BONUS ISSUE: Terrific new Sondheim biography—something familiar, something peculiarRELEASED TODAY: "Art Isn't Easy," a compact portrait of Sondheim's "cultural ventriloquism"
EDITOR’S NOTE: Today’s BONUS issue of MARQUEE is timed so you can get a review of Art Isn’t Easy on its day of release. Tomorrow’s regular issue: “Blaming the producers for $400 tickets is too convenient.”
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Shalom, Broadway lovers!On this week’s marquee: A) a review of Daniel Okrent’s new Sondheim biography; B) a quiz based on trivia and knowledge from the book; C) a Broadway Maven YouTube GEM with an internationally focused Broadway Maven interview with Lynn Ahrens; D) a review of a Maltby-Shire revue; E) a Broadway Maven YouTube GEM that’s a French-language lecture on translating “Losing My Mind” from Follies; and F) a Last Blast about Fiddler on the Roof.
ESSAY: The title of Art Isn’t Easy, the first authoritative biography of Stephen Sondheim in a generation, comes from the musical Sunday in the Park with George. In it, George explains how a successful work of art is put together by its individual elements (”every moment makes a contribution, every little detail plays a part”). The many compelling anecdotes and interpretations woven into the 230 pages of Daniel Okrent’s excellent book fully justify its title. Some interpretations I really liked related to Sondheim’s childhood: the idea that his love of “order” (a key word in Sunday) may date to his memories of military school and that Sondheim’s first experience writing dialogue may have come as a child when he composed his side of the verbal spats he had with his mother. Okrent gives us more Sondheim than most Sondheim biographies do; in (twice) mentioning the names of papers published by his psychotherapist, the book comes as close as I’ve seen in print to brushing against a long-circulating rumor about Sondheim’s intimate life. We also learn about Sondheim’s meeting with the Beatles, and why he didn’t like Bob Dylan’s music; the fact he cried often; the heartfelt reactions of Richard Rodgers and Alan Jay Lerner to the composition of Company; and how “by any definition of the word, Stephen Sondheim was an alcoholic.” Oh, and Okrent provides the best two-word description of Sondheim’s writing project I’ve ever seen: cultural ventriloquism. Despite being part of a Yale University Press series called “Jewish Lives,” the biography doesn’t provide much that’s Jewish, though you can find more than most treatments of Sondheim provide. There are about three pages speculating on the few Jewish characters in his work and their absence elsewhere, and we learn he referred to “the Forum tsuris” and we get a reasonable explanation for his oft-cited claim not to have known what a bar mitzvah is until adulthood. For a man who grew up in New York, it’s a strange premise until you consider that he skipped seventh grade, the year in which junior high schoolers shuffle from celebration to celebration of the coming-of-age-ceremonies of classmates. As long as you can set aside the fact Okrent makes the common mistake of flubbing the name of Madame Rose from Gypsy, and I’ve been able to, the book is an unalloyed gem. BOOK QUIZ: Art Isn’t Easy is soaked through with ingredients from Sondheim’s life that MARQUEE readers will find delicious. Here are several bits of trivia; answers at the end of the issue, beneath the Last Blast. 1. Which Sondheim song was originally called “Drinking Song”? How many did you get right? Put your score below. BROADWAY MAVEN YouTube GEM: Earlier this month, The Broadway Maven hosted Ragtime lyricist Lynn Ahrens. Interviewers included Gordon Cox, whose Substack Jaques covers the Broadway scene from an international perspective. Here are Gordon’s exchanges with Lynn, covering topics like the reception of Ragtime in other countries and the challenges of translating her lyrics. A particular treat from Lynn’s memories of her show Rocky when produced in Germany: How do you translate the gritty urban show into a language without a word for “ain’t”?  GUEST REVIEW: Richard Maltby, Jr. and David Shire are the undisputed titans of the contemporary musical revue / “song cycle” form, having earned the title with their triumphant works Starting Here, Starting Now and Closer Than Ever. Now, as octogenarians, they’ve channeled all of their experience and wisdom into a triumphant conclusion to their trilogy, About Time, playing now at the Marjorie S. Deane Little Theatre in NYC. The writers haven’t hidden the fact that About Time is mostly comprised of their own musical reflections on the experience of aging. And it has found an audience that can relate: I was probably the youngest person in the crowd by forty years. Similarly, all the performers are advanced in age. As Maltby puts it, they aren’t a typical “young and perky” revue cast. But they bring the energy and vocal stamina you’d expect from performers twenty years their junior, with the nuance and wisdom that clearly comes from life experience. Eddie Korbich, the original Zangara from Sondheim and Weidman’s Assassins, leads the company as a kind of stand-in for the writers, and he is remarkable; his high tenor resonated with unbelievable ease even at a Wednesday matinee. Musically, it is beyond beautiful: Shire’s vocal harmonies blew me to the back of my seat and melted my heart. The unconventional band boasts two pianists and a bassist—the note-perfect pianists share two grand pianos which take up most of the stage. Dramatically, it hits the mark just as well: despite the fact that it’s a revue and therefore it has no story, it does follow an abstract internal logic, and its structure succeeds at delivering a significant catharsis. I found myself very emotional by the end, and arguably, I’m not even the target audience. Lyrically, theater nerds will absolutely geek out about some of Maltby’s wicked-smart rhymes: “adventure / dementia” becomes a perfect rhyme in the right dialect, and even “orange” has a perfect rhyme if you’re resourceful enough to rhyme it with the “foreignj” of “foreign, just.” If you can, I highly recommend checking out this masterclass in song cycle/ revue creation from some of musical theatre’s greatest living artists. About Time runs at the Marjorie S. Deane Little Theatre until April 5. —Mateo Chavez Lewis BROADWAY MAVEN YouTube GEM: At an early March Jewish studies conference in Paris, I gave a (French-language) talk in which the translation of Sondheim’s “Losing My Mind” (Follies) into French was a focus. Any translation of sophisticated lyrics or poetry involves agonizing choices, as the translator tries to stay close both to the meaning and the style of the original—which is tough with pretty much any of The Master’s lyrics. My own translation aimed to stick as much as possible to Sondheimian uses of language and sound while providing the gist of the meanings. Example: the first four words “The sun comes up” translate nicely given Sondheim’s affection for alliteration, assonance, and word painting: “Le soleil se lève.” 
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LAST BLAST: The title Fiddler on the Roof refers to the precarious balancing act of tradition in Anatevka, but the metaphor runs deeper. A fiddle only produces music when its strings are stretched tight between two fixed points. The bow then pulls across those taut strings, creating vibration and sound. Without tension, there is no music—just silence. That’s exactly how life in Anatevka works. Fathers and daughters, tradition and change, faith and doubt are all stretched against each other. The community’s harmony doesn’t come from eliminating conflict but from holding those opposing forces in balance. The fiddler survives on the roof the same way his instrument works: by maintaining tension without letting it snap. ANSWERS TO BOOK QUIZ: 1. “The Ladies Who Lunch” 2. A Little Night Music 3. George Furth 4. Richard Rodgers 5. Jerome Robbins 6. “It’s hot and it’s monotonous.” 7. The Wiz 8. Desperate Housewives 9. LGBT 10. Ambivalence The Broadway Maven is a vibrant educational community that helps its members think more deeply about musical theater. We offer 5-15 classes a month for just $25. We also foster enthusiasm for Broadway through the FREE weekly Substack newsletter MARQUEE and host an expansive YouTube channel. It’s your home for Broadway appreciation. Contact The Broadway Maven at DavidBenkof@gmail.com. You're currently a free subscriber to MARQUEE: The Broadway Maven's Weekly Blast. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription.
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BONUS ISSUE: Terrific new Sondheim biography—something familiar, something peculiar
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