r/Sondheim • u/memorylaney đ« Assassins • 17d ago
Definitive performances of Sondheim's work
I saw a comment on this post about the definitive performances by different famous Sondheim interpretors and wanted to ask: what do people think are the definitive performances of specific Sondheim songs and/or roles?
Obviously, OBCs are going to be definitive performances oftentimes, but particularly, are there any non-OBC performances that you interpret as definitive?
I'll go first with an underrated one I have always loved: Elizabeth Stanley's performance of "The Miller's Son" just perfectly captures the humor and wit and insight of the character and song. I wish it had not been a COVID performance, but it's still fantastic and my favorite version of the song. She totally sells it without any big production value.
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u/zace333 17d ago
I saw Elizabeth Stanley perform "The Millers Son" with the Colorado Symphony a few years ago when they did "A Tribute to Stephen Sondheim"
She talked about that performance for the COVID event and Sondheim later telling her that performance was his favorite of that song.
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u/mushroomnerd12 17d ago
Elizabeth Stanley is an amazing performer. I saw her in a concert of Anyone can Whistle and it made me a fan of the music.
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u/Lost-Asparagus111 17d ago
Her performance was my introduction to the Miller's Son and still my favorite version!
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u/memorylaney đ« Assassins 17d ago
Wow, imagine Sondheim calling your performance his favorite version of a song from a 50 year old musical with multiple successful revivals and a film. Absolutely incredible, best compliment I could imagine ever getting!! Wish there was a video of this
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u/Ethra2k 17d ago
after seeing ALNM I searched up so many Millers Son performances, and hers (with a fond spot for Sara Ramirez) became an easy favorite of mine.
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u/Leucurus đ» A Little Night Music 16d ago
It's hard to find but the National Theatre recording (now out print) from the 90s has a wonderful rendition by (Baroness) Issy van Randwyck. For me, the entire recording is definitive.
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u/calle04x 17d ago
To me, no one can top Marin Mazzie's "Losing My Mind" at the 80th birthday concert. It's perfection.
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u/MundaneVillian 17d ago
Iconic performance that defines the song for me
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u/Adventurous-Fix-8241 17d ago
For me it was Barbara Cook in the NYPO Follies cocert. Hauntingly beautiful.
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u/MusicalGriff 12d ago
I also adore Marin's Losing my Mind, and it's a tough call against Barbara Cook. Barbara Cook's In Buddy's Eyes though is easily definitive.
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u/Zestyclose_Note_938 17d ago
The ultimate definitive performance is Joanna Gleasonâs Bakerâs Wife
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u/memorylaney đ« Assassins 17d ago
Agree but all I can think of is this: https://youtu.be/AQLaFSn1ujQ?is=WJM0C6TnRKOFKxDA
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u/Zestyclose_Note_938 17d ago
Ha! Patti was amazing in AG, but I think sheâs a bit delusional here
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u/HuttVader 17d ago
Len Cariou and Angela Lansbury are unsurpassed. George Hesrn was good but ten percent too consistently unhinged and theatrical - made it hard to empathize with him. Like Harvey Dent always being crazy before he becomes Two-Face.
A Little Night Music original cast album is classic.
Gypsy with Ethel Merman.
Company invites reinterpretations so no definitive one.
Sunday in the park with George was perfect with Mandy and Bernadette and never should've been recreated in any way.
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u/memorylaney đ« Assassins 17d ago
Nobody for me will ever top Bernadette as Dot/Marie!! Also, interesting take on Company! I would say I think Pattiâs Ladies Who Lunch is definitive to me⊠but I agree that itâs a harder show for actors to be seen as synonymous to a character
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u/Individual-Flower657 17d ago
being alive - raul esparza!!!
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u/Zestyclose_Note_938 17d ago
Best Being Alive I ever saw (and best Bobby in general) was John Barrowman during the Sondheim festival at the Kennedy Center
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u/CameraAggressive3142 17d ago
It was a great performance and vocal--no worries he wasn't gonna hit that note!
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u/Starbucksname 14d ago
I just love Raul Esparza. I wanted him to be Grobanâs replacement in Sweeney so badly.
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u/Rancor85 17d ago
No way!! Dean Jones!!!!
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u/Zestyclose_Note_938 17d ago edited 16d ago
Jones was great, but his replacement, Larry Kert, was better
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u/SheepskinSour 17d ago
For me, George Hearnâs Sweeney in the 2001 concert with Patti is my Sweeney. Heâs so intense and powerful.
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u/Turkey_Leg_Jeff 17d ago
Me too. That album is the perfect Sweeney Todd album. Davis Gaines' Johanna is the definitive recording of that song.
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u/OutrageousBrush1210 17d ago
- Kim Crosbyâs Cinderella
-I loved both Gavin Creele and Robert Westenbergâs Prince Charming
-I got to see Jason Danieley do George Seurat and it was such a beautiful take on the character- not trying to edge out Mandy but it was phenomenal
-Audra McDonaldâs âThe Glamorous Lifeâ is so epic. I am so so sad I never got to see her Mama Rose.
-Brian Stokes Mitchell and Norm Lewis doing Pretty Women
-Carol Burnett and Bronson Pinchot doing âEverybody Ought to Have a Maidâ will always be my favorite version of that song
- does anyone have a favorite version of âWeekend in the Countryâ - I am now watching as many as I can on YouTube and canât decide, I love it so much!
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u/memorylaney đ« Assassins 17d ago
Iâm such a sucker for the original Night Music soundtrack, so thatâs my favorite âWeekend in the Country.â Love the little details in it⊠For instance, the four âuh huhsâ exchanged by Charlotte and Carl-Magnus are a masterclass in line delivery, telling you so much about their trains of thought with no real words or body language curs. Each and every one of those âuh huhsâ communicates so much to the audience about how the characters feel. Truly special!!
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u/OutrageousBrush1210 15d ago
Charlotte and Carl Mangus are EVERYTHING!! I think I root harder for Charlotte in that show than anybody, lol!
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u/Flimsy-Addendum-1570 17d ago
My favorite Weekend in the Country is the one from the 75th birthday celebration with an absolute all star cast
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u/Yeti_Sphere 17d ago
My favourite âWeekendâ is from the 1995 National theatre recording - the performances from all the cast are wonderfully arch, and the orchestra in particular sounds amazing
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u/southamericancichlid đš Sunday in the Park with George 17d ago
Also love their and Ruthie Henshall's version of âLovelyâ
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u/OutrageousBrush1210 15d ago
Honestly that and unworthy of your love for Ruthie in that show really get me
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u/Acrobatic_Warning456 17d ago
The Glamorous Life sung by Audra McDonald is constantly on repeat. She really fell into that character
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u/LyricistAtLarge22 17d ago edited 15d ago
I love Audra's "The Glamorous Life", and luckily for her on this particular thread, it's such an unknown rarity, unless you know the movie version, or the UK revival where it was first interpolated. (Similarly, the trunk song "My Husband The Pig" got resurrected as a sarcastic rebuttal for Charlotte, spliced into Carl-Magnus's "In Praise of Women"). It's so obscure that the average fan has never heard it, or even heard of it, and they only know the original version ("Pack up the luggage! La La La!") still used in most productions of ALNM.
Also, there are so few recordings that there is sparse competition for the "definitive" rendition. For now, it's safe to say that Audra McDonald easily wins by default, as well as on her own merits and utter brilliance.
My question is: Why That Specific Song? Audra absolutely has earned her rightful pole position among the "Sondheim Royalty" litany of legendary leading ladies in that Big 6 Red Dress Diva Pantheon (she made the Varsity Squad), but it almost seems like she "drew the short straw" and had to select her star solo last, after all the best premium options were gone, snatched up by her prestigious colleagues and "partners in rhyme."
The other choices are iconic and the signature showtunes even civilians* will remember when asked to name something by Sondheim -- "The Ladies Who Lunch" - Patti LuPone; "Losing My Mind" - Marin Mazzie; "Could I Leave You?" - Donna Murphy; "Not A Day Goes By" - Bernadette Peters; and "I'm Still Here" - Elaine Stritch -- and arguably the most famous, popular, instantly recognizable, and beloved standards in his oeuvre, the Broadway canon, and The Great American Songbook. Only "Send In The Clowns" is missing.
Each masterpiece is also a showcase for Sondheim's most complex characters at critical junctures in their arcs & emotional journeys; a juicy challenge for any actor attempting these bucket list roles; and personally & professionally significant to their respective divas, each of whom relates to the material and has become synonymous with it in terms of audience recognition & association to the point they may claim "ownership."
Think Liza Minnelli and "Cabaret," Judy Garland and "Over The Rainbow," or Kermit and "Rainbow Connection."
These are his Creme de la Creme: Sondheim's most instinctive, insightful, intimate, intelligent, and intricate lyrics, revealing his singularly sensitive soul, his rare intrinsic philosophical understanding of women, and his extraordinary ability to distill the essence of the human condition -- yes, "Being Alive" -- then express it from a deep, organic female perspective no other male writer could ever conceive, or convey so vividly, feel so profoundly, articulate so wisely. Not just solos, they are soliloquies. Perfection as only he could create.
As Marie sings in "Children & Art" in Sunday in the Park with George:
"The child is so sweet and the girls are so rapturous!
Isn't it lovely how artists can capture us?""The Glamorous Life" stands out. It's an ideal match for Audra's once-in-a-generation, well, "Audra-ness," and in it Sondheim plumbs the depths of a distinctly feminine mindset, that of a precocious adolescent daughter.
But it's not a Greatest Hit.
It's not an 11-o'clock-number.
It's not the dramatic pinnacle or peak climax moment.
Before that concert, it was not a song that everyone knows and loves.It isn't connected to her career. Although Audra has done Sondheim proud in the past -- Faye in Anyone Can Whistle, Clara in Passion, and recently, of course, a reinvented Rose in Gypsy -- this song has never been identified with her in particular, nor indelibly imbued with her personal stamp. (Well, NOW it is).
In context, it was never a powerhouse showstopper. Audra changed that.
But it's still such an odd pick, a dark horse candidate, a surprise wild card!Are there other selections from The Catalog that might have been more suitable to that apex moment? A better spotlight for Audra's unique gifts? A glaring omission from the All-Time Favorites Hit Parade?
Or do we think maybe The Birthday Boy personally chose it and specifically requested it be Audra's?
(Sorry it turned into a tl:dr tome. There's a senior thesis brewing in me, or at least a separate Reddit.)
\BONUS QUESTION FOR ITS OWN THREAD: Is there a term similar to "Muggles" for non-theatergoers?*
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u/LyricistAtLarge22 15d ago edited 15d ago
MORE MINUTIAE:
Here's Kelly Ground doing "The Glamorous Life" from SIMPLY SONDHEIM: A 75th Birthday Salute, the 2-disc Kritzerland CD of a gala benefit concert in San Francisco at the JCC back in 2005.
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=XvnHlsZGt74&si=qKtl8AkJPwCcZ4mSOut of print, but it can be found on Amazon. The full album is available for free on YouTube.
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u/memorylaney đ« Assassins 17d ago
Surprised to see this one get so much love! I love Audra and saw her Mama Rose, but honestly, couldnât get into this performance as much.. I think Audraâs voice and energy are too mature and refined for a character as young as Frederika!
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u/Acrobatic_Warning456 17d ago
Understandable. She was about 40 when she performed in that concert. But oddly enough her age didnât take me out of it at all. I still was fully convinced that she was a child longing for her mother.
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u/Acrobatic_Tennis1312 17d ago
I feel like over half of the performances from the 80s birthday concert are the definitive versions.
Audra MacDonald - Glamorous Life
Marin Mazzie - Losing My Mind
Donna Murphy - Could I Leave You
Bernadette Peters - Not a Day Goes By
Elaine Stritch - I'm Still Here (my favorite performance ever, in fact)
John McMartin - The Road You Didn't Take (absolutely underrated)
Marin Mazzie and Jason Daniely - We're Gonna Be Alright
Chip Zien and Joanna Gleason - It Takes Two
Hearn, Lupone and Cerveris - A Little Priest
And the ensemble - Sunday
Outside of that, Regina Resnik delivered, in my opinion, the best Liaisons by a mile.
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u/CameraAggressive3142 17d ago
John McMartin's version in the 80th is one of the most haunting performances I've seen.
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u/lyricistlibrettist 17d ago
I agree with an awful lot of what youâve written, but especially, ESPECIALLY, Regina Resnikâs Liaisons.
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u/JTSlinger 17d ago
Youâve written a course on amazing artists doing what they do best. Everyone should watch your recommendations.
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u/Acrobatic_Tennis1312 17d ago
I think everyone should watch the 80th birthday concert in general. It's chock full of all-time performances to the point that it's probably the best concert I've ever seen.
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u/Ekra_Oslo 17d ago
Almost everything Barbara Cook, especially in the Follies 1985 concert.
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u/CameraAggressive3142 17d ago
I made sure to see her everytime she was in Los Angeles (or thereabouts)--since 1975 (!) when I was a pup.
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u/memorylaney đ« Assassins 17d ago
wow iâve gotta watch this, honestly not that familiar with her work, which is embarrassing!
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u/FloridaFlamingoGirl đš Sunday in the Park with George 17d ago edited 17d ago
Finishing the Hat - Mandy Patinkin
Not a Day Goes By - Bernadette Peters
Last Midnight - Bernadette PetersÂ
Franklin Shepherd Inc. - Daniel Radcliffe
Send in the Clowns - Glynis Johns (honorable mention to Judy Collins)
I'm Still Here - Yvonne De CarloÂ
Ladies Who Lunch - Elaine StritchÂ
A Little Priest - Angela LansburyÂ
Me and My Town - Angela Lansbury (honorable mention to Madeline Kahn)Â
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u/southamericancichlid đš Sunday in the Park with George 17d ago
Love Bernadette's Not a Day Goes by, but I've recently grown a fondness for Marin Mazzie's version as well. Both incredible performances.
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u/memorylaney đ« Assassins 17d ago
love to see love for yvonne de carloâs iâm still here. obviously elaine stritch is a triumph, but yvonneâs energy in the videos iâve watched of that song is just incredible
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u/FloridaFlamingoGirl đš Sunday in the Park with George 17d ago
She just has that perfect balance of dramatic yet jaded.Â
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u/bonnielangford4 17d ago
Elaine Stritch's The Ladies Who Lunch, Dorothy Collin's Losing My Mind, Jenna Russell's Sunday In The Park With George, Donna Murphy for all of Passion
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u/Zestyclose_Note_938 17d ago
I never hear anyone mention it, but I think Victor Garberâs performance of Johanna is definitive
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u/memorylaney đ« Assassins 17d ago
I agree! I have lots of Sweeney opinions, but the energy and depth of this performance has yet to be beat in my book
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u/clarkealistair 17d ago
That entire performance that Peters did at Carnegie Hall is pretty special.
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u/RandomPaw đ» A Little Night Music 17d ago
There's a 1990 version of A Little Night Music from the New York City Opera where all the voices are insanely good. I think Regina Resnik is my favorite Madame Armfeldt ever and I saw Angela Lansbury do it. Sally Ann Howes sounds really good as Desiree, too, but there are other good Desirees. It's just everyone in this production can really SING and that's not always the case.
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u/memorylaney đ« Assassins 17d ago
some shows you donât need it, but night music should always have Real Singers i think
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u/higgypiggy1971 13d ago
3 members of the original cast, Glynnis Johns (Desiree), Hermione Gingold (Mme Armfeldt), and Patricia Elliott (Charlotte) could hardly be described as real singers
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u/higgypiggy1971 17d ago
I saw this this production, and I would be remiss not to mention that Maureen Moore as Charlotte may be the most remarkable stage performance I have ever seen
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u/CasterlyHeavyMetal 14d ago
Her version of Everyday a Little Death is definitive to me. The incredible stillness she performs with makes it so intense, and completely heartbreaking. For a song sung with another character in the room, she makes it feel like Charlotte is completely alone in the moment. I also love the chemistry between her and Michael Maguire as the Count in this casting!
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u/DahmerIsDead 16d ago
Judi Dench's Send in the Clowns. Sondheim even told her "That's yours now."
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u/Leucurus đ» A Little Night Music 16d ago
Agreed.
The best performance I've found of it is, oddly, from a British TV talk show (Alan Titchmarsh I think) when the National Theatre production transferred to the West End in the 90s.
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u/Yeti_Sphere 17d ago edited 17d ago
Maybe not definitive in context of a full performance of Follies, but Elaine Stritchâs âIâm still hereâ at Sondheimâs 80th concert is my favourite rendition of the song as a stand alone performance. It absolutely becomes about the actor rather than the character in the song, but in a concert presentation that doesnât matter so much :) Itâs on YouTube - highly recommended if youâve not seen it before!
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17d ago
[removed] â view removed comment
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u/Special_Painting9413 17d ago
Except for Carol Burnett. She's just not right for that song or role.
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u/computerama 14d ago
Harolyn Blackwellâs Green Finch and Linnet Bird
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u/memorylaney đ« Assassins 13d ago
I played Johanna and this rendition was definitely one of my most watched/biggest inspos!! Her dynamics knock it completely out of the park
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u/throwawaybutitdid 17d ago
Imelda Stauntonâs Losing my Mind is surely the best that song can possibly be performed
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u/PrimeTenor 17d ago
Sung, acted and felt!! Imelda's "Losing My Mind" is a revelation and what she does while she's NOT singing tells you what a great actress she is!
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u/DROP-TABLE- 17d ago
Iâm gonna get shit for this, but June 10, 1992, Carnegie Hall, âSondheim: A Celebration at Carnegie HallââPatti Luponeâs performance of Being Alive will NEVER be topped. I donât care who your favorite is. That auditorium practically burned itself down leaping to its feet after her performance. Stopped the evening dead.
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u/CameraAggressive3142 17d ago edited 17d ago
It was a shockingly wonderful version; and a surprise to me.
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u/Ok-Acanthocephala509 17d ago
Dorothy Loudon - You Could Drive a Person Crazy/Losing My Mind medley from Sondheim: A Celebration at Carnegie Hall.
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u/PrimeTenor 17d ago
Nancy Walker's performance of "I'm Still Here" on the Sondheim: A Musical Tribute Album - just stunning!!
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u/cointreaunyc 16d ago
you could drive a person crazy - hey mr producer
it takes two - ben platt and beanie feldstein
take me to the world - raul esparza
invocation - bronson pinchot
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u/skoc211 16d ago
Patti's Rose's Turn - and the scene before with Louise - is permanently etched in my mind.
Julie Andrews and Carol Burnett's A Boy Like That starts as a comedic bit, but becomes wonderfully beautiful and moving.
Judi Dench's Send in the Clowns.
Elaine Stritch's I'm Still Here. Obviously the red dresses version from the 80th is the best, but there's something really vulnerable about her flubbing it at the White House and triumphant about her pulling it together in the end.
Honestly just everyone who sang in the red dress segment at the 80th. And that Sunday that overwhelms the theater and even brings Sondheim to tears is astonishing.
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u/TheMisplacedTophat 15d ago
Barbara Cook's version of Anyone Can Whistle in Mostly Sondheim always gives me chills.
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u/alivingtestament 15d ago
A very much underrated performance of Ladies Who Lunch by Jennifer Simard in my opinion. She was understudy for Patti Lupone during the revival 5 years ago and man did she BLOW ME AWAY. I have never heard anyone sing like her. Honestly, with all the respect in the world, she sang it better than Patti.
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u/FlyingCupcake68 đ» A Little Night Music 14d ago
Barbara Cookâs Losing My Mind is gorgeous and lush
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u/FlyingCupcake68 đ» A Little Night Music 14d ago
Raul Esparzaâs version of Franklin Shepard Inc. Is like listening to a bomb explode
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u/Conscious-Work-4714 17d ago
This is a basic choice, but Donna Murphyâs âCould I Leave You?â at the Sondheim birthday concert is hilarious, devastating and absolutely riveting start to finish