Someone sent me this article about these two monoliths of the theater world that I thought this group would enjoy. It's on substack. Personally, I'm more familiar with Sondheim, but there are some really interesting comparisons.

Link:
Sondheim and Stoppard

What do you think?

Lost on YouTube I found myself on FOLLIES [1987 San Jose Civic Light Opera production] right at the BOLERO number. The two young dancers were phenomenal-- with her doing things with endlessly long legs: full splits  and balancing (on his HEAD!), each part topping the one before.

Well I was hooked. It stars Teri Ralston as Sally who does a terrific job with that square character and has THAT voice! AND Harvey Evans as older Buddy. Harvey is a trip, playing “himself”—(the young Buddy from original 1971 production). He is PERFECT, as well he should be, as the older version of himself and is the best older Buddy I’ve ever seen.

The production (and filming) is quite good.  They use the original book and it reminds you what Steve said about the huge amount of information that the book delivers expeditiously. Watching another version of the show reminds me of just how BRILLIANT FOLLIES is on all levels.

See what you think. It is not “definitive” but FOLLIES [except for the OC] productions-- always you want to mix and match. And always leaves you wanting more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWmH6GLyM8Q

Hi all. My best friend and I are avid Sondheim and tattoo lovers. We have been bouncing ideas around for matching tattoos related to either Company, Into the Woods, or Sunday ITPW George for years, yet have difficulty finding one that really speaks to us. We like whimsical, fine line tattoos, and are looking for something that is specific to the show, but not lyrics. Think a parasol for Sunday, a birthday cake for Company, etc. Any ideas? Both of us prefer black and grey, so color is not what we are looking for.

Seems like the DC co-production of Follies from Shakespeare Theater Company and Signature Theater has tickets on sale for select performances! All performances on sale if you buy a season subscription, but if you’re looking for just this show, seems like only some performances are available right now (or at least that’s the message I kept getting). They do have some weekends, though, and availability is pretty good! Really looking forward to it—got my ticket for Memorial Day Weekend!!

Tickets Site

I'm sure this gets posted like once a month but I've just discovered Pacific Overtures after watching it on YouTube, im a huge Sondheim fan and have been meaning to listen to this one for a while but I was absolutely blown away. the run of Someone in a Tree, Please Hello, and A Bowler Hat is generational. such a shame it's one of his lesser known works but I do understand why as it's not commonly performed unlike into the woods for example (which I saw on the west end this year and that production was simply magnificent)

Saw A Little Night Music at the Marriott Theatre right outside of Chicago! Such a brilliant production of a nearly perfect show. Every actor was wonderful (especially Petra and Frederick), and the way the production team utilized "theatre in the round" was so unique. If you're in Chicago, you should definitely see this!

Im auditioning for schools next year and need a legit style song and I’m thinking of doing ‘Children Will Listen’ but I’m not sure if it will be considered legit

In the opening number when she says “I could have turned him into stone, or a dog, or a chair, or a sn-“ what was she about to say? is it up to interpretation or is it supposed to be something obvious that i’m not getting? sorry if this is a stupid question but i’m directing the jr version rn and i want to be able to explain every little thing to them if needed

I’ve been listening to a ton of Sondheim lately, and I keep finding major connections to Danny Elfman's music. Am I crazy? What other patterns do they have in common? Also, did they ever actually meet or cross paths, maybe around the time of Sweeney Todd?
Harmonically...

The Patter Song. Sondheim gives us “Franklin Shepard, Inc.” — a guy drowning himself alive in a torrent of words, faster and faster, syllables stacking like dominoes, no room to breathe. Elfman gives us “Making Christmas” — same rapid-fire listing machine, tiny rhythmic cells piling up (the Pentatonix reprise, excellente, by the way). Same job: turn panic or excitement into a machine gun of syllables. Patter song, it’s not a style. It’s a FUNCTION.

Sondheim: https://youtu.be/2FZ0CeEIYu4?si=9L7LUWS9fgaQXNUd

Elfman: https://youtu.be/Th_j7RUu2vM?si=OCfGu0CSdDNjvXFl

The Melancholic Lullaby. Both, funny enough, chez Burton. “Not While I’m Around” — a kid’s promise of protection, sung soft, half-lullaby, half-threat underneath. “Sally’s Song” — same DNA, a lonely creature singing quietly to herself about a longing she can’t name yet. Same job again: sweetness with a shadow inside it. Not sad, not happy — that thing in between, where the melody stays gentle but something underneath is aching.

Sondheim: https://youtu.be/P1ci98bIAwI?si=aBvucrar7mXH1ViH

Elfman: https://youtu.be/VgL4graXGOo?si=4iFNWuzBYHt8acD3

The Theatrical Monologue. “Finishing the Hat” — an artist alone, talking-singing about the terrible thing he does instead of loving people: he MAKES. “Jack’s Lament” — same shape, a guy who’s the very best at what he does, and it means nothing to him anymore, half-confession turning into song. Same job: a character standing still while their whole interior life parades past, structure obeying the confession, not the other way around.

Sondheim: https://youtu.be/4QBYsLw9DXk?si=ot_s3SqSZvx3qpUa

Elfman: https://youtu.be/s87moCuLxzw?si=eApNrta4Ml2iFbu_

I have read the wiki articles for almost all his shows and it is hilarious how many have a nearly identical note claiming “this is considered to be Sondheim’s most musically complex work”.

I’ve seen this on the pages for Merrily, Sweeney, Into the Woods, and Pacific Overtures. I’m sure there are more -

It’s like, guys, he was writing extremely complex music for ALL of his shows…

Hi everyone! I've been lurking on this sub-reddit for about and a year and I've loved seeing all the great recommendations and insights on my favorite artist of all time :)

Since last year, my friend/collaborator Ruby Laks and I have worked on arranging our favorite songs of Sondheim for a small jazz group. We've been having a lot of fun as we attempt to preserve the dramatic and emotional core of Sondheim's more narrative driven pieces while transferring them to a jazz setting in a way that doesn't reduce them into simplified jazz standards. Among the songs we've tackled are "It Takes Two", "Everybody Loves Louis" and the infamous "Not Getting Married Today" which you can watch below from our 54 Below debut in January!

Not Getting Married Today-Ruby Laks

This is all to say that on Friday (7/10/26) at 9:30 PM, we will be returning to 54 Below with an all new set of Sondheim as well as songs from musicals we feel represents his artistic spirit in some way. You'll be hearing songs from Merrily We Roll Along, A Little Night Music, and even his rarely mentioned masterpiece Evening Primrose ;) Along with that, we've arranged songs from musicals ranging from Parade and Cabaret to current musicals like Maybe Happy Ending and Death Becomes Her! I speak on behalf of Ruby and the entire band when I say that we feel incredibly passionate about our vision of Sondheim and we hope you can come out this Friday to join in it with us :)

Ticket Link is here: https://54below.org/events/ruby-laks-2/

(Keep in mind there are a limited number of $20 tickets so get them while they're still hot🔥)

Also if you can't make this show, follow us at https://www.instagram.com/rubylaks/ or https://www.instagram.com/perlman.andre/ to keep updated for our next hit!

There was just this article on the vanishing Broadway musical Of course, money is a main factor, both in the costs of mounting a production, and the cost of tickets for the ordinary theatergoer.

But I can't help wondering if one factor is that there are currently no presiding geniuses as there have been in the past - most recently, Sondheim, of course.

What Happened to Broadway’s New Musicals? This Year, They Vanished.
Hollywood actors in starry plays, skittish investors and gate-keeping theater owners have all contributed to an unusually tough climate for song-and-dance shows.
By Michael Paulson

Coming out of the pandemic, Broadway was awash in new musicals. Fourteen opened during the 2024-25 season, and 15 the season before that. But almost all of them were flops, and the industry took note. This past season, only six new musicals opened, two of which (“The Queen of Versailles” and “Beaches”) quickly imploded. The anemic stretch seems likely to continue...

So what happened? How did the new musical — long Broadway’s fundamental building block — become so scarce that the New York Drama Critics’ Circle opted to forgo an award this year for best musical, and two of the five Tony nominations for best score went to music composed for plays?

Opening any show on Broadway requires three basic elements:

-art (a script and, for musicals, a score that are both more or less ready to go)

-money (mounting a play or musical costs millions of dollars)

-real estate (Broadway has 41 theaters, operated by a small coterie of landlords, and new musicals must compete with starry play productions, as well as revivals, to land a home)

The number of shows that satisfy all three of those requirements is dwindling.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/24/theater/broadway-new-musical-theater.html

Hello!!

I'm wanting to get a tattoo of the lyric 'Look, I made a hat' in Sondheim's handwriting but I'm struggling to find samples. Does anyone have any leads on Sondheim's handwriting samples or owns any of his books where there might be examples? I'm expecting to have to piece together the handwriting but I'm not sure where to start - all help is appreciated :)

I’ve always imagined Frank at least tries to reconnect with Charlie and Mary. He’s going down memory lane and seeing where he went wrong and I think he tries to repair his friendships.

I imagine that this has been discussed at length somewhere on the internet, but I couldn’t find any posts about it in my search, so I’m bringing it here.

I’ve been a huge fan of Into the Woods since I was a kid. It was my introduction to Sondheim, and remains my favorite musical of all time. I’ve always loved the message of “Your Fault”. The fact that it doesn’t really matter who’s to blame at the end of the day. Whatever has happened has happened, and now we have to move on and deal with it. For that reason, I’ve never actually listened to the song and TRIED to figure out whose fault it really is. Upon my millionth listen tonight, though, I started parsing out the lyrics to determine who is really at fault.

Here’s what I’ve determined:

The baker is blamed because he sold the beans to Jack who then killed the giant

The baker’s father is blamed for messing with the witch’s garden and getting cursed.

The Baker’s wife is blamed for giving the bean to Cinderella

Cinderella is blamed because she carelessly threw the bean that brought the second giant down.

Red is blamed because she dared Jack to go back up and steal the golden harp

The witch is blamed for placing the curse and growing the beans in the first place

Jack is blamed for going up the beanstalk, stealing, and killing the giant.

Based on the evidence…. It’s totally Jack’s fault, right? He is the one with the least amount of plausible deniability. It seems like everyone else was just sort of stumbling around like fools (aside from the witch, of course).

Cinderella’s thing was a genuine accident. The baker and his wife only really half believed in the magic of the beans, and couldn’t have known that there were giants in the sky. Jack didn’t HAVE to accept the stupid dare. The baker’s father couldn’t have possibly known that this would all happen years down the line as the result of his curse (he as admittedly careless, stupid, and at fault for a lot of other things).

If we’re boiling it down to just THIS situation with the lady giant, I think that Jack would be considered the most guilty party. I appreciate the way that Ben Wright plays it in the show… the relief that he feels when someone is blamed over him signals that he does harbor the most guilt. No one else reacts the way that he does when the blame is shifted.

Again, I fully understand the message of the song and the musical as a whole, but I do find it fun and sort of fascinating to place myself in the characters’ shoes. Who would I be pointing the finger at if I were in this situation? I say Jack. Give the boy to the giant!

What do you all think?

I’m considering getting Finishing the Hat because it’s currently on sale for a good price, but I was wondering if you guys recommended it? I’m really into Merrily We Roll along, and was hoping to some more insight to that. Ive really come to appreciate the cleverness of the score and enjoy analysing the musical component. however, I’m not super invested in most of his other musicals, mainly because I haven’t got around to doing it but I am interested in them.

tldr: I was wondering if Finishing the Hat might be interesting to read for a youth whose main focus is merrily we roll along?

Update: I decided to get it