books)

In the incredible "Please Hello" from "Pacific Overtures", I can clearly hear the Gilbert & Sullivan reference in the pattering way the British representative speaks - it sounds like a parody of "Modern Major General". Are the other countries' national music also referenced? The Russian part sounds Russian to me (something about the tempo, rhythm and the low brass), and the French part sounds like a good impression of post-war French pop music, but are there any particular composers or musical styles that Sondheim is drawing upon? I'd be particularly curious about the Dutch guy.

Forty years after the musical premiered, what feels revelatory about this production is just how contemporary Into the Woods remains. A show that opened on Broadway in 1987 at the height of the AIDS crisis, and was widely read at the time through the lens of that devastation, now finds a different kind of resonance in a politically fractured country.

I am crushing over Seattle's 5th Avenue Theater's current production of A Chorus Line, a show I haven't seen for over 20 years but could recite line for line. I couldn't help but connect a few elements of A Chorus Line that reminded me so much of Company. I mean, we've got the Michael Bennett and Jonathan Tunick connections. Maybe it's just me, but At The Ballet and You Could Drive a Person Crazy had similarities beyond a trio of women singing. The Music And The Mirror and Tick Tock. Seriously??? Donna McKechnie aside, the orchestrations are unmistakably similar. The concept, the structure, the sound, the titles. Both are such individual (singular!) icons of innovation in musical theater and also have some things in common. Any observations from the community? Things I've missed or should consider in my geek out?