Honoring Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Sondheim, a man who changed American musical theatre forever, died on Nov. 26, 2021 at the age of 91. As a musical theatre geek, I was not terribly saddened until last weekend. I remembered that just one year prior, when I as an international student was feeling isolated from my American classmates due to COVID, it was Stephen Sondheim’s 90th anniversary online concert Take Me to the World that brought me out of the gloom.
Lin-Manuel Miranda as little Jack singing “Giants in the Sky” from Into the Woods, Lea Salonga performing “Loving You,” and Raul Esparza’s heat-breaking execution of “Take Me to the World” pinpointed an instinctive yearning to be outside and connected that I couldn’t quite put my hands on. Just one and a half years ago, I was celebrating and connecting through music with all these musical stars to overcome a desperate time, but now the person that brought us together is no longer here.
Over the course of his impressive 70-year career, Sondheim created 16 full-length musicals and wrote the lyrics for three more. He won eight Tony Awards, eight Grammy Awards, and one Academy Award. But all the splendours and glory aside, what made him great?
To begin with, Sondheim revolutionised musical theatre by telling diverse, complex stories instead of frothy comedies filled with dance extravaganzas, which used to dominate Boradway. From the mundane troubles regarding love and relationships in Company to the dark topics of murder and cannibalism in Sweeney Todd, Sondheim dared to take on philosophical or controvercial themes sometimes at the expense of popularity.
Other than challenging themes, Sondheim also innovated musical story-telling technique. Before musicals usually followed a linear storyline, and Sondheim popularised the idea of fragmented storytelling in both the overarching storyline and individual songs. “Someone in a Tree” from Pacific Overtures integrates three different perspectives, a ten-years-old child watching from a tree, the child as an old man recollecting the story, and a soldier hiding under the floor, to present a historical meeting between Commodore Perry and Japanese officials. The characters’ voices overlap, each brings in new information yet contradicts with each other. One can see this theme of historical perspective used repeatedly in musicals Hamilton, Six, and Wicked.
In the song “Color and Light,” from Sunday in the Park with George, George sings a series of fast staccato notes with little melody to represent the dots that he is painting to make up the shades and lights. The song was criticised as ‘unhummable.” However, it used complex concepts and challenged what music can be just like how George Seurat started Neo-Impressionism in the Art world.
Most importantly, Sondheim effectively used music and lyrics to express the human condition and create characters who I personally connect with. In Sunday Park with George, George comes to the realisation in the number “Finishing the Hat,” that he will always be “watching the rest of the world/From a window while [he] finishes the hat.” To me, the song captures the bitterness and rueful acceptance of the sacrifices made for art and raises the question: “Is it worth it?”
Sondheim’s melodies are simple, but when repeated throughout the song and paired with different lyrics, they soar. In “Take Me to the World,” the title phrase was repeated over and over in the song over a seemingly plain motif — “re mi mi re mi”— that consists of only two notes. However, because of the simplicity and repetitiveness of the melody the audience has time to focus on the words that are being sung:
“Let me see the world with cloud
Take me to the world
Out where I can push through crowds
Take me to the world
…
Take me to the world that’s real
Show me how it’s done
Teach me how to laugh to feel
Move me to the sun
Just hold my hand
Whenever we arrive
Take me to the world where I can be alive”
It is a wish, a request, a hope, a demand. As simple as it is, I would argue that it is the most straightforward and powerful “I want” song in all of the musical theatre world. The wish is stated clearly from the very first line of the song, and repeated, each time adding a new layer of meaning and purpose by the slight variation of wording, context, and the new lyrics. How delicate an emotion can be portrayed!
Stephen Sondheim has left a permanent mark on the world. He told stories with integrity, provoked the audience to perceive things from different angles, and inspired a new generation of musical theatre artists.
Under his influence, musical theatres began to cover a broader range of topics and characters. Dear Evan Hansen and Next to Normal discuss mental wellness; Rent unearths the life, love and struggle of bohemian artists and HIV patients during the AIDS epidemic. Lin-Manuel Miranda also recalled that Stephan Sondheim was the first person he told about the idea of writing Hamilton. Sondheim used art to reflect society, both its spectacle and failure. He taught us that theatre isn’t just entertainment but a learning tool too.
When asked in an interview what he would like his legacy to be, Sondheim replied: “Oh goodness…I would just like the shows to keep getting done, whether on Broadway or in regional theatre or in schools or communities. I would just like the stuff to be done. Just done and done and done and done… That would be the fun.”
