Stephen Sondheim

Betty Buckley Reveals Battle With Arthur Laurents--And So Do I!

In 1998, Betty Buckley played the immortal stage-mother role of Mama Rose in the Papermill Playhouse of Gypsy, with Debbie Gibson as the title character. It was good (I saw it, naturally), with Buckley bringing her customary wells of emotion to the material. And it was going to transfer to Toronto ... More >>

Passion and Cinderella Try Opposite Approaches to the Musical;Belleville Tries One's Patience

Rules and deregulations

Sondheim Won't Let Barbra Streisand Direct Gypsy?

Stephen Sondheim has generously allowed a lot of wacky and/or progressive interpretations of his work, including ones with the actors playing musical instruments, the director's wife playing the female lead, and all sorts of other tweaks and concessions. But according to this report on lemonwade.co ... More >>

Passion Returns: My Review

The 1994 musical Passion--with a score by Stephen Sondheim and a book by James Lapine--was an adaptation of the 1981 Italian film Passione d'Amore, about a sickly, unattractive woman who fixates on a handsome soldier in 19th Century Italy and wills him to love her back. I loved the movie because th ... More >>

Guess What Sondheim's Next Show Is About?

Stephen Sondheim and David Ives have been working on a new musical called All Together Now, which is reportedly based on a small moment in one of Ives' plays and which goes backwards in time (like Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along). Last year, I wrote about Sondheim's on-the-record comments about th ... More >>

Sondheim Approved Everything Except The Q-Tip

Marry Me A Little is a revival of the two-character show that tells a story of double loneliness while cobbling together previous Stephen Sondheim songs--some from other shows, some cut from shows. The new version uses a somewhat different lineup of numbers than the original 1980 one, but at a talk ... More >>

Into the Woods: The Disenchanted Forest

This time, the Public does Sondheim in the Park

This Week in The Voice: A Call To Harm

This week in the Voice, out today, Nick Pinto track's the NYPD's poor judgment with the mentally ill, recently culminating in the death of a schizophrenic woman, writing: "With a growing international consensus on the best practices for police interactions with the mentally ill -- practices the NYPD ... More >>

Into The Woods In Central Park: My Review

Into The Woods--the 1986 Stephen Sondheim/James Lapine show about fairy tale characters coming together and learning lessons--is being done in the woods of Central Park in a gimmicky but vigorous production directed by Timothy Sheader with codirection by Liam Steel. The show has always basically be ... More >>

Happily Ever After?

Amy Adams stars in Into the Woods

Liz Callaway

Meryl Streep In Into The Woods?

Not long ago, a British newspaper interview with Stephen Sondheim mentioned that Meryl Streep was a rumored possibility to portray the Witch in the revival of Steve's Into The Woods, playing the Delacorte this summer. No, not Miranda Priestly. Another witch. Well, Sondheim didn't confirm or deny t ... More >>

Sondheim's Next Show Will Go Backwards!

One of the great Stephen Sondheim's few missteps--1981's Merrily We Roll Along--boldly uses a time structure that goes backwards, starting with the present and progressing (or regressing) back to the roots of the relationships. I always found that device deeply annoying, requiring way too much brai ... More >>

'The Public Forum: Sondheim / Kusher'

Follies: Dances With Ghosts

The revival of Sondheim's Follies offers more extravagance than emotional grip

This Week in the Voice: Bachmann's Bright Idea, Eataly's New Beer Garden

​This week in the Voice, out today: Nick Pinto explains how federal efficiency standards are phasing out old-fashioned incandescent light bulbs in favor of those coiled energy-efficient ones -- thing is, those are full of crazy toxic stuff. And one of the only big-name politicians to fight the ... More >>

Barbara Carroll

Karen Akers

The Trouble With Adding Backstories

​Remember that Grinch movie that added the title character's backstory so we could see how he got so evil? Boring! It was better as subtext! Or left to our imaginations! And now, the upcoming Broadway revival of Porgy and Bess is supposedly going to add a little background to flesh out the c ... More >>

Aaron Lazar

Barbara Carroll

'Sondheim Unplugged'

Finishing the Hat--the Lyrics and Kvetches of Stephen Sondheim

The Broadway composer looks back at the first decades of his career

This Week's Voice: AraabMuzik, My Chemical Romance, Orange Juice, Bill Frisell, Marc Ribot, and More

My Chemical Romance go . . . Styx. Photo by Neil Krug.​In this week's Village Voice, Brandon Soderberg profiles the 21-year-old rap producer AraabMuzik, Christopher R. Weingarten is not impressed with the new record from My Chemical Romance, Francis Davis praises new efforts from Bill Frisell, ... More >>

'Sondheim…Unplugged'

David Campbell

Kevin Dozier

'Sondheim' Won't Do Coke Anymore

​The upcoming HBO series The Miraculous Year has a lead character who is a sophisticated, gay Broadway composer who lives in a townhouse, writes acclaimed but not always solvent shows, and suffers a heart attack sparked by coke abuse. But that last part has been cut out, according to the Post ... More >>

'Sondheim Unplugged'

'What More Can I Say: The Songs of William Finn'

Anyone Can Whistle, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, The Addams Family

Three musicals—two of them new, one from the '60s—all sing of crazy worlds

RAISING THE BAR?

Sondheim on Sondheim at Studio 54

A Little Night Music, Brief Encounter, So Help Me God! Receive Wobbly Contemporary Productions

Who's Really a "Legend"?

​ The words "legend" and "icon" are thrown around so effortlessly these days at anyone who's accomplished what any ordinary person could achieve in a couple of New York minutes that I sometimes want to ask my legendary doorman if the iconic UPS man has arrived yet.

The Most Twisted Urban Myths!

​Urban myths are those bullshit celebrity gossip stories you hear as a kid and choose to believe until years later when you finally stop and say, "What the fuck was I thinking?" I'm not even going to go into the infamous gerbil one or the one with the rock star and the 17 sailors. We ALL have ... More >>

The Village Voice Obies Winners

2008–2009 SEASON

Clip Job: Tragedy Tomorrow!

Clip Job: an excerpt every day from the Voice archivesMay 17, 1962, Vol. VII, No. 30Comedy TonightBy Jerry TallmerSome months ago in a theatre lobby I was chatting with a man named D. about a big musical that had just cracked up disastrously before ever reaching New York. Both D. and I knew and care ... More >>

Road Show, Dividing the Estate, and American Buffalo Carve Up Our National Turkeyhood

Thanksgivings and misgivings

Prime Cut

Tim Burton makes Sweeney Todd his gory, grisly, bloodstained own

Violence Is Golden

And stunning, where Bardem and the Coens are concerned. Plus other dark visions, and peaceful chats with Mamet and Lauper.

Musicals in Transit

In the Heights or Adrift in Macao, new musicals are fun—but not too much else

The Lonely Guy

The hero won't play along in Sondheim's distinctively bleak musical

Instruments of Revenge

Attend the tale, for Sweeney's odd, but as to knowing the score, don't touch that Doyle

The Illusion Fields

A lot of skill and talent has gone into The Frogs, but somehow there's no creative pooling

Children's Crusades

The Kids Stay in the Picture

Letters

Refracted Fairy Tales

But Unseriously . . .

The Musical’s a Joke Again—But Is It a Good Joke?

Show-Offs on the Rise

Multitalented Local Leads Resurgence in Cabaret

Stage Presents

It's a Good Time To Stay Off-Broadway— Even on CD