Losing My Mind: A Sondheim Disco Fever Dream

November 28, 2021 5:20 AM

Stephen Sondheim left us with many things from his many musicals, but surely disco is not something you'd think of. But no! Losing My Mind: A Sondheim Disco Fever Dream [YouTube playlist, 45m] is a mashup/reimagining of the Sondheim oeuvre into something entirely unexpected, joyous, and fun. Playbill breaks it all down for you, track by track. I think the only shows not represented are The Frogs and Road Show. Putting It Together podcast interviews the creators. [40m] Purchase and streaming links!

A more pure Sondheim experience... either too much of nor not enough of a good thing, is the 10h45m of Wall To Wall Sondheim [Archive.org, streaming and download links available], a show given at SymphonySpace in NYC for Sondheim's 75th birthday, 12 hours in total, here edited down a bit. Playbill has all the details of who performs what during the really amazing set.

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A chronological listing of interviews I've really enjoyed while researching this series. This is IMO the top of the heap.

The American Musical Theater featured Stephen Sondheim way back in 1961. [45m] Includes, for some reason, a fun false start. Old television, pre-Forum even! Establishing a form that will be repeated again and again.

1971 found Sondheim at the 92nd St Y for a lecture in their Lyrics and Lyricists series [2h14m]. This is audio only, but it's amazing. Sondheim loosens up and shares a lot about his thought processes. Hat Tip to How the runs scored for this gem!

Andre Previn filmed The World Of Sondheim [58m] in 1977, interviewing Sondheim along with the original London cast of Side By Side By Sondheim.

1994's Actors Studio appearance [1h] includes performances by Liz Callaway and Jim Walton.

Here's a 92nd St Y appearance of Sondheim from 2000 [56m] with Liz Callaway and Jonathan Dokuchitz, and Sondheim is really loose and fun in this one.

Barbara Cook and Stephen Sondheim were interviewed by the New York Times critic Stephen Holden in 2004. [51m] Enjoyable and nice performances.

Sondheim was interviewed by Adam Guettel (The Light In The Piazza) about The Art Of Songwriting [1h4m] for the Dramatists Guild Foundation in 2009. Really warm and delightful interview with a lot of less common biographical information but also solid stuff on songwriting. One of the best interviews of this bunch.

A 2012 interview for the Institute Of Advanced Studies [1h6m] has sound that sucks for the first 5 minutes and gets dramatically better. The conversation is quite worthwhile, though.

Steve Reich and Steven Sondheim were interviewed together at Lincoln Center in 2015. [2h4m] Performances of music by both composers, and interesting conversation.

Sondheim-adjacent, we have this interview with Thomas Z Stoppard [1h37m], who recorded so many of Sondheim's cast albums (and a lot of others, really). Full if interesting insights. He doesn't comment on the Disco Sweeney Todd track he created in the 70s, however.

posted by hippybear (13 comments total)

I was going to post this next weekend, but just couldn't bear having all these tabs hanging around for a week. Plus, maybe people want this material now instead of later.

This is the end of my Sondheim series. Long may he wave!
posted by hippybear at 5:21 AM on November 28, 2021 [31 favorites]

Thanks hippybear. Great series.
posted by still_wears_a_hat at 7:36 AM on November 28, 2021 [1 favorite]

hippybear, I'm directing a lot of "why was he so revered" people to your Sondheim posts as entry points to Sondheim's work, as well as sending Sondheim fanatics for deep dives and new-to-them material. This is a treasure trove of a collection and I'm so glad you made them all, especially now.
posted by tzikeh at 8:56 AM on November 28, 2021 [2 favorites]

Thank you so, so much for all of your loving work on this, hippybear. It is a beautiful tribute.
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 9:14 AM on November 28, 2021 [1 favorite]

Please listen to this disco album. It's amazing!
posted by hippybear at 11:21 AM on November 28, 2021 [2 favorites]

Much thanks. This mashup is remarkably considered and thoughtful.
posted by ZeusHumms at 11:25 AM on November 28, 2021 [1 favorite]

Thank you again for all of these.
posted by blurker at 1:07 PM on November 28, 2021

Hippybear, thank you so much for this series. I've learned a lot about Sondheim, even shows I was already familiar with. (That disco album is really something!)
posted by mersen at 4:05 PM on November 28, 2021

Once again: a million thanks for this, Hippybear. The man couldn't have asked for a better tribute than this series of posts.

And if you still need seven more minutes of Sondheim-meets-disco (and just in case this hasn't been linked already), here's my favorite, courtesy of Liza Minnelli and the Pet Shop Boys.
posted by How the runs scored at 7:23 PM on November 28, 2021 [1 favorite]

Thanks, hippybear. I've appreciated this series so much.
posted by Tesseractive at 3:33 PM on November 29, 2021

Someone asked me for this, so I figured I'd post it here.

Sondheim Series, in chronological order:

Saturday Night (1954)
A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum (1962)
Anyone Can Whistle (1964)
Evening Primrose (1966)
Stephen Sondheim's Crossword Puzzles (1968-1969)
Company (1970)
Follies (1971)
A Little Night Music (1973)
The Frogs (1974)
Pacific Overtures (1976)
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street (1979)
Marry Me A Little (1980)
Merrily We Roll Along (1981)
Sunday In The Park With George (1984)
Into The Woods (1987)
Assassins (1990)
Passion (1994)
Wise Guys/Gold!/Bounce/Road Show (1999-2008)
Six By Sondheim (2013)
Losing My Mind: A Sondheim Disco Fever Dream (2020)
posted by hippybear at 9:19 PM on November 29, 2021 [2 favorites]

This is a treasure trove of a collection and I'm so glad you made them all, especially now.

I wish I'd known where I was going to end up where I started. When I look at Pacific Overtures, the first post, it seems so... barebones.
posted by hippybear at 7:55 PM on November 30, 2021

I downloaded the Wall To Wall Sondheim concert, and one of my favorite things is just putting that on random. So much really great music, all performed so fully.
posted by hippybear at 9:39 PM on December 6, 2021