A Night With Stephen Sondheim in Minneapolis

"What's more important, to be admired or to be liked?"

This was the first question poised to Stephen Sondheim at the Hennepin Theatre Trust's onstage conversation at the State Theatre in Minneapolis on March 5th. Without hesitation, Mr. Sondheim responded that it was more important to be liked, and that ultimately, what matters is for the audience to enjoy the show. Even so, it quickly became clear that he is someone who is, and deserves to be, both admired and liked.

For a little over an hour, Star Tribune arts critics Rohan Preston and Graydon Royce questioned Mr. Sondheim about his career, his life, and musical theatre as a whole. In response, Sondheim charmed and entertained the audience with his unapologetically honest and engaging opinions, experiences, and anecdotes. His humor and ease won the crowd's affection from the moment he stepped onto the stage.

Sondheim touched lightly on his upbringing, and talked extensively about the influence of his mentor and father-figure, Oscar Hammerstein II. Throughout the evening, conversation returned to the man who helped shape his interest in writing for the musical theatre and the lessons he learned from him, including the importance of failure as a learning tool and a willingness to ruthlessly cut songs that don't appropriately serve the musical as a whole.

Mr. Sondheim also touched on all aspects of his own writing. His music and lyrics are character-driven, he said, and he emphasized that a melody is just a series of notes, rather than a song, until it has harmony and that music must be written around the natural rhythm of the lyrics. He discussed the difference between opera and musical theatre-specifically, the difference in the audience's expectations-and why he prefers the latter, as well as the difficulty of adapting stage musicals for the screen. He talked at length about his collaborations with Hal Prince, Leonard Bernstein, Arthur Laurents, and James Lapine, among others, and talked about some of his favorite musical scores and his admiration for writers like Cole Porter and for the scores of shows like Porgy and Bess and Showboat.

When questioned about current trends in musical theatre, Sondheim spoke about the expense of producing a Broadway musical and said that due to the high costs, producers find reassurance in producing Disney or jukebox musicals that guarantee the audience already likes the score. The majority of the innovation, he said, is happening in places like off-Broadway and regional theatre, where production costs are smaller and new composers and lyricists are free to take more chances. He cited Spring Awakening and Next to Normal as examples of the few rare, recent musicals with original scores, and pointed out that they were able to find homes on Broadway because of successful runs off-Broadway first. He also discussed that because most writers of off-Broadway shows often cannot make a living with that kind of work, they're being lost from the musical Theatre World to jobs in television and the popular music industry. Again, he emphasized the importance learning through failure and experience, and mentioned how few new, young composers have the opportunity to fail multiple times before creating a Broadway-worthy hit.

One of the more poignant moments of the evening came when Mr. Sondheim discussed the importance of writing from love and passion. He talked about Do I Hear a Waltz?, which is the one musical he had a hand in writing that is, in his words, "dead in the water" because it was written for the wrong reasons rather than from love and passion for the project and, in his opinion, it shows in the work. He also mentioned the impact of writing from a place of fondness versus cynicism and how important the attitude of the writer is in creating enjoyable work.

The evening ended with Mr. Sondheim echoing his initial sentiment. When asked what legacy he wanted to leave, he answered, "I just want people to enjoy my shows," prompting an eruption of applause from a clearly appreciative audience.

"Stephen Sondheim: A Life in the Theatre" was the first event in Hennepin Theatre Trust's Living Legend series. Future engagements in the series include Carol Burnett on April 14, Anthony Bourdain on April 23, and Alexander McCall Smith on April 26. For more information, visit http://www.hennepintheatretrust.org/

Photo credit Megan Fitzgerald