A song list has been announced for Sondheim Sings II, the
second volume of newly-remastered demos from the private collection of
the man who is arguably Broadway's greatest-living composer/lyricist. The CD will be released by PS Classics on October 25th.
Whereas
the first CD, which encompassed the years 1962-1972, highlighted
Sondheim's private renditions of songs that were mostly known to fans,
the second will focus on rarities from the Sondheim trunk, "material
Sondheim wrote in college, or for early and often unproduced
professional productions, or for the amusement
of friends and colleagues in the 1950s," stated Philip Chaffin, a board
member and A&R Director of PS Classics. "I consider myself as much
a
Sondheim fan as the next person, but most of this material was totally
unfamiliar to me." Sondheim Sings II will
most likely feature 20 tracks, and a part of the CD's proceeds will
benefit Young Playwrights, Inc., which Sondheim founded for young
creative talents in the theatre world.Peter E. Jones,
Sondheim's archivist, will produce the CD for PS Classics. He also
serves on the board of the label, which has released the revival cast
albums of Assassins and Pacific Overtures as well as the Broadway cast recording of The Frogs.
The
career of Stephen Sondheim has spanned almost 50
years since his Broadway debut in 1957 as the lyricist of West Side Story. After also penning the lyrics to Gypsy (with a return to mere lyric-writing for 1965's Do I Hear a Waltz?), Sondheim
went on to write the scores for a litany of shows that challenged
musical theatre conventions in theme, content and structure. Among his
shows are A
Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Anyone Can Whistle,
Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Pacific Overtures, Sweeney
Todd, Merrily We Roll Along, Sunday in the Park with George, Into the
Woods, Assassins and Passion. His latest musical, Bounce, closed out of town in DC before making it to Broadway but an expanded, limited-run production of 1974's The Frogs bowed last year at Lincoln Center.The track listings are:
1. "You're Only as Old as You Look" (1955)
2. "Do I Hear a Waltz?" (from Do You Hear a Waltz?, 1960)
3. "Pour le Sport" (from The Last Resorts, 1956)
4. "Men" (from By George, 1946)
5. Steve Greets Ockie 1 (1943)
6. "What to Do at George School" (from By George)
7. "How Do I Know?" (from Phinney's Rainbow, 1948)
8. When I Get Famous (from Climb High, 1952)
9. "A Star Is Born" (1954)
10. "I Remember That" (from Saturday Night, 1953)
11. "In No Time At All"/"A Moment With You" (from Saturday Night)
12. "New York Song" (from The Clock, 1953)
13. "The Girls of Summer" (from The Girls of Summer, 1956)
14. "I Wouldn't Change a Thing" (from The Last Resorts)
15. "Ten Years Old" (from The Fabulous Fifties, 1960)
16. "High Life" (from The Last Resorts)
17. "Where Do I Belong?" (from Climb High)
18. "Bitterness" (from By George)/"Steve Greets Ockie 2"
In the last track, "Steve Greets Ockie 2," the latter name refers to Sondheim's mentor Oscar Hammerstein II. Owners of the CD will hear Sondheim deliver a Christmas greeting to Hammerstein. The message was recorded in 1943, the year that Oklahoma! opened and changed the face of musical theatre.