#WAY TO THE WOODS COMPOSER SERIES#

Aside from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, this is Sondheim’s most narratively intricate musical and, thus, a film adaptation was always going to be an unenviable endeavor. The attached audio story was produced by Bob Mondello.American composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods is a heavily interconnected musical, one not replete with showstopping numbers but a crisscrossing score that must weave between several fairy tales. I love the theater as much as music, and the whole idea of getting across to an audience and making them laugh, making them cry - just making them feel - is paramount to me.'Īnd the feelings he stirred in audiences will continue well beyond his death. 'I'm interested in the theater because I'm interested in communication with audiences,' Sondheim said. He said he was always keenly aware of making an impact with his writing. Like many other artists who are now considered masters, it took a while for Sondheim's shows to catch on, and for Sondheim to move from a cult figure to a cultural icon. Sunday in the Park with George, written with James Lapine, eventually migrated to Broadway, where it won a Pulitzer Prize - but again, it wasn't a commercial success. And that's the way theater should be done – just for the love of it.'

I mean, the lack of pressure, not having to worry about everything from budget to backers, and it was just fun to do. 'And, of course, it was such a pleasure, compared to doing it on Broadway. 'My first not-for-profit show was Sunday in the Park with George and that was because of Lapine,' Sondheim told Fresh Air. In fact, starting in the 1980s, Sondheim exclusively developed his work at not-for-profit theaters, a period that also saw the start of his collaborations with James Lapine. 'And they play all over the world and they're revived every five minutes, but they simply don't have that commercial traction, that even Hammerstein had back in the day.' 'Not a single show he ever wrote ran more than a thousand performances,' Maslon observes.

#WAY TO THE WOODS COMPOSER SERIES#

Laurence Maslon, who co-produced the PBS series Broadway, says their envelope-pushing work was never really commercial. The musical was originally directed by Hal Prince, one of Sondheim's most frequent collaborators. It's from his show A Little Night Music, which itself was a modest success. 'Send in the Clowns' was the only hit song Sondheim ever wrote. If you have a quarter note, there's a reason – the quarter note helps you express what you're feeling at that moment.' 'He writes as if he's an actor, as if he's playing the role. 'I always write after the librettist has started to write a scene or two,' Sondheim said, 'so that I can divine and imitate the style the writer is using, both in terms of dialogue and approach and getting to know the characters as he is forming them.'Īnd that specificity made performers like Bernadette Peters love his work. He told WHYY's Fresh Air in 2010 that before he wrote a bar of music or came up with a rhyme, he needed to consult the show's script. Sondheim was notoriously painstaking in his craft – and actually published two large books featuring his lyrics and explaining his writing process. 'He kept it fresh, interesting, figuring out new ways, to, you know, muck around with it for each show.' 'Perhaps no one more than Sondheim contributed to just keeping the form alive of what had been the classic Broadway musical. Frank Rich is a columnist for New York Magazine and former drama critic for The New York Times. Over the course of a career which stretched for more than 60 years, Sondheim received both critical praise and brickbats for his adventurous work.

Way to the woods composer