Jonathan Larson's Sunday
December 5, 2021 1:17 PM   Subscribe

Sunday is a Sondheim pastiche from Rent composer Jonathan Larson that is featured in Lin-Manuel Miranda's film tick, tick... BOOM. The star-studded filming took quite a bit to pull off. [How “Tick, Tick…Boom!” Pulled Off Its Surprise All-Star Musical Number HarpersBazaar, medium-long read, oral history format] posted by hippybear (8 comments total) 9 users marked this as a favorite
 
Oh wow. Wow.

Can anybody tell me the final word of the song? It sounds like "braaaah" - is it going to "brunch" or "bright" or something?
posted by amtho at 1:33 PM on December 5, 2021


Yes, it's brunch.

Here's a list of all the cameos.
posted by still_wears_a_hat at 2:10 PM on December 5, 2021 [2 favorites]


Ctrl-F in the page still_wears_a_hat linked... Bernadette Peters found... Ok definitely watching this!
posted by rogerroger at 2:38 PM on December 5, 2021


I managed to hold my laughter until two minutes in. Bums bums bums, bums bums bums bums bums bums...
posted by KChasm at 3:07 PM on December 5, 2021 [1 favorite]


There are worse things than watching a great video on a Sunday...

Sunday on the Blue with Jon...
posted by cynical pinnacle at 5:27 PM on December 5, 2021 [1 favorite]


I was hoping for a broader range of sources, but this sounds like barely-altered Sunday in the Park with George all the way through, directly lifting entire lyrics and note sequences.
posted by one for the books at 5:52 PM on December 5, 2021


@one for the books, yes, I believe that is the point of the original Larson piece? Sondheim was a major source of inspiration for Larson, and writing the song for this musical was a way of Larson paying tribute in a humorous way to Sondheim.

Sondheim actually appears as a character in the movie version of the musical (not sure about his character's role in the musical outside of the movie version); the real life Stephen Sondheim actually provided a recording that is used at the end of the movie.

Before he passed, Miranda wrote to Sondheim to say that his ears must have been burning from all the people sharing memories of how Sondheim had mentored them [ as he mentored Larson ], and Sondheim wrote back "It's an aspect of my life I'm proud of. I feel as if I've repaid (partially, at leaat) what I owe Oscar"

So, sure, the number may be a "barely-altered Sunday in the Park with George all the way through", but I think that was the intent, and I would venture to say that Sondheim himself didn't mind.
posted by kellygrape at 6:57 PM on December 5, 2021 [3 favorites]


but this sounds like barely-altered Sunday in the Park with George all the way through

Sunday In The Park With George is the opening number to the show. This is a pastiche of Sunday, the closing number of Act 1 of the show.
posted by hippybear at 7:27 PM on December 5, 2021 [1 favorite]


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