Sigh by Sigh by Sondheim

Los Angeles, California

Have I written about Company? I can't remember, so please indulge me while I write about it here and now. It was the theater piece that changed my life when its national touring company arrived at the Ahmanson theater in Los Angeles in the early 1970s.

At that time, as I was a young adult in college, my mom asked me if I wanted to continue to attend the Civic Light Opera Season with them at the Music Center. As a family, we had always had season tickets for this season going back to the old Philharmonic theater which was just off Pershing Square. I can still remember parking underneith the park and walking to that theater, even though I was very young at that time. After that, we had gone to see musicals at the Music Center; eating dinner on our way there, sometimes at the now-defunct Edward’s Steak House, which was on Alvarado.

I have always loved musicals. I cut my teeth on them. Even as a small child, and straight through until now, I have loved the smell of the theater; the sounds of the orchestra tuning up; the rustle of the audience settling in with their buzz of conversation. Back then, as now, I could be brought to tears by the sound of a familiar overture, and felt comfortable with the familiar structure of a Rogers & Hammerstein book (there is frequently a secondary storyline of a young couple whose love doesn't work out. Le sigh...). I was well-versed in this world. Then Company blew me away.

It was the first musical I experienced that felt very modern. I know Oklahoma holds that distinction, and I get that. But this was about modern relationships. It was about marriage, it was cynical, and I was in awe. I took my cousin and a girlfriend with me to see it again. It had a similar impact on me as did the Stanley Donen film Two for the Road. I was growing up and seeing adult relationships and marriage in a more realistic light. This was cementing my revelation that marriages weren't always happy. They weren't always about everlasting love. That sometimes people marry for other reasons or just not to be alone. My dad didn't like Company. He couldn't walk away from the theater whistling the songs. But I came away with so many thoughts turning over in my head. It was gourmet food for thought. And I loved the Sondheim score.

I had seen the film West Side Story when I was very young; had loved the film of Gypsy when I was a child, and still have affection for the rather odd but fun, very Richard Lester-like film rendition of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. But this was my first pure Sondheim musical and it started up my solid passion for his work. Recently I saw the documentary Six by Sondheim. They didn't pick the six I would have, but I found it riveting. Sondheim has an astounding capacity for articulating thought at lightening speed, without pausing or stammering. That was interesting. But his ability to conceptualize complex stories and scores is what grabs me. Do I find it exciting to see musicals which have helicopters landing on the stage or huge chandeliers crashing to the stage? I do. But those scores don't hold up for me. I listen to them a lot after I've seen the shows, but within a year or two they no longer interest me. Sondheim lives on for me. Always.

I've been listening a lot to my two favorite songs by Sondheim. They are Move On from my favorite Sondheim musical (though I've never seen it staged), Sunday in the Park with George. I loved hearing that Bernadette Peters said the messages in Sondheim's music speak to her even as she is singing the words night after night. That Move On eventually told her that that was what she needed to do...to move on and leave the show. My other favorite is No One is Alone from Into the Woods. I know several people who saw Into the Woods, loved the first half but intensely hated the second. I cried through the second half, I was that moved by (spoiler alert) the aftermath of death and destruction which brought the survivers together. The concept that families can be formed in this way. The reinforcement of what we already hope and/or know... that it can take a village... that there is no such thing as happily ever after... that the best we can hope for sometimes is that things will be ok. When my life is in despair, I listen to these two songs over and over, and have for about two decades. For me, Move On is about feeling the fear but doing it anyway. No One is Alone is about comfort and hope. I could have titled this post: Fear, Comfort, & Hope, but who would have wanted to read that? Still, the truth is that many of us live in that zone. And, if you are in that zone, you might try backing up your mood with a soundtrack from Sondheim. For me, those two songs work without fail. If you find yourself similarly distressed, you might give them a try. Or, if you're just in a funk, try Comedy Tonight from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Feeling like a has-been? I'm Still Here from Follies. Relationship angst? Being Alive from the aforementioned Company. Sondheim can help you through. My only caveat is this: I would stay away from Sweeney Todd if I were you, it being more or less geared to homicidal impulses. Seriously. You must trust me about this. And I thank you for reading my blog.