Putting Him Together

In Stephen Sondheim’s “Sunday in the Park With George,” the protagonist based on artist Georges Seurat sings, “They have never understood, and no reason that they should....” Indeed, the innovative pointillist painter, who died at 31 in 1891, was controversial and little understood by the art establishment during his brief but productive life. On the other hand, Sondheim--who, with librettist-director James Lapine, created the character with whom he is most closely identified--is widely acknowledged to be the greatest living theater lyricist-composer. But that understanding continues to evolve with revivals of his dense, richly textured and challenging productions, the majority of which neither succeeded commercially on Broadway nor, for that matter, received unqualified critical praise.

Beginning May 10 and running through the summer, Washington’s Kennedy Center offers an unprecedented look at the composer’s canon in its “Sondheim Celebration,” which includes six full revivals in repertory--”Sweeney Todd,” “Company,” “Sunday in the Park With George,” “Merrily We Roll Along,” “Passion” and “A Little Night Music”; a “junior” version of “Into the Woods,” performed by schoolchildren; concerts by Barbara Cook and Mandy Patinkin; and assorted other programs.

Adding to the feeling that everything is coming up Sondheim is the Broadway opening this week of a revival of “Into the Woods,” starring Vanessa Williams, which played the Ahmanson Theatre earlier this year. And the Lincoln Center Festival this summer will include the New National Theatre Tokyo’s acclaimed production of “Pacific Overtures.” The Japanese-language revival will then travel to the Kennedy Center.

“When it came to picking who would direct these productions [in repertory], the one thing that Stephen said at the beginning was, ‘Let’s really think about fresh ideas, let’s look in all directions and not go with the usual suspects,’” says Eric Schaeffer, who with Michael Kaiser, president of the Kennedy Center, is organizing the festival, and who will be directing “Passion” and “A Little Night Music.” His fellow directors include Christopher Ashley (“Merrily We Roll Along,” “Sweeney Todd”), Mark Brokaw (“A Little Night Music”) and Sean Mathias (“Company”). “From the get-go, [Sondheim] wanted no remounts.”

The roster was in part a result of economic considerations but mostly reflected the passions of the people involved. “We were sitting around in his living room in Manhattan, and Michael really wanted ‘Sunday in the Park,’ Steve wanted ‘Sweeney,’ and I wanted ‘Passion’ and ‘A Little Night Music,’” he says. “Merrily We Roll Along” and “Company” did not require elaborate sets and had not been revived recently in the United States. One of the last on the list to be cut was “Anyone Can Whistle,” the odd, short-lived 1964 musical starring Angela Lansbury as an evil mayor. “I think Stephen was a little disappointed. I think, once again, he thought he’d get another shot at making the show better.”

The chance to get it better is irresistible to any artist but most especially to Sondheim, who, according to his many collaborators, often tinkers with even his most successful works, such as “Company,” “A Little Night Music” and “Sweeney Todd,” as well as such problem children as “Merrily We Roll Along” and “Passion.” He will get another crack at “Assassins” when that work, written with John Weidman about John Wilkes Booth and others, is revived next season at New York’s Roundabout (it was canceled in the wake of Sept. 11). He will also get another shot at “Gold!,” which, under the title of “Wise Guys,” had an unsuccessful workshop, directed by Sam Mendes, three years ago. The show, about the pursuit of the American dream by a pair of rascally brothers, premieres next year at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre, reuniting Sondheim with collaborator Harold Prince after two decades.

At 72, Sondheim shows no signs of slowing down, acceding to a plea that in “Sunday in the Park” is directed at George: “Show us more to see.” On the occasion of the “Sondheim Celebration,” a host of collaborators were asked to recall him, and thereby create an oral collage of Stephen Sondheim, the man and the artist.

“Sweeney Todd”

(May 10-June 30)

Revenge, murder and cannibalism figure in this hilariously macabre 1979 musical melodrama, written by Hugh Wheeler and directed by Harold Prince. “Sweeney Todd” won eight Tony Awards, including best musical. Also honored were Len Cariou, in the title role as a wrongly accused and exiled barber who returns to 19th century London to exact vengeance for the rape of his wife, and Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Lovett, his merry accomplice who runs a pie shop and has the clever idea of turning their victims into meat pies. Critics hailed the Brechtian social conscience and Broadway showmanship, and the musical is one of Sondheim’s most fully realized and durable hits. For the festival, Ashley (“The Rocky Horror Show”) directs, and Brian Stokes Mitchell (“Ragtime,” “Kiss Me, Kate”) and Christine Baranski (TV’s “Cybill”) star.

THE SONDHEIM PERSONA

Cariou: Well, he was supremely confident. Anybody who would take on that material is either supremely confident or out of his mind. When I heard they were doing this and what it was about, I thought, “These two guys have lost it, they’ve gone over the edge.” Then I read Hugh Wheeler’s script and thought, “I guess I’m going over the edge with them.”

Mitchell: I’d heard that he was really smart, very precise; he knows what he wants; he knows what he’s doing.

Ashley: At the very first meeting with the directors, he put everybody at ease right away. He said, “Look, I want to be led by you guys. I want to hear what your responses are to these texts and these impulses and I want to support that.”

Lansbury: The thing I love about Stephen is his absolute wonder and amazement by a performance, and I always remember him coming backstage. “Where do you find this person? How do you do this? How do you place yourself? How do you become that person?” With wonder and interest he said it. He’s so appreciative of the work that actors and singers do that so contributes to his work.

BEHIND THE MUSIC

Cariou: When we started, I reread the text and there wasn’t any lyrics yet and it was a very dangerous time. I thought, these guys are really pushing the envelope. I was excited about that. If it worked, it would be a truly revolutionary piece. When we first heard the music and how romantic it was, it made great sense. As we worked on the piece, I was just truly, truly confident it was a masterpiece.

Baranski: This material is stupefyingly difficult and complicated, and they were the first people doing it. He always goes for the most challenging; I don’t think Steve can do anything else. He can’t confine himself to what is expected. It wouldn’t occupy his attention for 10 minutes.

STAYING POWER

Mitchell: It has great humor, a social conscience. It seems like it was one of those rare shows where all the right people come together at just the right time. I don’t think this show will ever feel old-fashioned; Gilbert & Sullivan, Rodgers & Hammerstein feel old after a while. It’s the most operatic form of musical theater that I can think of.

Ashley: There is all this talk of the style of “Sweeney Todd”: Is it an opera? Is it a musical? Is it a play with music--what category does it fall into? What he was working toward in the show is that it hopefully sets its own rules: not an opera, not a musical. It’s its own genre.

SONDHEIM AS A TEACHER

Ashley: The first read-through day of “Sweeney Todd,” he had only five things to say; many others would have 745,000. He’s so selective about what he wants to put into the process, and he has a blinding clarity on these matters. He said, “‘Sweeney Todd’ is better overacted than underacted.” If you ask him, he’ll say, “Here’s my opinion but I want you to do what you want to do.”

Lansbury: Stephen has always in my career been like a teacher to me. And he’s an extraordinary teacher--not only to seasoned performers but to young ones. “Try this, try that, don’t lose that word, don’t lose that lyric.” All of us who’ve had the benefit of those teachings have prospered in our careers. If it hadn’t been for those early days, I never would have had the ability to do what I’ve done.

Baranski: It takes you awhile to realize how accessible he is as a person but mostly as a collaborator. He’s specific and open to questions, so grateful, so wanting to support the performers.

Cariou: I remember thinking: Wouldn’t it be nice if we heard sooner from Stephen? But usually he was up to his ears in rewrites. He was not around a lot, so the interpretation was pretty much done on our own, with the music director or Hal [Prince]. It was always something that Stephen would say to you or somebody that would ring a bell in your head. If you ever asked Stephen about something, or if he felt you were far off the mark, he could give you chapter and verse.

THE HERE AND NOW

Lansbury: How has he changed? He’s mellowed enormously. He’s become quite benign and charming--he always was, but when he was young, he was uncomfortable. He was self-conscious. Now he likes to laugh and to reminisce, and one doesn’t have a sense of him as uncomfortable. He loves gossip, loves hearing about everything in detail, and then you don’t hear from him for six months. But for that moment, he’s yours, and he’s lovely. He’s an old sock, he has that sort of warmth and familiarity.

“Company”

(May 17-June 29)

A series of vignettes of married life, this 1970 show established the collaboration between Sondheim and director Prince as one that would daringly push the boundaries of the musical-theater form. Confirmed bachelor Robert (Bobby Bubby) struggles with emotional commitment, seeing little encouragement in the bickering married couples who are his friends and who are always thrusting single girls at him. The sophisticated and urbane musical, with book by George Furth, explores a vein Sondheim would continue to tap for the next 30 years: the endless yearning for intimacy, the impossibility of surrender and the wonder of true love. The show won eight Tonys, including best musical and two for Sondheim (his first). British director Mathias leads an ensemble headed by Lynn Redgrave as Joanne, the boozy broad originated by Elaine Stritch, and John Barrowman as Robert.

THE SHOW’S ORIGINS

Prince: Steve came to me with a play, which his friend George Furth had written for Sada Thompson. I told him that I couldn’t see Sada running around, changing wigs and costumes, but that I could see it as a musical about marriage, that I could see these characters singing but not out of the situations, more out of observation. Steve gleaned that immediately because he knew that his songs couldn’t sever the tension of George’s very taut writing; he couldn’t weaken the tensile strength of each encounter between the characters. And Steve said, “How about a score in which everything is observed or commented on by other characters? Or if the characters, after they finish their scene, sing of their feelings?”

THE SHOW

Stritch: I knew it was mold-breaking, I didn’t fully understand it but I understood it enough. It made emotional sense to me.

SONDHEIM’S INSECURITY

Prince: It’s common to anyone who is hugely talented to be very ruthless with his material because he knows he’s got something to replace it with. If you don’t like a song and you have a good reason, he’s not operating from “Ohmigod, how will I replace it?” It doesn’t mean that he doesn’t worry himself to death. But deep down, he has the knowledge that he can come up with something good. When I say to him--and this goes back forever--about his work, “Is that a good song?” he’ll say, “What do you not like about it?” But every once in a while he’ll say, “Yes, it is.” And I say, “Boy, it must be,” and I’ll get it.

Stritch: People ask composers, “How do you start?” Steve has said to me, “I go home and sit down at the piano and try to convince myself that I’m talented.” I told him, “Look if you have any trouble the next time, would you call me? If my word means anything to you, I think I can convince you that you are talented.”

SELF-CONFIDENCE

Stritch: When I first started to do my current show [“Elaine Stritch: At Liberty”], I said to him, “I’m so sick of theater, when am I going to stop getting afraid?” He said, “Don’t worried about it, Elaine; terror works for you.” And it does for him too. He doesn’t think he’s as talented as we think he is, and I want him to get to that point before he checks out.

“Sunday in the Park

With George”

(May 31-June 28)

The 1984 Pulitzer Prize-winning musical studied the crises of creativity over nearly a century and two continents, the first act dealing with Seurat and the creation of his masterpiece “Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.” It marked the first collaboration between Sondheim and director-librettist Lapine. Some have suggested that the musical was the composer’s response to the critical lambasting of his previous musical, “Merrily We Roll Along.” Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters starred in the original production, which, much to the dismay of Sondheim enthusiasts, lost the best musical Tony to “La Cage aux Folles.” “Sondheim Celebration” artistic director Eric Schaeffer (“Putting It Together”) directs Raul Esparza (“Cabaret”) and Melissa Errico (“My Fair Lady”) in the Kennedy Center production.

CHARACTER IDENTIFICATION

Schaeffer: I think he identifies with George; he realizes the frustration of no one understanding, of trying to do something new, trying to break a mold and people don’t embrace it because you failed as an artist, or the audience failed to open its eyes.

Esparza: He writes about life as complicated as it gets. He struggles every day to put something unnameable and unwriteable into these pieces. There’s a lyric that’s from the writings of Seurat: “I was trying to get through to something new, something of my own.” George didn’t have any other option: “I can only paint my way of painting, in my own voice.”

THE MYSTIQUE

Schaeffer: He’s totally aware of how people perceive him to be unapproachable. At the first meeting of the directors, he said, “I hope I don’t scare any of these people off. They won’t ask me questions if they really have them. I hope they won’t find me scary.” It’s almost like he beats himself up about it.

“Merrily We Roll Along”

(July 12-August 24)

One of Sondheim’s most problematic musicals, this 1981 adaptation of a George Kaufman-Moss Hart play traced the trajectory of a friendship backward in time, beginning with its destruction under the weight of cynical compromise and moral failure, and ending in the full flush of youthful hope and idealism. The show, with book by Furth and directed by Prince, scathingly indicted the American dream and the shallowness of show business. Despite a cast of eager young unknowns, including Lonny Price as Charley, and a score considered to be one of Sondheim’s best, “Merrily” earned few fans and closed quickly. In fact, embittered by the critical and disdainful response, Sondheim threatened to leave the theater altogether and ended his collaboration with Prince for the next two decades. In Washington, Esparza, Michael Hayden and Miriam Shor play the ambitious friends under Ashley’s direction.

SONDHEIM, THE MENTOR

Price: I started writing to him when I was 14, and he wrote back. Later, I sent him a show that I’d written with Jim Walton [co-star of “Merrily”], and he wrote us back and took a great deal of time. He was very specific with his criticism and very encouraging. I think the idea of musical theater continuing as an art form has been a huge focus of his life. I can tell you of a lot of young composers who got letters from him. They sent them on Monday, and on Friday, there’d be a response in the mail.

COLLABORATING

Price: The thing about Steve is that he always treats you with the utmost respect. If you give him an argument that makes sense, then he’s very for it. Even on “Merrily,” which I did when I was in my 20s, he was writing a song for me [“Franklin Shepard Inc.”], and he came in and apologized and said, “What I’ve given you isn’t right yet, but just try to work with it.” He was concerned he’d let me down.

SONDHEIM AND THE AUDIENCE

Prince: It’s one of his best scores. The problem is the structure and telling the story backward. I don’t think you can do a thing about it. I know Steve feels that if they’d only left us alone until we opened, it would have been a flawed but valuable musical, and it would have had a run. I think he’s probably right. But we had had a long decade of being well-received, and we stumbled.

Price: We were all devastated by the response, not just the critical response, but the attitude of the response. It seemed kind of nasty, like they were out to get Hal and Steve. There was this anger at the piece, not just that they didn’t like what we’d done, but they were angry at Hal and Steve. The score got the best of the reviews, but I think Steve just felt that he’d let us down.

Ashley: “Merrily” has a lot more hurdles and challenges than his other shows to keep an audience involved, and I think he’s aware of those pitfalls. He realizes there’s a difficulty about that piece. It’s not more or less interesting, just more difficult.

Price: He very much cares about the audience. He wants them to be challenged but entertained at the same time. I think younger composers are less intent on audiences, their vision and their concept is so important that they forget about the audience.

“Passion”

(July 19-Aug. 23)

In 1994, the groundbreaking Sondheim-Lapine collaboration continued with the adaptation of an obscure Italian movie set in a remote military post in Italy. Giorgio, a newly transferred captain, encounters the ugly, ailing spinster Fosca, the cousin of his superior officer. Fosca immediately becomes obsessed with the handsome, literate and kind officer. But he is repelled by her, all the more so because he has left behind the lovely Clara, his married mistress.

“Passion,” with its dark, unsettling themes of fixation and the failings of the flesh, had a tempestuous preview period in New York (audiences hooted openly at Fosca) and the critical reaction was tepid, although the haunting score was praised, as was Donna Murphy’s performance as the tragic Fosca. With Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” the only real competition, the show captured the 1994 best musical Tony. In the revival, directed by Schaeffer, Judy Kuhn and Rebecca Luker play, respectively, the dark and light poles, Fosca and Clara, in the life of Giorgio, played by Michael Cerveris.

HAVING FUN

Murphy: I remember one night, after a really difficult audience, I came offstage and Steve was standing in the stairwell, and he said, “Are you having fun?” Here was this man I respect as a serious artist saying, “Are you having any fun?” I said, “I love the work, but I don’t know if I’m having any fun.” And he said, “You must have fun; you must experience the joy in this work because these experiences are few and far between, and it’s a real loss if you waste the opportunity to find the joy in them.” And coming from someone who I know to work with such intensity, I knew I couldn’t take that lightly. That’s stayed with me for a long time.

REHEARSALS

Schaeffer: In rehearsal one day, he was very aware of how his watching people work makes them tense. He said to me, “Have me in the room when you’re OK about having people on the spot.” He’s aware that the actors are not relaxed with him in the room. And it’s part of his being supportive and in contact with me about when to put that extra pressure on people and where to take it off, and then he’ll walk away and be someplace else.

Murphy: One night, I knew that Sondheim was sending through the fax a new song for me--”Loving You”--that I would sing in the train scene. And as it was coming through, page by page, in Stephen’s hand, I was reading it, weeping. He had left this voicemail message: “I’ve written this. I don’t know if it’s any good.” And I went and played it on the piano, and it was devastatingly beautiful. I remember covering my mouth, shaking my head, tears streaming down my face. I called him immediately. He said, “Good, Donna; I’m glad you like it.”

“A Little Night Music”

(Aug. 2-25)

An unqualified smash in 1973, winner of eight Tonys, including best musical, “A Little Night Music” stands alongside “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” “Company” and “Sweeney Todd” as among the most cherished in the Sondheim canon. Based on an Ingmar Bergman film, the musical, written by Hugh Wheeler, tells of the romantic foibles of a group of 19th century Swedes. It centers on the ravishing actress Desiree Armfeldt and her ex-lover Fredrik, newly married to a young bride. Prince directed the original, which starred Glynis Johns and Len Cariou. Those roles will be played by Blair Brown and John Dossett in the Kennedy production directed by Mark Brokaw.

“SEND IN THE CLOWNS”

Cariou: That song was originally meant for my character, Fredrik, not for Desiree Armfeldt, who was played by Glynis Johns. But a month into rehearsal, our characters had changed, and our relationship took a different turn. Steve had been unable to write the song for me for that scene. He kept apologizing to me. So we called him in and Steve saw how the scenes had changed. He went home and two days later--literally--he came back, sat down at the piano and played “Send in the Clowns,” the most famous song he’s ever written. So now it was Glynis’ song. I was disappointed. But you can’t be too bitterly disappointed because it’s such a wonderful moment.

“THE MILLER’S SON”

Prince: You’re talking about the class system, about being buried alive in that kind of society, and you’re talking about the dreams that people have. You see the young girl with all the possibilities and conviction that she has and it’s quite an astonishing thing. That’s what he does, he manages to infuse these songs with layers. You don’t hear all the layers until you’ve heard the song a third or fourth time.

SONDHEIM UNDER PRESSURE

Cariou: When we got to Boston, we were about seven-eighths there. I remember Stephen couldn’t sleep. He loves to work in the night, like some kind of vampire, between midnight and the morning, and of course, nobody else does that, so he’s up all the time. So he inevitably gets ill because he doesn’t sleep. He looks like hell, like somebody beat him up on the street, just awful. And then he sits down and plays this beautiful music. I don’t get it, but I’ll take this.

Prince: He keeps telling me, “Pressure me, pressure me,” and I will, but that can be debilitating. He’s known for working under pressure, famously.

Schaeffer: He’ll say, “That’s a fair criticism, a fair critic. I learned something from that.” He always wants to learn.

LOOKING BACK, LOOKING AHEAD

Prince: I think that we have a good time, and it’s been 21 years since we worked together, and everybody’s tried to analyze the hell out of it. We just took a vacation, and it took a lot longer than either of us would’ve imagined.

What we have, we got back instantly when we started to work together on “Gold!” I wondered why he wanted to do it, what was the pull, and in many, many conversations with him and John Weidman, another show emerged and they threw away the show they’d been working on. We have a good time. And one of the things that we both said to my wife, at some point: We both feel incredibly young again. After all, we started out working when we were very young, and the give and take and enthusiasm, the energy that comes from one of us suggesting something to the other. It’s palpable, huge and very nourishing. We seem like a couple of boys again.

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Patrick Pacheco is a regular contributor to Calendar.