VOLUME 22

C R I T I C I S M

Stephen Sondheim1930-

(Full name Stephen Joshua Sondheim) Americancomposer, lyricist, and scriptwriter.

The following entry presents criticism on Sondheim'sdramatic works from 1978 through 2002.

INTRODUCTION

Widely considered to be one of the foremost composersand lyricists of modern musicals, Sondheim hasrevolutionized American musical theater, although hiswork has been only moderately successful at the boxoffice. His productions typically include themes of disil-lusionment, despair, and disappointment—elements thatwere rarely incorporated into musicals before his era. Inhis work, Sondheim has spurned such long-standingtraditions of musical theater as catchy melodies andlinear plots, and instead worked introspective andthematic material into his compositions. Some criticshave characterized his lyrics as stylistically sophisti-cated, while others have deemed them cold andunromantic. However, most drama scholars agree thatSondheim's innovative stagings, alternative dramaticresolutions, and explicit commentary on prominentsocial issues have expanded the possibilities for musicaltheater.

BIOIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION^

Born on March 22, 1930, Sondheim was the only childof an affluent New York City couple. His father was asuccessful clothing manufacturer and skilled pianist,and his mother was a talented dress designer. Sond-heim's parents divorced when he was ten years old.Many critics consider Sondheim's dysfunctionalrelationship with his mother to be a major source ofdark themes regarding love and marriage apparent inmuch of his work. Sondheim and his mother movedfrom New York to a farm in Bucks County, Pennsylva-nia, three miles from the family of Oscar HammersteinII, a renowned Broadway composer and lyricist, withwhom he eventually became acquainted. As theirrelationship deepened, Hammerstein became a surrogatefather figure for Sondheim, encouraging the boy'sdeveloping musical ability and influencing his laterwork. After two years at the New York MilitaryAcademy, Sondheim completed his secondary education

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at a Quaker boarding school and entered Williams Col-lege. Upon graduation in 1950, he accepted a two-yearfellowship that allowed him to study with composerMilton Babbitt, another major influence on his work,and later moved to live with his father in New YorkCity. There he met many influential artists who helpedhim to launch his career, including composer andconductor Leonard Bernstein, who hired him to writelyrics for West Side Story in 1957. After completing thelyrics for Gypsy (1960), Sondheim composed his firstoriginal musical score and wrote the lyrics for the 1962production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way tothe Forum. In 1970 he collaborated with George Furthand Harold Prince to produce Company, which garnerednational attention. In 1990 Sondheim accepted a visit-ing professorship at Oxford University, where helectured on musical theater. In 1999 he premiered Satur-day Night, a musical he wrote in 1955. Sondheim haswon more Tony Awards than any other composer. Otherawards for his work include the 1985 Pulitzer Prize forDrama for Sunday in the Park with George (1984),

270

Sommer, Scott 1951- CLC 25See also CA 106

Sommers, Christina Hoff 1950- CLC 197See also CA 153; CANR 95

Sondh£im^Stephen 1930- .. CLC 30, 39, 147;(DC 22 ;Sfe-atecfAAYA 11, 66; CA 103; CANR 47,

67, 125; DAM DRAM; DPS 25, 27, 28;LAIT4

Sondheim, Stephen JoshuaSee Sondheim, Stephen

Sone, Monica 1919- AALSee alsoDLB 312

Song, Cathy 1955- AAL; PC 21See also CA 154; CANR 118; CWP; DLB

169, 312; EXPP; FW; PFS 5, 43

*99

^Saturday Night (musical) 1999Bounce (musical) 2003

*This musical was originally written in 1955.

GENERAL COMMENTARY

Thomas P. Adler (essay date winter 1978)

U i/ SOURCE: Adler, Thomas P. "The Musical Dramas of/ \v s( Stephen Sondheim: Some Critical Approaches." Journal

(1 |V of Popular Culture 12, no. 3 (winter 1978): 513-25.

[In the following essay, Adler utilizes a number of criti-cal approaches, including generic, formalist, andthematic, to assess Sondheim's dramatic philosophy aswell as his contribution to American musical theater.]

In 1974 Stephen Sondheim and Burt Shevelove col-laborated on a musical adaptation of The Frogs, whichdoes for Aristophanes pretty much what they had donefor Plautus eight years earlier in A Funny Thing Hap-pened on the Way to the Forum. In it, Dionysos believ-ing that we "lack passion"1 in our lives, journeys toHades to bring Shaw back to earth; but after hearing alively competition between him and Shakespeare, Di-onysos decides that, instead of Shaw, who "stand[s] forthe great abstractions: conscience, virtue, integrity" (TF[The Frogs], p. 116) what the world and theatre mostneed is "a poet . . . to lift [them] out of their seats"(TF, p. 120) so that they will be actively inspired to dosomething about salvaging the earth they have abused.hi lyrics to a song entitled "The Sound of Poets" thatmight well express their writer's own artistic credo, theChorus charges the poet to

Bring a sense of purpose,Bring the taste of words,

DRAMA CRITICISM^Vni2:

Bring the sound of wit,Bring the feel of passion,Bring the glow of thoughtTo the darkening earth.

(TF, p. 124)

These are all things that Sondheim, the single mostimportant force in the American musical theatre duringthe 1960s and 1970s, has achieved since that nighttwenty years ago when New York audiences first heardhis lyrics in the revolutionary dance musical West SideStory. And if the myopic critics did not even mentionhis name the next morning in their notices, they havehad numerous occasions since then to remedy theiroversight in reviewing the nine other shows that Sond-heim has been creatively involved in either as lyricist oras lyricist/composer—including Company, Follies andA Little Night Music, for which he won an unprec-edented three successive Tony Awards. In this paper Iwill test out a number of critical approaches—generic,formalist, thematic—in an attempt to assess Sondheim'scontribution to the musical as a form, focusing particu-larly on those shows (usually done in collaboration withproducer/director Hal Prince) that depart most markedlyfrom the integrated book musical epitomized by Rodg-ers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! and South Pacific. Iwould argue, ultimately, that Sondheim is distinctamong writers for the American musical stage, in thathe has a philosophy, an ideology that he continuallyexpresses and deepens throughout his musicals and thatraises them above the realm of popular entertainment—though they are, happily, still that—and places themamong those works for the American stage that can besaid to have not only artistic merit but a literary valueas well. This is not to suggest that there were no "seri-ous" musicals before Sondheim—for we can go back asfar as Kern, Hammerstein and Ferber's Showboat or theGershwin's Porgy and Bess or Blitzstein's The CradleWill Rock for these; or that no composer/lyricist hadever before developed a distinctive style—for the urbanesophistication tinged with skepticism that Cole Porterdisplayed to the nth degree is that; or that no team hadever before expressed a recurring outlook on lifethrough a number of shows—for we can point to theoptimistic faith in man found in such Rodgers and Ham-merstein songs as "You'll Never Walk Alone," fromCarousel and "Climb Every Mountain," from The Soundof Music for that. But all these are something quite dif-ferent from consistently embodying and refining severalthemes as Sondheim does.

The integrated book musical which, in theory anyway,ideally permits only those songs that either advance theplot or reveal character, is an extension or outgrowth ofthe representational, illusion-of-reality drama thatdominated the American stage at least until the begin-ning of World War n (and is still a potent force today).Yet when we acknowledge that no matter how "realistic"

272

Sweeney Agonistes: Fragments of anAristophanic Melodrama ( Eliot) 28:6, 12,

14, 18,58,99Sweeney in the Trees (Saroyan) 28:130Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet

Street (Sondheim ) 22:279, 281, 284, 287,289-90, 292, 294, 2,97, 299, 302, 314-15,318-20, 324*331-34,^36

Sweet Bird of Fo^FIWilliams) 4:375-76, 383,393,418'

Sweet Charity (Simon) 14:335Sweet Eros (McNally) 27:48Sweet Smell of Success (Guare) 20:116The Sweet Smell of Success (Odets) 6:217Swimming to Cambodia (Gray) 7:24-36, 42-4The Swing (Bond) 45:12Swords (Howard) 42:177, 180Sylvae (Dryden) 3:158Sympathetic Magic (Wilson) 19:376-77Synaristosai (Menander) 3:346

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Sondheim has got great satisfaction from the extendedsequences in Pacific Overtures, Sweeney Todd andSunday in the Park with George (his 1985 show). Helikes to pull together the recurring melodic and lyriccells in his music. 'It satisfies both things that I demand,linear dramatic development and song. One thing I findalienating about most operas is the endlessness ofcertain sequences that go past their dramatic value. Itmay be fine for an audience that is there to wonder atwhat the human voice can do. But I am very textoriented. I won't sit through an evening just to hear avoice. It has to be the voice and a drama that I can getinto.'

SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBEROF FLEET STREET

CRITICAL COMMENTARY

Alfred Mollin (essay date winter 1991)

SOURCE: Mollin, Alfred. "Mayhem and Morality inSweeney Todd." American Music 9, no. 4 (winter 1991):405-17.

L«i the following essay, Mollin asserts that although themain characters of Sweeney Todd have different "mo-tlves that prompt them to their common venture" innrass murder, the play "reveals the terms upon whichln?se disparate characters can unite without sacrificing

individual perspectives."]

SONDHEIM

The two principal characters of Sweeney Todd1 conspirein mass murder. However, the motives that prompt themto their common venture differ considerably, and thesedifferences make intelligible much of the play'sdramatic movement. The play reveals the terms uponwhich these disparate characters can unite withoutsacrificing their individual perspectives; at the culmina-tion of the drama, both are presented as punished, inappropriately different ways, for their complicity.

I

The story opens with Benjamin Barker's return toLondon under the pseudonym "Sweeney Todd." Forfifteen years, he had been imprisoned in a penal colonybecause of false charges by Judge Turpin, who hadcoveted Sweeney's wife, Lucy. But with the fortuitousassistance of Anthony, a young sailor, Sweeney hasescaped.

Sweeney is bitter about his unjust imprisonment. Heexpresses his contempt for the society that allows suchinjustices to occur,2 and he is cynical about the abilityof a good man to prosper. But these passions do notinitially prompt him to plan acts of revenge. The mat-ters of his primary concern are the circumstances of hiswife and his daughter, Johanna.

An old acquaintance, Nellie Lovett, proprietor of a lo-cal meat pie shop, shatters Sweeney's hopes with hertale of the merciless evils perpetrated by Judge Turpinand his Beadle—Lucy's rape by the Judge, her takingof poison, and the Judge's subsequent adoption of Jo-hanna. Mrs. Lovett's tale leads to Sweeney's resolve toexact vengeance: "Let them quake in their boots—JudgeTurpin and the Beadle—for their hour has come" (19).

Sweeney is now ready to act, but his passion is focusedupon the two offending individuals. For him to becomea mass murderer, Sweeney's passionate resolve mustbecome generalized. This occurs only after the failureof Sweeney's initial plan for revenge.

Sweeney establishes a reputation as a "miraculousbarber" in order to lure the Judge and the Beadle ascustomers (75). Circumstances favor his plan. Johannahas displayed unexpected reluctance to the Judge'sproposal of marriage, a reluctance that is attributed bythe Beadle to the Judge's "looking less than [his] best"(74). The Judge subsequently pays a visit to Sweeney'sbarber shop, in order to increase his chances of successwith Johanna. Sweeney attributes the visit to divineworkings: "Providence is kind" (84). The Judge, seatedin the chair with Sweeney's razor at his throat, unwit-tingly provides Sweeney with his opportunity to exactvengeance. But Sweeney does not immediately inflictthe fatal cut, choosing to draw out the pleasure of hisrevenge. The apparent approbation by "Providence" of

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DillC R I T I C I S M

DRAMA CRITICIS SONDHEIM

Cornell, Drucilla. "What is Ethical Feminism?" In Ben-habib, 75-106.

Flax, Jane. Thinking Fragments: Psychoanalysis,Feminism, and Postmodernism in the ContemporaryWest. Berkeley: U of California P, 1990.

Fulk, Mark K., and Angela B. Howard. "What WeLaugh About When We Laugh About Sondheim's As-sassins." Popular Music and Society 19.3 (Fall 1995):105-23.Garber, Steven. The Fabric of Faithfulness: WeavingTogether Belief & Behavoir During the University Years.Downers Grove, IL: Inter Varsity P, 1996.Jones, Tom, and Harvey Schmidt. The Fantasticks. NewYork: Applause, 1964.

Maclntyre, Alistair. After Virtue: A Study in MoralTheory. Notre Dame: U of Notre Dame P, 1984.

Shrage, Laurie. Moral Dilemmas of Feminism: Prostitu-tion, Adultery, and Abortion. New York: Routledge,1994.

Sondheim, Stephen, and James Lapine. Into the Woods.New York: Theatre Communications Group, 1987.

Zadan, Craig. Sondheim and Co. 2nd ed. New York:Harper and Row, 1989.

FURTHER READING )̂Biography

Banfield, Stephen. Sondheim's Broadway Musicals. AnnArbor: University of Michigan Press, 1993, 453 p.

Biographical and critical study.

Criticism

Goodhart, Sandor, ed. Reading Stephen Sondheim: ACollection of Critical Essays. New York: GarlandPublishing, Inc., 2000, 280p.

Collection of critical essays.

Gordon, Joanne. Art Isn't Easy: The Achievement ofStephen Sondheim. Carbondale: Southern IllinoisUniversity Press, 1990, 343 p.

Full-lengtl^critical study of Sondheim's musicals.

Hirsch, Foster. Harold Prince and the American Musi-cal Theatre. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,1989, 187 p.

Describes Harold Prince's collaboration with Sond-heim. , .

f\f>^^'Kislan, Richard. "Stephen Sondheim." In The" Musical:A Look at the American Musical Theater, pp. 148-57.Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1980.

Evaluates Sondheim's dramatic achievement.

Sutton, Brian. "Sondheim and Lapine' s Into the Woods."Explicator 55, no. 4 (summer 1997): 233-36.

Applies William G. Perry Jr.'s theory of intellectualand ethical development to Into the Woods.

S wayne, Steve. "Music for the Theatre, the Young Cop-land, and the Younger Sondheim." American Music 20,no. 1 (spring 2002): 80-101.

Investigates the influence of the composer AaronCopland on Sondheim.

Additional coverage of Sondheim's life and career is contained in the following sources publishedby the Gale Group: Authors and Artists for Young Adults, Vol. 11; Contemporary Authors, Vol.103; Contemporary Authors New Revision Series, Vols. 47, 67; Contemporary Literary Criticism,Vols. 30, 39, 147; Discovering Authors Modules: Dramatists,; Literature and Its Times, Vol. 4; andLiterature Resource Center.