Sondheim on Sondheim
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CD Details
Brand: PBSComposer: Stephen Sondheim
Conductor: N/a
Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown)
Format: Cast Recording
CD Release Date: 2010-08-31
Music Label: P.S. Classics
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
- My name is Stephen Joshua Sondheim…
- Invocation/Forget War
- Love Is In The Air
- Comedy Tonight
- Take Me To The World
- Ten years after I was born…
- Talent/When I Get Famous
- Something’s Coming
- My first professional show…
- So Many People
- For many years, Hal Prince…
- You Could Drive A Person Crazy
- The Wedding Is Off
- Now You Know
- Hal Prince and I did six shows together…
- Franklin Shepard, Inc.
- Good Thing Going
- Sometimes a song changes its shape…
- Waiting For The Girls Upstairs
- The Best Thing That Ever Has Happened
- My first serious relationship…
- Happiness
- Fosca’s Entrance (I Read)
- Is This What You Call Love?
- Loving You
- God
- If you ask me to write a love song…
- Losing My Mind/Not A Day Goes By
- A lot of people think…
- Opening Doors
- We had three endings to Company…
- Multitudes of Amy
- Happily Ever After
- Being Alive
- Something Just Broke
- The Gun Song
- Jule Styne and I realized with Gypsy…
- Smile, Girls
- I suppose if there is one that’s closest…
- Finishing The Hat
- Beautiful
- I had a lot of trouble with my mother…
- Children Will Listen
- To me, teaching is a sacred profession…
- Send In The Clowns
- “I’ve often been asked why I don’t write…”
- Company/Old Friends
- Anyone Can Whistle
Music reviews of Sondheim on Sondheim
Music Review: Half Bio, Half Greek Chorus, All Sondheim - Expertly Rendered
Rating: 5 Stars
Quite inadvertently, I was at the opening night of "Sondheim on Sondheim" this past April at the Studio 54 Theater. Don't get me wrong, I am a Sondheim fan, but I guess Sondheim revues have been so prolific for the past few decades that it was relatively easy to secure a front mezzanine seat. The Broadway show was an intriguing synthesis of spoken biography (from the composer himself) and archival footage on multi-LCD screens interspersed with Sondheim-penned performances from a stellar Greek chorus of eight. Coinciding with his 80th birthday, the concept of the tribute was a bit contrived, and there was a bit of a PBS air about the whole approach. However, between the expert vocal executions and the presence of Sondheim, who comes across as clever, avuncular and a bit pixilated, this pristine 2010 two-disc recording is quite a treat.
The result represents a mix of classics and songs cut from the original productions for which they were written. Regardless, they are all pure Sondheim and beautifully delivered. None of the performances can be considered definitive, but the consistency in quality throughout the show genuinely enriches the Sondheim songbook overall. The legendary Barbara Cook - and that exalted adjective is necessary in this case - is 82 years old and sings with particular grace and emotional dexterity. Her open, slightly wizened renditions of "Take Me to the World" and the old warhorse, "Send in the Clowns" are mesmerizing. Having just wrapped up her four-season run on Ugly Betty, Vanessa Williams proves again what an accomplished singer she can be, and she keeps up with Cook on a breathtaking duet of "Losing My Mind" and "Not a Day Goes By".
Euan Morton (Boy George in 2003's Taboo) completely submerges his Scottish accent and injects his eccentric style, especially on "Franklin Shepard, Inc." from Merrily We Roll Along. Leslie Kritzer is a superb comic singer, especially on the amusingly hard-edged "Now You Know" and the manic "Gun Song". Tom Wopat - yes, the The Dukes of Hazzard guy - showcases his booming voice on some of the showier numbers like "Finishing the Hat" from Sunday in the Park with George. However, it's the relatively unknown Norm Lewis who provides the recording's arguable high point with a powerful performance of "Being Alive", even though admittedly, he doesn't have the benefit of the book from the original show, Company, to give it more emotional heft like Raul Esparza nailed just two seasons back in the show's minimalist revival.
There is one original composition in the show, a comical tune called "God", which opens the second act and makes fun of not only Sondheim's revered legacy but his idiosyncratic approach to songwriting. As with the show, there are just a few things that don't quite work on the recording. For example, Williams' performance of one of my favorites, "Good Thing Going", is certainly pretty enough but feels wrong in perspective since the lyrical context makes it feels like it should be sung by a man in the throes of regret. Moreover, some memorable moments from the show have been cut from the recording, such as Cook's classic "In Buddy's Eyes" from Follies, Wopat's stirring "Epiphany" from Sweeney Todd, and Erin Mackey's shining turn on "Do I Hear a Waltz?", a collaboration with Richard Rodgers that Sondheim comically regrets in hindsight in the show. Still, Sondheim fanatics should rejoice that we have this cast recording for posterity.
Description of Sondheim on Sondheim
Hailed by the Associated Press as a: revelatory revue full of wonderful moments, and by USA Today as a: funny, affectionate and revealing tribute to musical theater's greatest living composer and lyricist, SONDHEIM ON SONDHEIM is an intimate portrait of the famed songwriter in his own words...and music. An all-star cast headed by Barbara Cook, Vanessa Williams and Tom Wopat takes on new arrangements of over two-dozen Sondheim tunes, ranging from the beloved to the obscure, interspersed with audio commentary by the composer himself, who reveals fascinating details about his life and his art. Stephen Sondheim's final word on his unparalleled body of work has been preserved by PS Classics in this lavish release.Has any post-Tin Pan Alley composer been the subject of more revues than Stephen Sondheim? Perhaps not, but Sondheim on Sondheim is not your typical revue. Yes, it collects a wide variety of songs from the many Broadway shows he composed or for which hewrote lyrics over a career spanning from the 1950s to the present, performed by a talented cast including name headliners Barbara Cook, Tom Wopat, and Vanessa Williams. But when Sondheim on Sondheim played at the Roundabout Theatre's Studio 54 in April 2010, it included video segments of the composer talking about himself and his life, represented on this recording by audio segments. As he talks about his shows, his collaborators, or his personal experiences, the cast of singers acts like a Greek chorus, embellishing the thoughts with excerpts from Sondheim's songs, but also performing some in full, and many in versions different from the original shows. After he talks about working on Company, the singers perform the multiple variations on the ending. Mention of his personal relationship is followed by songs from Passion. And there's one newly composed song, "God," in which he pokes fun at his own lofty reputation.
The headliners are excellent. Cook has lost some range and control over the years, but proves she's still one of the great Sondheim voices of any generation with her "Send in the Clowns." Wopat, best known as a TV actor before embarking on a Broadway career, is up to the subtle intricacies of "Finishing the Hat," and Williams, who played the Witch in the 2002 Into the Woods revival, shines on ballads such as "Losing My Mind" (which Cook memorably recorded in the 1980s) and ""Good Thing Going." The unsung stars are the lesser-known singers, Leslie Kritzer, Norm Lewis, Euan Morton, Erin Mackey, and Matthew Scott, who cover the tight harmonies and elaborate counterpoint of the ensemble numbers and also sing strong solos and duets. One almost wishes there had been no headliners with distractingly distinctive voices, thereby giving the sole spotlight to the songs and to Sondheim, who talks about himself in ways that he probably abhors, including deeply personal moments about his mother and his relationship with Oscar Hammerstein II. The stories have probably been told before, but here, in context with the songs he's written, they become even more moving. For a composer often criticized as being cold and unemotional, there can be no better response. --David Horiuchi
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