I realize it's to be expected, what with the passage of time and all, but I'll be damned if the celebrity deaths aren't starting to hit closer and closer to home. We lost Stephen Sondheim last week. He was 91. He gave us stories we can treasure forever, and his light will continue to shine as long as his work is performed.
Doesn't mean I'm not still bummed, though.
I could wax poetic about the exhilaration that the challenge of Sondheim's music presented to the performer. I could wax poetic about the texture and depth of his stories and characters. I could wax poetic about how he managed to weave philosophy and empathy and social themes and all manner of life-reflected-in-art motifs throughout his works.
But I think that maybe, instead, I'll let his work do the...well, work. These are a handful of my favorites--you'll notice a bias for performances by Bernadette Peters, sorry not sorry. Some have video, some are just the album cover and the audio, but you get the idea.
Children Will Listen (Okay, so this one is a medley of Sondheim and Rodgers/Hammerstein's You've Got to be Carefully Taught, but it works, m'kay?)
The Witch's Rap/Greens, Greens
You Could Drive A Person Crazy
"Sometimes people leave you
Halfway through the wood
Do not let it grieve you
No one leaves for good
You are not alone
No one is alone"
Godspeed, Mr. Sondheim.
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