{"id":153,"date":"2010-01-05T20:45:53","date_gmt":"2010-01-06T03:45:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.arts.ubc.ca\/wordpressmu\/theatre\/?p=153"},"modified":"2010-01-05T20:45:53","modified_gmt":"2010-01-06T03:45:53","slug":"side-by-side-with-sondheim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/theatre\/2010\/01\/05\/side-by-side-with-sondheim\/","title":{"rendered":"Side by Side with Sondheim"},"content":{"rendered":"
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On October 27, 2009, I had the thrilling experience of interviewing Stephen Sondheim for 90 minutes on the stage of Vancouver’s Vogue Theatre in front of 900 adoring fans–of Sondheim’s, not mine. \u00a0Still, such a huge wave of love broke over the stage that a little of it inevitably splashed onto me. \u00a0What a feeling!<\/p>\n

Sondheim was here as a fundraiser for\u00a0APPLAUSE!<\/a> Musicals in Concert, whose \u00a0 artistic director, Scott Ashton Swan, had invited me to do the interview. \u00a0I’ve done quite a few high-profile one-on-ones–John Ralston Saul, Neil LaBute,\u00a0Kim Cattrall<\/a>–but I felt anxious about Sondheim. \u00a0It would be like interviewing Shakespeare–the Shakespeare of modern musical theatre–but I knew little about him and not enough about his music or the shows he had written. \u00a0And what shows! \u00a0West Side Story (the greatest musical ever, in my pantheon) and Gypsy (lyrics only); music and lyrics for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods, Sweeney Todd, Assassins, and more. \u00a0The guy’s a superstar, one of the 20th century\u2019s finest artists.<\/p>\n

So I spent a week in full Sondheim immersion, reading\u00a0his biography<\/a> and four other books about his work, and listening to the soundtracks of all his shows. Finally, I felt prepared. \u00a0But I had also read and heard things that suggested he might be grumpy, egotistical, thin-skinned. \u00a0And he’s 79 years old, so how sharp could he be? How much would he remember? How long could he sit?<\/p>\n

Turned out none of my fears were warranted. \u00a0Sondheim is brilliant, witty and articulate, with a virtual photographic memory for details. I helped a little by setting him up with questions about his life and work that, from my reading, seemed to be often-told stories. \u00a0And he\u2019d knock them out of the park with perfectly timed punchlines.<\/p>\n

He’s also remarkably gracious, personable and modest. (\u201cCall me Steve.\u201d) And unbelievably vigorous. \u00a0Our gig was his fourth in four nights in different cities: San Francisco, Houston, Seattle, Vancouver. \u00a0And he traveled alone–no retinue, no handlers, no assistant. \u00a0What a guy.<\/p>\n

This was Sondheim\u2019s first trip to Vancouver and very likely his last. \u00a0Those of us at the Vogue that night\u2014me especially–were fortunate to be in the presence of true greatness.<\/p>\n

~ Guest Post by\u00a0Jerry Wasserman<\/a>, Department Head of Theatre and Film at UBC<\/div>\n
Note:\u00a0Vancouver Sun<\/a> coverage of the interview.<\/div>\n
For all things Sondheim see\u00a0http:\/\/www.sondheim.org\/<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On October 27, 2009, I had the thrilling experience of interviewing Stephen Sondheim for 90 minutes on the stage of Vancouver’s Vogue Theatre in front of 900 adoring fans–of Sondheim’s, not mine. \u00a0Still, such a huge wave of love broke over the stage that a little of it inevitably splashed onto me. \u00a0What a feeling! […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2208,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[9115,9117,6635],"class_list":["post-153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-jerry-wasserman","tag-sondheim","tag-theatre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/theatre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/theatre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/theatre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/theatre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2208"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/theatre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/theatre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":156,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/theatre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153\/revisions\/156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/theatre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/theatre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/theatre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}