I'm guessing if Playbill hasn't reported, there's not much to tell, but just in case. Have there been any updates on the new musical by Sondheim? Last report said it was called "All Together Now" and the book was by Mamet, I believe. I can't wait to finally have him back.
He broke his wrist recently, and told an Australian radio interviewer he couldn't even pick up a pen, let alone play the piano, for a while, but that before that, work was progressing nicely.
At the restaurant bar across the street of City Center (before a performance of Uncle Vanya) last summer, I overheard (i.e. ease dropped) him saying he was hard working on his new project. He seemed particularly excited about it (as did I).
When did he break his hand? I saw him before the benefit performance of Assassins and he was clearly writing something in a book.
Last month he did a talkback in Australia. "All Together Now" is to be based on Ives' play "Sure Thing". Sondheim had, at that stage, written the opening number and half of a second. He was also searching for new ways to procrastinate after he recovers.
How the hell are you going to turn the basically plotless "Sure Thing" into a musical? I trust you Steve but I am really curious to know what about this piece called to him.
This is really funny to me, considering Sondheim already had a script for All Together Now by Terrence McNally going back to the early Nineties. If he's suddenly decided an adaptation of the Ives play is a better way to go, fine, but why throw out what sounds like a completely workable book?
I've never had the nerve to tell SS this, but I think he and Edward Albee should write a show together. But Albee might be a musical-hater for all we know. But who could hate Sondheim?!
I rewatched Groundhog Day over the weekend and was struck by the something, Sondheim has said for years he's wanted to adapt this into a musical and now I see why he's picked Ives to do this, even if it's not officially "Groundhog Day."
There's a montage in the middle that is almost exactly "Sure Thing" beat for beat. Bill Murrey spends his "day" with Andy Mcdowell and every time he says something that rubs her the wrong way the scene starts over with him correcting his faux pas. I think Sondheim is very attracted to this and found a way to do Groundhog Day without having to worry about adaptation.
joined:8/25/11
Posted: 12/30/12 at 03:48pm