Stephen Sondheim is having a heck of a birthday party. The musical theater titan turned 80 last month, and tributes to his work—which includes West Side Story, Company, Follies and Sweeny Todd—have filled New York with a little night music. The Philharmonic celebrated with performances by Bernadette Peters, Patti LuPone and Elaine Stritch; it was announced that Broadway’s Henry Mill’s Theater will be renamed the Stephen Sondheim Theater; and yesterday marked the opening of a new Broadway review, Sondheim on Sondheim.
The best characterization of Sondheim comes from this New York magazine article, courtesy of Lin-Manuel Miranda, who wrote In the Heights and did the translation of West Side Story for its recent bilingual revival:
“You know, he could seriously just, like, smack people around all day and just be like, ‘I’m Sondheim; cook me a steak.’ But he’s actually still really nice and really generous and really generous to younger artists.”
In honor of the huge influence his work has had on younger artists and musical theater fans, here are a few of my favorite Sondheim homages and pop culture moments.
Camp (2003)
Set at a musical theater summer camp for teenagers, this movie is predictably packed with show tunes and theater trivia. Sondheim gets a nod early on, when the hot new guy sees a photo of an older man on the nightstand by his roommate’s bed.
“Is that your father?” he asks. The roommate is aghast—how could you not recognize Stephen Sondheim?
But the show-stopping moment comes when mousey Fritzi, who has spent the summer slaving for her bitchy, spotlight-hogging roommate Jill, poisons Jill before the performance of Company. As Jill pauses during “Ladies Who Lunch” to vomit, Fritzi (played by Anna Kendrick, now an Oscar nominee for Up in the Air) swoops in for a biting, fiery performance. I’ll drink to that.
Tick, Tick…BOOM!
In Tick, Tick…BOOM!, an early musical by Jonathon Larson of Rent, the main character is, like Larson, an aspiring musical theater composer who idolizes Sondheim. The song “Sunday” is a clear parody of the song of the same name in Sunday in the Park with George, inspired by pointillist Georges Seurat.
But while Sondheim’s song evokes a painting, Larson’s is about brunch, at the diner where he works to pay the bills.
Sondheim’s lyrics (view a performance here):
Sunday, by the blue purple yellow red water
On the green purple yellow red grass
Let us pass through our perfect park
Pausing on a Sunday
By the cool blue triangular water
On the soft green elliptical grass
As we pass through arrangements of shadow
Toward the verticals of trees
Forever
- - - - -
Larson’s lyrics (listen to a recording here):
Sunday, In the blue, silver chromium diner
On the green, purple, yellow, red stools
Sit the fools
Who should eat at home
Instead, they pay on
Sunday
For a cool orange juice or a bagel
On the soft, green cylindrical stools
Sit the fools
Drinking cinnamon coffee
Or decaffeinated tea
Forever
Desperate Housewives
The show’s creator Marc Cherry (who has been, um, a little busy lately) is a huge Sondheim fan. Nearly every episode of the show, which is now in its sixth season, takes its title from a Sondheim song name or lyric. Some examples:
Episode 1.12, Every Day a Little Death (from A Little Night Music)
Episode 3.11, No Fits, No Fights, No Feuds (a lyric from Gypsy)
Episode 4.9, Something’s Coming (from West Side Story)
Episode 6.5, Everybody Ought to Have a Maid (from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum)
This week’s episode is called Epiphany, after the Sweeny Todd Song.
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So, musical lovers, what are your favorite Sondheim songs, references or memories?
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