Read an interesting piece from The Wall Street Journal on Stephen Sondheim, which suggests he now deserves a Nobel Prize after winning many other accolades and now at the age of 91. If nothing else, Sondheim demonstrates artistic geniuses don’t necessarily die young. The article describes him as “America’s greatest living writer.”
The article says, unlike some other successful Broadway writers, he was “drawn to complex emotions and adult situations that require shades of gray and sometimes turn dark.” Sondheim himself has written of “a tonic in things men do not wish to hear.” He achieved early success before 30 with lyrics for West Side Story and Gypsy. The article says he has a literary sensibility of “urbane skepticism and disillusionment” akin to Joan Didion and John Updike, an example being the main character of Company who is “paralyzed” by romantic options.
Sondheim is a lifelong New Yorker, a city which took over for Paris as “the cultural capital of the free world” following World War II but which became somewhat dysfunctional in the 60s and 70s (see the movie Escape from New York). His lyrics have been described as “cold,” and the article says they are more characteristic of a novel than musical theater. One of his best-known songs is “Send in the Clowns” (multiple versions available on YouTube) from the 1973 play A Little Night Music, which, the article says, shows “self-contempt beneath a proud front.”
The article mentions Sondheim shows a “combination of irreverence and moralism.” One of his best-know plays is “Into the Woods,” which combines characters from fairy tales like Jack and the Bean Stock, Little Red Riding Hood, and Cinderella and poses the question: “what happens when we get what we want?” One of my grad school classmates remarked that you’re disappointed either way. Sondheim’s point, the article says, seems to be there is no “happily ever after” in life, and it describes him as the “greatest realist of musical theater.” He portrays people as “self-destructive, conflicted, and vain but also capable of insight, forgiveness, and laughter.”