Search Results for: sondheim

Lots of folks like playing songs by Stephen Sondheim. How many of them like doing crossword puzzles by Stephen Sondheim?

Liz Callaway is a terrific stage/cabaret performer who has been a fine interpreter of the works of Mr. S. Sondheim. So it both startled and delighted an audience recently when she bobbled the lyrics to one of his best tunes. Listen and hear what happens next…

Jack Kirby would have been 98 years old today. Here's a photo I'll bet most of you have never seen.

It was taken in late 1969, not long after I met Jack and not long before he rocked the comic book world by quitting Marvel and signing on with DC. I can't think of a single current analogy in comics or in any medium which would be a comparable jolt. I wanted to write here something like, "It would be as if [Name] quit CBS and went to work for NBC" or "It would be as if [Name] quit the Yankees and went to work for the Dodgers." But no names I could plug into those sentences would equal the impact of the news back then.

This photo was taken either by me or my friend Steve Sherman. It was taken in a party area at the Brown Derby restaurant on Vine Street in Hollywood. That's right: It's Kirby at the Derby. Jack, Steve and I had all gotten involved in that year's Toys for Tots campaign for the U.S. Marine Corps — a most worthy cause that collected donations of toys and steered them to kids who might otherwise have been forgotten by Santa. Jack donated his artistry for that year's Toys for Tots poster.

The guys in the costumes were friends of a promoter we'd all gotten involved with. That's a real long story that is told in this long, long biography of Jack I'm writing that has been a long, long time in coming. No, I don't know when you'll be able to buy a copy but I'm finally able to finish it and am attempting to do so.

Suffice it to say this promoter guy was trying to prove to Marvel that he could make their characters a lot more famous than they already were. He'd convinced the Marines to put Marvel heroes on the poster and he'd gotten some local costume companies to make three costumes under the impression that they were donating to the charity. In truth, he intended to use the suits afterwards for other purposes that would benefit his own enterprises.

Someone out there will be interested in this: He persuaded Western Costume — the biggest company ever in that business and the leading supplier of wardrobe for TV and movies — to agree to make a Captain America costume. Then the folks at Western discovered that they already had a Captain America costume, perhaps the only one then in existence. The one they gave him was the one made for actor Dick Purcell in the 1944 Captain America movie serial. That's it above with ear holes cut into the head piece since Cap's ears didn't show in the serial. And no, I have no idea whatever became of it.

Anyway, Jack was at the Derby for a press event to kick off the Toys for Tots drive and when either Steve or I set up this photo, Jack immediately went into the above pose, explaining that you couldn't just stand passively when you were being photographed with Thor, Spider-Man and Captain America. No, you sure couldn't. So consider that a picture of four super-heroes. I'm not sure the one with the cigar wasn't the most incredible of the four.

That's about all I have to say about this photo but I have an unlimited number of things to say about Jack, starting with the fact that he was one of the nicest people I ever knew and easily the one who most deserved the label of "genius." Some folks didn't pick up on that right away because he talked like a guy in an old Warner Brothers movie about the mob and his mind careened from topic to topic with restless abandon.

This is hard to explain but being around him, I came to the conclusion that his brilliance had a lot to do with being able to make unusual associations. He would take two or more seemingly unrelated concepts or elements — things mere mortals like you and I would never connect — and he'd connect them and arrive at something very, very wonderful. You might never be able to discern the starting points; never be able to fathom how he linked A to B and wound up with a C that resembled neither…but he did.

He talked like that, too. I'd be chatting with Jack about, say, Richard Nixon. Nixon was a big topic for everyone in 1969 but more so for Jack who created many a super-villain using but one of Nixon's odd quirks as a starting point. Jack, like so many of us, was fascinated that such a twisted personality could somehow ascend to be President of the United States. (Thank Goodness that these days, no one that warped ever even becomes a serious contender for the job.)

So I'd be talking about Nixon with him and suddenly I'd be talking about cling peaches with him. Or Mount Kilimanjaro. Or staple guns or something…and I'd go, "Huh? What the hell was the segue and how did I miss it?" Sometimes, days or even years later — and I'm not kidding about the years — I would figure out how we got from Topic A to Topic B. Sometimes, not.

There's a quote from Stephen Sondheim that I like. He once said, "The nice thing about doing a crossword puzzle is that you know there's a solution." There was always a solution with Jack. Alas, those of us who live in one world at a time were sometimes unable to figure it out. Still, it would not shock me if at some point, some great Kirby Villain started life because Jack started musing about Nixon with a staple gun.

Those two qualities of Kirby's — the Cagneyesque way of speaking and the seeming disconnects in his speech — caused some people to miss how smart the guy was. One of many reasons he left Marvel shortly after this photo was taken is that so many important people there thought he was kind of demented and treated him as a useful idiot.

He told them that characters like the ones surrounding him in the picture would someday be billion-dollar properties appearing in major motion pictures and known the world over. As a vital contributor to the existence of those characters — in many cases, the main creative force — he wanted a piece of that action. This he was denied by men who sounded like Mr. Bumble registering shock that Oliver Twist wanted a smidgen more gruel. And being limited in the visionary department, they of course never dreamed the material would be as lucrative as Kirby said it would be…so they had to grab 100% of what there was while they could. Ergo, no cut for Kirby.

People ask me these days: "What would Jack have said if he was here to see Thor and Captain America and the Avengers and other characters he helped launch become super-heroes of the box office?" That's real easy to answer: He would have said, "I told you so."

He did. He really did. I can't swear he would have imagined Ant Man doing quite as well as he has but the others? Absolutely. He predicted it to me and to Steve and every single day to the wonderful Mrs. Kirby and to others. He predicted lots of things I doubted or at least questioned at the time but have lived to see come true.

I get accused at times of gushing too much about Jack. Fine. If there's anyone I've ever known who deserved a surplus of gushing, it was Jack Kirby. I still think at times I'm underestimating the guy. His work has endured and its popularity has grown to the point where I'm sure it will affect generations as yet unborn.

Tomorrow, I go out to Cal State Northridge in the Valley for the formal opening of a major exhibition of Jack Kirby artistry. You might assume I'm attending to pay tribute to a man who meant so much to me and you'd be right…

…but I'll confess to something. I also write about Jack and host panels about him and attend events about him for selfish reasons. Not only was Jack supremely creative but little flecks of that were contagious. When you were around him, you just plain felt more creative. It was not just me and it was not just people who became professional writers or artists or filmmakers or whatever. He treated everyone as an equal; as someone who at least potentially could make something wonderful. He stood on fertile ground and when you were with him, you did too.

I was seventeen when I met this man. I was already earning money as a writer but I had no particular confidence that the jobs I'd gotten weren't flukes and that I could continue in my chosen profession for the rest of my life. That I finally decided I probably could had a lot to do with being around Jack, seeing how easily it poured out of him and — and this was key — understanding how hard he labored to bring all those good ideas to fruition. Not only was his brain amazing but so was his work ethic. That was one of countless things I learned from him, not that I am always able to apply it.

I felt smarter and more creative around him. The stories and art he left us still have that impact on me as does just writing about him and thinking about him and nurturing my connection to him. I may even be a teensy bit smarter now than when I started writing this blog post but even if I'm not, I feel like I am and that counts for something.

I think I've told this story here before but after Jack died in 1994, I heard from lots of people who wanted to tell someone (anyone!) how much Jack inspired their lives. Most of that rightly went to his widow and life partner, a wonderful woman named Roz who made it possible for him to do what he did and protected him when no one else would or could…but I got a few of the letters and calls. I understood the ones from artists and writers and guys who made movies or wrote gaming software. I was a little surprised at first to hear from a spot welder who wanted me to know how Jack's work inspired him to become a better spot welder.

It wouldn't shock me to run into that spot welder at the gallery showing. I'll bet you everyone who goes out to Cal State Northridge to see that exhibit — like everyone who immerses themselves in the voluminous, perpetually in-print works of Jack Kirby — comes away from the experience a little smarter, a little more creative, a little more confident. If you ever got to meet Jack, you understand totally why that is. If you never had that honor, ask anyone who did. We all feel the same way.

Here is the third part of that list of songs that Stephen Sondheim wishes he'd written.

What one notes is that for the most part, the songs he covets are ones that work in the precise context of the shows. These are not a lot of songs that someone could just sing in a cabaret act without a bit of explanation setting up the storylines.

Stephen Sondheim has occasionally listed songs that other people wrote that he wishes had been written by Stephen Sondheim. One of his followers is compiling a list of them with examples. Here's Volume 1 and then after you check that out, here's Volume 2. Some of us have a simpler list: Just everything Sondheim did write.

Veteran comedian Jack Carter has died from respiratory failure at the age of 93. He had an amazing career and made many, many people laugh but I'm afraid I was not among those many, many people. There was something very abrasive and frantic about his performing that rubbed me the wrong way. He always seemed to me angry and not angry the way Don Rickles is funny when he's angry or Lewis Black is funny when he's angry.

I felt this before the first time I met him, which is when he was called in to do a voice on a cartoon special I wrote in 1982 called Bunnicula. It's on YouTube and it did great in the ratings…but I wasn't happy with the way the network insisted I depart from the book on which it was based. That's another story.

The plot concerns a serious dog and a high-strung cat and we initially cast an actor named Joe Silver as the dog and Howard Morris as the cat. At darn near the last minute, Mr. Silver had to go shoot an additional scene for a movie he was in and the producer was trying to think of someone with a similar deep voice. He turned on the TV and a game show was on with Jack Carter on it. One phone call to an agent later, Mr. Carter was booked.

It seemed like a good selection but as we learned the next morning at the recording studio, there were no two people in show business who hated one another more than Jack Carter and Howie Morris. I have no idea of the backstory to their feud but when Jack walked in and saw Howie, he turned magenta and yelled, "I'm not spending two minutes in a studio with that prick!" Howie fired back with something equally complimentary and the battle was on. Since they were both professionals, they did their jobs but every time one of them screwed up a line, the other would say, "Get it right, moron" or caustic words to that effect…and during breaks, they got even nastier.

I was not the director of that session. I had a more important job. I had to keep our two stars from killing each other.

Somehow, we got through the day. Later on, I got to know Howie better and discovered what a wonderful, sweet man he was when Jack Carter (or five or six other people) were not on the premises. I ran into Jack Carter several times and saw no nicer side of him for a long time.

One time though, he told me and some others a joke that went roughly like this…

This fellow who's never made a movie before announces to all his friends that he's about to produce one. He says, "It'll be great! We got Simon to do the screenplay!" His friends are all impressed. They say, "You got Neil Simon to do the screenplay?" He says, "Well, no…this is Charlie Simon. He's my gardener but he types really well. Oh — and I got Sondheim to do the music!" His friends gasp and say, "You got Stephen Sondheim to do the music?" He says, "No, Bruce Sondheim. He's a butcher but he likes to make up little tunes as he cuts meat. Oh — and we got Spielberg to direct!" The friends say, "You got Steven Spielberg?" He says, "No, Agnes Spielberg. She's a neighbor but she's done some interesting things with her camera. And finally, to star in the film, we got Goulet!" His friends say, "Really? You got Robert Goulet?" And he says, "Certainly!"

That's the joke — and of course, the premise of it was that Robert Goulet was famous in the business for never saying no to anything.

Less than a year later, I was in Las Vegas. A comedian I knew was opening for Robert Goulet at the Desert Inn and when I went backstage to see my friend, we joined a small group of folks who were in Goulet's dressing room. There, I heard Robert Goulet tell the exact same joke except that in his version, the punchline was, "Really? You got Jack Carter? And he says, "Certainly!"

I remember thinking, "It works either way."

Most of the time when I encountered Jack Carter though, he wasn't telling jokes. It always went like this: I'd say hello, remind him of my name and tell him we'd worked together on that Bunnicula cartoon. He'd ask me what I was doing now. I'd tell him about the show I was working on. He'd say, like he was genuinely pissed, "Why haven't you written a part for me on it?" Discussion was not possible on any other topic. If I wasn't going to get him hired for something, he had no use for me.

I ran into him a number of times after that and I'd look the other way and make like I didn't recognize him. I absolutely respected his career and how hard he obviously worked to cut himself away from a herd of thousands of comedians who never gained his fame or stature. I just didn't like him on or off screen.

Then one night around ten years ago, I was in the Porterhouse Bistro on Wilshire Boulevard — a great restaurant that is no longer there — and I found myself waiting for someone, standing alongside Jack Carter. He seemed cheerful and was joking with the hostess so I took a chance and said hello. He was charming and friendly and I don't know if old age had changed him or if our previous encounters had been atypical but it was a very pleasant encounter. I was very glad I gambled and spoke to him.

A few years later — in 2009 — Mr. Carter experienced an awful tragedy. He was standing in the parking lot of the Pantages Theater in Hollywood, talking with Toni Murray, the widow of comedian Jan Murray. A driver who somehow didn't see them backed her car into the two of them. Carter suffered severe injuries that kept him pretty much confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Ms. Murray's injuries were worse and ultimately fatal. A very sad story.

The last time I saw Jack Carter, it was a little over a year ago in a Costco. I told that story here.

Like I said, he had a great career and a lot of fans. We've lost so many comedians from his era that I'm saddened even at the passing of one I didn't particularly like.

Oddly enough, Jack Carter is in the video clip I'd planned on posting later tonight. As a matter of fact, he's pretty good in it. Check back here later for it.

My three favorite lyricists in the world are probably Johnny Mercer, Stephen Sondheim and Frank Jacobs. For over fifty years (that is not an overestimate) Frank Jacobs has been one of the most prolific writers for MAD and while everything he does for them is great, I have a special fondness for his poems and song parodies.

Back when the song "Downtown" — the one recorded by Petula Clark — was heard everywhere, Frank did his own version of and it went a little like this. (Well, actually, it went exactly like this…)

When you eat meat / but hate the meat that you're eating / Then you've surely got
Ground Round!

It's so unnerving / when they're constantly serving / in an eating spot
Ground Round!

It may be called a Chopped Steak, a Salisbury or Beef Patty!
No matter what it's called, it's always overcooked and fatty!
What can you do?

Sound off to your waiter there / And loudly pound on your table
Stand up on your chair / And shout Ground Round!
Piled on my plate I see / Ground Round!
Always you're conning me! / Ground Round!
Why must it always be? / Ground Round! Ground Round! Ground Round!

I loved that one. A few years ago, I was moderating a panel on MAD at Comic-Con and I asked each panelist to name one thing they did for the magazine that people always mention to them as especially memorable. Frank thought for a second — a lot of possible answers there — and mentioned "Ground Round." I, to prove his statement and I suppose to be a show-off, immediately quoted the lyrics from memory. I seem to remember Drew Carey singing it, also from memory on some talk show once.

Anyway, it's in this new book of his work along with hundreds of other goodies, including his great spoof of West Side Story with John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev heading the rival gangs, all expertly drawn by Mort Drucker. Saluting Frank's work like this makes for a book that really has some of the best things that ever appeared in that magazine.

I still think, as I've suggested for years, that MAD should put out a record — I guess a CD, now — of good vocalists and an orchestra performing Jacobs song parodies but this will do for now. Here's your Amazon link to get one.

P.S. Any singers out there with a keyboard or a Karaoke track of "Downtown?" Make a video of "Ground Round," upload it to YouTube, send me a link and I'll embed the first one here! That'll get you at least ten viewings.

Excerpts from a 2008 conversation between Stephen Sondheim and Frank Rich…

Hey, you like to see famous TV stars? If you're under thirty, don't bother with this post but if you're my age, give or take ten years, you probably loved the opening and closing of the 1986 Emmy Awards. Someone obviously turned to someone and said, "Hey, let's get as many TV stars as possible to do walk-ons." This was back in the day when you could get stars to participate in award shows when they hadn't been nominated. Now, if you ain't presenting or you ain't up for one, you ain't there.

Here's the opening of the show, which was a salute to great TV catch phrases. One poor star (I dunno who) didn't get on because a dancer opened the wrong door but there are plenty of other famous faces…

And here's the finale in which some under-rehearsed folks perform a song by Mr. S. Sondheim. You will notice that for some reason, Lamb Chop is wearing a microphone but Eve Arden isn't. The older gentleman next to Jackie Cooper who I couldn't recognize at first is, I believe, Bob Cummings. You should know everyone else…

Stephen Sondheim wrote a new short song for Meryl Streep to sing in the movie of Into the Woods. It was filmed, then the decision was made to omit it…so you'll see it on the DVD. Or here…

Here are some clips of Stephen Sondheim talking about the new movie of Into the Woods. This is for a video press kit…

Into the Woods is a major motion picture but it's still an oft-performed stage musical. Not long ago, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival mounted an acclaimed but slightly-unconventional production and it's been imported into Beverly Hills for a few weeks at the new Wallis theater complex. I went last night and enjoyed it quite a bit even though Into the Woods is not my favorite Sondheim show. My two main problems with it are that…

1. I think the first act is much better than the second. It also feels to me quite complete in itself. (Supposedly, people have been known to leave the theater at intermission because they don't realize the play's not over. I don't know if that was the reason but the people seated right in front of us last night did not come back for Act 2.) To me, Act 1 feels like a real good musical and Act 2 feels like the guys who did Act 1 were pressured into producing a sequel.
2. Much of the show's exposition is in its lyrics and the way Mr. Sondheim writes, it's crammed in with great density and there's a limit to how slow the actors can sing a tune without it sounding wrong musically. Every time I see it, I wish they were subtitled and it's not the actors' fault. It's like listening to Patti LuPone. You practically have to know the songs to hear them.

The O.S.E. production was full of great performances, a few daring athletic feats, a couple of genuine magic tricks, superb costumes (designed by Linda Roethke), some audience participation, fine orchestrations and very clever staging (by Amanda Dehnert). I could list all the actors for fine work but I'll just mention three: Jennie Greenberry as Cinderella, Miriam A. Laube as The Witch and John Vickery as the Narrator. But I thought everyone was really good. This production is scheduled to be there until December 21.

"There" is the new Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, which opened a year ago and which houses two theaters. Into the Woods was in the Bram Goldsmith Theater, which I guess means that Mr. Goldsmith (the CEO of City National Bank) gave them a lot of money. Whatever the price was, it was well spent. It's a beautiful, functional theater that seats 500 — a size theater we don't have nearly enough of in Los Angeles. The sound was great and I liked that the seats weren't chosen on the assumption that all theatergoers are anorexic. I may go there even if I don't like what's playing just to sit. Parking was also quite comfy.

Into the Woods when performed in full (as they're doing) is a bit long and last night, it got a few bits longer. About seven minutes from the end — at a peak dramatic moment — it was suddenly necessary to stop. The house lights came up and a voice on the P.A. system commanded the proceedings to halt due to a medical emergency in the audience. The actors stepped off stage while the on-stage orchestra just sat quietly.

The Beverly Hills Fire Department came in to treat an audience member, then take him out on a stretcher. The house lights then were lowered, the actors returned to their positions and restarted, repeating about the last 90 seconds before the interruption and continuing on through to the end. I was impressed with how smoothly and professionally it was done…and with surprisingly little harm to the presentation. Those folks at the Wallis really have their act together. I want to see more shows there.

Oh, wait. I think I figured it out for myself. Audra McDonald played the Beggarwoman in the "today" scenes and the other actress played her in the flashbacks. That dawned on me five minutes after I posted my puzzlement.

I should also mention that I fear it's indicative of how Republicans in Congress are gunning for PBS that it was deemed necessary to bleep the word "shit" the few times it was uttered. Not long ago on another Live From Lincoln Center broadcast, Beth Behrs from the 2 Broke Girls sitcom performed "Tits and Ass" from A Chorus Line…only she didn't. They made a joke out of her having to substitute other rhyming words for the "t" word. (Yes, I know: The song is actually called "Dance, Ten; Looks, Three." But what I called it is what everyone calls it.)

Also, before anyone writes in, I'm well aware that it wasn't a question of Stephen Sondheim buying his own tickets to the performance. I'm sure they gave him his for half-price.

…and greatly enjoyed the Live From Lincoln Center telecast last night of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Very strong performances all around. The opening, where the cast tossed away their scripts and trashed the stage, was very clever and a nice way of setting the stage for a stripped-down production.

I seem to have missed something, though. I did recognize Audra McDonald in the "surprise" role of the Beggarwoman…but I noted in the end credits, she was listed for the part along with Bryonna Marie Parham. Did two people play the role and I didn't notice? This is probably something very obvious…

And you'd think Sondheim could have sprung for a better seat.

This Friday evening on most PBS Stations, you can watch a concert-style performance of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street starring Emma Thompson and Bryn Terfel with the New York Philharmonic. The two stars are said to be terrific so I've set my TiVo. You might want to set your recording device because unlike most other shows you get on your TV these days, this one may not be repeated.

This is an episode of Live From Lincoln Center and most of those are broadcast once and that's it. They don't usually come out on home video, either. Sometimes, (note the italics for emphasis) they are viewable later on the PBS website for a while. Sometimes, not.

Sweeney Todd is a dark, chilling musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by Hugh Wheeler. It's a tale of madness and obsession and Sondheim lyrics. If you've never seen it, this might be a good time to see it.

A tip of the hat to my friend Bob Claster, who posted on Facebook about this and reminded me to remind you that these don't get repeated over and over. Here's a preview…