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Written by Harry Cherkinian, Contributing writer
Dec 30, 2010
“Finishing the Hat: Collected Lyrics (1954-1981) With Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines and Anec-dotes” by Stephen Sondheim (Alfred A. Knopf., 445 pps., $39.95)
Hearing Stephen Sondheim interviewed just feet away from me was completely unplanned. During my annual trek to Ravinia to see “Sunday in the Park with George,” a voice came over the loudspeaker and announced that Sondheim would be interviewed on the main stage in 10 minutes, along with James Lapine, who directed a number of Sondheim shows.
I made a mad dash to a front row center seat in time to hear Sondheim and Lapine, seated on living room-sized chairs, politely answer questions. The session was broadcast live on Chicago area radio.
For a theater junkie who has assiduously followed Sondheim’s career, the experience was as educational as it was magical.
How fitting then that Sondheim has titled the first volume of his new autobiography “Finishing the Hat” from a song in “Sunday in the Park with George.” The subtitle – “Collected Lyrics (1954-1981) with Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines and Anecdotes” – provides an accurate summation of what you’ll find in this illustrated, coffee table-size volume.
“Finishing the Hat” explores Sondheim’s process for making music. Given his collaborations with such creative luminaries as Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Robbins, Harold Prince, Arthur Laurents and Larry Gelbart, among others, the book offers great insight into modern day American musical theater.
For Sondheim-philes, the book is a must-have. It includes production information, cast lists and other details, and it offers a glimpse into the trials and trepidations of one of the most enigmatic composers living today.
It wasn’t until the premiere of “Gypsy” (1959) that Sondheim felt he finally had achieved success with his lyrics, despite the success of “West Side Story” two years earlier. “A Funny Thing Happened o the Way to the Forum” was the first time both his own music and lyrics would be featured in a Broadway show, but instead of exhilaration, “I felt a rapidly burgeoning panic,” he writes.
Sondheim doesn’t hide his sensitivity to criticism. Of “Company,” his experimental 1970 work about relationships, he admits, “I had no idea ‘Company’ would be so unsettling to public and critics alike, but then I’ve been similarly naïve about almost every musical I’ve been connected with.”
“Finishing the Hat” is an excellent primer on how musicals get put together, despite seemingly insurmountable odds. A case in point is the history of “Anyone Can Whistle.” During a pre-Broadway tryout, one of the main supporting players suffered a heart attack and a dancer fell into the orchestra pit and landed on a string player, who suffered a concussion and died a few days later. And the show’s star, Angela Lansbury, was not working out and was almost replaced.
“Finishing the Hat” makes Sondheim and his work accessible in a way not seen or read before. And since this first volume takes us only through 1981’s “Merrily We Roll Along,” there is so much more Sondheim to explore – and savor.
