Happiness indeed
The nail-biting adventures of Voltaire’s titular hero Candide are hardly more circuitous than those faced by Leonard Bernstein’s 1956 Broadway musical adaptation.
Harold Prince
11 pieces since 2015 — at 1 company, most often at New York City Opera.
11
pieces
1
company
12
years
By company
If you could see it through my eyes
Each successive version pushed the envelope further… and was less effective.
They trod a path that many have trod
Sweeney Todd is by any measure a triumphant show, the kind that makes an audience understand why Broadway is American theater’s gold standard
Hate-watch
I can’t imagine anyone watching this two-hour schlockfest at home and then dropping $150 for the privilege to see it again, masked and in an uncomfortable chair.
What’s my motivation?
Wagner must intrude at some point because he invented film music.
Pie à la mode
Stephen Sondheim turns 90 on Sunday, prompting Trove Thursday to present his most “operatic” work, Sweeney Todd, in a rare 2002 performance with Christine Baranski and Brian Stokes Mitchell as the murderous duo.
Musical theater of the absurd
It’s easy to see why Leonard Bernstein’s Candide was a flop when it premiered on Broadway.
Will you tell me what it’s all for?
“Good God—an adult musical!”
Each in her style a Delilah reborn
Forty-five years ago today, Stephen Sondheim’s brilliant, frustrating Follies played its first Broadway preview at the Winter Garden Theatre.
Cherubino jumps the shark
Homer, inspired by many a muse, sang not of sequels to his Iliad.