Stephen Sondheim died on Friday November 26th. ‘91 year old man dies peacefully in his sleep’ is not unexpected news. But the impact was great, and in a small way I shared it. Others will be able to articulate the richness, the complexity and masterfulness of Sondheim better than I can. I think comparisons with Shakespeare are both inevitable and appropriate. And this from me who, generally, doesn’t really like musicals.
I was late to Sondheim. My far-more-artistically-aware friend had been into Sondheim before university, I think. I knew, vaguely, that he was a major figure, but had he merely brushed past my consciousness: on TV, some gala performance, and Denis Quilley as Sweeney Todd; another half-remembered TV memory of Angela Landsbury and, I think, a song from Into the Woods. Earlier, Send in the Clowns was a popular hit and I had the sheet music. So I learned to play those mesmeric, poignant, yearning triple time arpeggios which, as it were, fill in the silent gaps. A song which starts, tries again, leaves so much unsaid.
But really, my first Sondheim was Sunday in the Park with George. August 2006, and a glorious London theatre scheme allowed children to be taken at a huge discount (possibly completely free), to a selection of West End shows. My children were 11 and 13 – too old for children’s shows but a little young for ‘straight, serious’ drama. This was a musical and I vaguely recalled good reviews. That seemed accessible.
Well, as every Sondheim fan knows… accessible is not always the adjective which leaps to mind. And yet it was wonderful. This beautifully staged, beautifully sung, complex work about Georges Seurat, and a specific painting (Un dimanche après-midi à l’Île de la Grande Jatte), and the difficulties of artistic creation. The music was not simple (Sondheim doesn’t write an awful lot of – to use the famous Tom Lehrer phrase – “tunes you can hum”). It also had an animated dog and – remember this is a pointillist artist – a character called Dot, which is just very, very funny. It was demanding in every way, and witty, and also exquisite. We all worked hard, we all enjoyed it.
There have been other opportunities to see Sondheim shows since, and we have been very glad to have them. They have been amongst the theatre highlights of the last 15 years (especially Sweeney Todd, Chichester Festival Theatre, 2011. Whilst in 2010 the BBC Proms Concert Season included a ‘Sondheim 80th birthday prom’. It will be rebroadcast on December 27th on BBC Four and trust me, if you watch it..really watch it, don’t play games on your phone at the same time, you will thank me. Within a stunning cast, and a wonderful programme, Daniel Evans and Jenna Russell (Georges and Dot in the production we had seen) reprised their roles in three songs from Sunday in the Park with George. They are luminous together. The last of these three songs is Sunday. And this was also the song sung last Sunday, 28th November, by Broadway performers in Times Square, following Lin Manuel’s reading of Sondheim’s own words. In the Proms concert, the choir at the back of the Albert Hall have clearly been given a dress code of single colours, shirt or dress. So each individual is a different point of colour, as their voices combine and blend. They enact and perform the song. The song has stayed in my head all week so that I have been bathed in harmony.
Thank you, Stephen Sondheim.
This Friday, December 3rd, Antony Sher also died. 72 year old man is given diagnosis of terminal cancer and dies quietly a few months later is, once more, not striking news. But again, for those who, in any way, knew him, it is a significant loss. He was an actor, above all a stage actor (never, never on screen, was it possible to convey or capture his explosive intensity. The TV, the film projector would have melted) and so now he has gone there is no way to recover or recreate: live performance leaves nothing physical behind. Its impact is all in the hearts and the minds of those who were there. But I remember, visceral physical memories of moments, entrances, even a triumphant look, which electrified and compelled the entire audience.
These actors, composers, writers, performers, dancers, artists
Oh, these wonderful passionate talented generous people
who show us ways to know ourselves better, to escape the mundane, who, in Nick Hytner’s words, allow us to “bear witness to extraordinary acts of creativity” and offer “space to enlarge our imagination and sympathies”.
I can no other answer make but thanks,
Stephen Sondheim, Composer and Lyricist, 1931-2021
Antony Sher, Actor, writer, director and artist, 1949-2021
Rest In Peace
lesleyjonesberry 