RIP Stephen Sondheim

[Al Sisti]

Can't let the day go by without giving a heartfelt thank you to the absolutely brilliant Stephen Sondheim, who passed away yesterday at 91. His music and lyrics stand in a class all their own; breaking the rules and creating new ones (I think I read that Lin-Manuel Miranda cited him as an inspiration for his musicals). He also wrote one of my favorite whodunnits -- The Last of Sheila -- and we all probably know him too as a gifted cryptic setter. RIP, sir... may your memory and works stay with us forever.

[Wendy Walker]

Hear, hear, Al! My sister introduced me to his music when she was in high school in the 1970s, and I fell in love hard with Follies, Company, and A Little Night Music. Well I remember the time her Drama Club pal Bob Keilbaugh performed on over-the-top "Broadway Baby" while standing on the diving board at a party.

[Meg]

He was 26 when he wrote the lyrics for West Side Story.
I like the isle of Manhattan
Smoke on your pipe and put that in!

[Al Sisti]

He was 26 when he wrote the lyrics for West Side Story.
I like the isle of Manhattan
Smoke on your pipe and put that in!

Strangely enough, I watched "tick...tick...BOOM!" last night, based on Jonathan Larson's autobiographical musical, and Stephen Sondheim (someone playing him) was in it. And it also had a really cool scene in a song called "Sunday," with cameos from Lin-Manuel Miranda, Pippa Soo and Renee Elise Goldsberry (the Schuyler sisters from Hamilton), Chita Rivera, Joel Grey, Bernadette Peters, Adam Pascal, Bebe Neuwirth and more that I'm forgetting.

[auee89]

He was 26 when he wrote the lyrics for West Side Story.
I like the isle of Manhattan
Smoke on your pipe and put that in!

Strangely enough, I watched "tick...tick...BOOM!" last night, based on Jonathan Larson's autobiographical musical, and Stephen Sondheim (someone playing him) was in it. And it also had a really cool scene in a song called "Sunday," with cameos from Lin-Manuel Miranda, Pippa Soo and Renee Elise Goldsberry (the Schuyler sisters from Hamilton), Chita Rivera, Joel Grey, Bernadette Peters, Adam Pascal, Bebe Neuwirth and more that I'm forgetting.

We watched this as well on Saturday. Very cool. RIP Mr. Sondheim. Six by Sondheim is a fantastic documentary by HBO. Bought it and watched it many times.

[Bird Lives]

He was 26 when he wrote the lyrics for West Side Story.
I like the isle of Manhattan
Smoke on your pipe and put that in!

FWIW, Sondheim was not happy with any of those lyrics except for one or two songs (Jet song was one, I think). I can see why. A lot of them are no better than all right.

[Bird Lives]

I am often on the verge of tears when I hear certain Sondheim songs, not because of the particular emotional content of the song, or not only because of that, but because it just gets to me that someone can do something so well. I haven't seen all his shows, but I am one of the few people who saw the original production of "Merrily." (I saw it in previews.)

Long ago, I constructed a crossword -- 15 x 15 with three 15-letter entries. The center one was STEPHEN SONDHEIM. I can't recall what the other two were. I sent it to the NYT. Will Shortz rejected it because (IIRC) it was not of sufficient general interest.

[MikeM000]

Am I wrong in thinking that when I was a kid and had no idea of his importance to American culture, there was a big profile of him in GAMES Magazine centered on his love of puzzles and which included at least one crossword and other "variety puzzles" (to use the term from this board - dont' know if that is an industry standard term) that he created? And maybe he has had a couple crosswords published in the NYT since then? (Will Shortz was editor of GAMES back in the era I'd be talking about here, BTW.)

[Bird Lives]

... included at least one crossword and other "variety puzzles" (

The puzzles that he created for New York Magazine are here. http://blogfott.blogspot.com/2014/07/pu ... ether.html.

[boharr]

See the new Fill Me In. fmi323

[MikeM000]

https://slate.com/culture/2021/12/steph ... story.html

(Nice article; Contains a link to the GAMES feature I mentioned above...)

[SReh26]

We loved West Side Story.

“Anita no. You should know better. You were in love. Or so you said…”