Digital Theatre, the online initiative in which major theatrical productions are recorded live and then made available for download via their website at www.digitaltheatre.com, have announced that their next three releases will [include] the production of Sondheim and Lapine’s Into the Woods that played at the Open Air Theatre, Regent’s Park.
Into the Woods is currently available for pre-order from £6.99.
Sondheim shares life experiences
At age 79, Sondheim has no shortage of stories, from writing “West Side Story” with Lenny Bernstein in “the smallest, darkest room,” to Hepburn banging on his door at 2 a.m. barefoot in 35 degree weather demanding he stop rehearsals. He does not sing his own songs in the shower, and he said he believes that he solves his writing problems while sleeping. And as far as he is concerned, there is no difference between Sunday and the other days of the week, except that’s the one day he reserves to eat bagels and lox.
Publicity still from a Hong Kong production of Sunday in the Park with George
From New York magazine, five cultural luminaries sit at Sardi’s and argue about what is the Greatest Musical Ever. Sondheim isn’t at the table, but he certainly haunts the discussion.
Matthew Bourne saw Angela in Gypsy when he was 13. It’s the best performance he’s ever seen.
[Sondheim] was tickled, once, while walking through Greenwich Village, to see “a guy came along the street wearing a muscle T-shirt, very tight. And on the front it said, “off to the gym, then to a fitting”. It is a line from “The Ladies Who Lunch”, from Company, which “became a sort of catchphrase among show queens”. His best lyrics are those that involve an ironic reversal or plunge from one register to another; “The Ladies Who Lunch”, an ostensibly frivolous piece, turns with a sharp, dark twist into a woman calling time on her own usefulness. The point, he says, is that you can’t second guess what will be popular. “I’ve never thought for one minute, oh this line, oh this dissonance is going to turn this audience off. I’d better change it. Not once. That’s a fool’s game. To try to prejudge while you’re writing is a waste of time.”
