{"id":699,"date":"2011-11-06T21:44:57","date_gmt":"2011-11-07T02:44:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.craigperler.com\/blog\/?p=699"},"modified":"2024-06-06T23:26:14","modified_gmt":"2024-06-07T03:26:14","slug":"perler-on-sondheim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.craigperler.com\/blog\/2011\/11\/06\/perler-on-sondheim\/","title":{"rendered":"Perler on Sondheim"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I don’t get a lot of Stephen Sondheim<\/a>‘s music.\u00a0 His lyrics are certainly impressive and witty, and though my former professor of musical theater Steve Swayne<\/a> (Sondheim expert) might throw his hands up at the statement, I nevertheless have trouble digesting\u00a0a good chunk of Sondheim’s music.\u00a0I had trouble sitting through shows such as Into the Woods<\/em>, Sunday in the Park…,<\/em> and The Frogs<\/em> – the interplay of musical themes is there, and they make sense, but the themes themselves never really resonated with me.\u00a0Yet, for every ten oddly discordant or unmelodic Sondheim songs, there’s one that stands out as tremendous.\u00a0When Sondheim does a good song right, it’s really right – and these songs completely justify Sondheim’s success and relevance in the culture of American musical theater<\/a>.\u00a0Here are a few of my favorites…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprisingly for most, Sondheim wrote some of the music to the movie, Dick Tracy<\/em> (starring Warren Beatty and Madonna). And this entire soundtrack is pretty good. Following Spiderman’s Broadway debut, there was some discussion on the web<\/a> about producing Dick Tracy on stage. Why not?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“What Can You Lose?” from Dick Tracy<\/em><\/strong>
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