{"product_id":"sondheim-lyrics-isbn-9781101908167","title":"Sondheim: Lyrics","description":"\u003cb\u003eA beautiful hardcover selection of the most memorable and beloved lyrics of America’s greatest composer and lyricist, Stephen Sondheim. AN EVERYMAN'S LIBRARY POCKET POET.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLegendary composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim (1930–2021) made his Broadway debut with \u003ci\u003eWest Side Story\u003c\/i\u003e in 1957 at the age of twenty-seven. Along his remarkable and wide-ranging career spanning more than six decades, he accumulated accolades that include eight Tony Awards, an Academy Award, eight Grammy Awards, six Laurence Olivier Awards, a Pulitzer Prize, the Kennedy Center Honors, and a Presidential Medal of Freedom. Sondheim redefined musical theater with his groundbreaking work, combining words and music in ways that are by turns challenging, moving, witty, profound, and never less than exhilarating.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis volume includes a selection of lyrics from across his career, drawn from shows including \u003ci\u003eWest Side Story\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eGypsy\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eCompany\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eFollies\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eA Little Night Music\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eSweeney Todd\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eSunday in the Park with George\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eInto the Woods\u003c\/i\u003e, and more, including:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e• “Somewhere” from \u003ci\u003eWest Side Story\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e• “Momma’s Talkin’ Soft” from \u003ci\u003eGypsy\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e• “A Hero is Coming” from \u003ci\u003eAnyone Can Whistle\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e• “Someone Like You” from \u003ci\u003eDo I Hear A Waltz\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e• “Being Alive” from \u003ci\u003eCompany\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e• “The Road You Didn’t Take” from \u003ci\u003eFollies\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e• “Send in the Clowns” from A Little Night Music\u003cbr\u003e• “Not While I’m Around” from \u003ci\u003eSweeney Todd\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e• “Sunday” from \u003ci\u003eSunday in the Park with George\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e• “Children Will Listen” from \u003ci\u003eInto the Woods\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe result is a delightful pocket-sized treasury of the very best of Sondheim.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEveryman's Library pursues the highest production standards, printing on acid-free cream-colored paper, with full-cloth cases with two-color foil stamping, decorative endpapers, silk ribbon markers, European-style half-round spines, and a full-color illustrated jacket.\u003ci\u003eIntroduction \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e SATURDAY NIGHT (1954)\u003cbr\u003e Love’s a Bond\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e WEST SIDE STORY (1957)\u003cbr\u003e Gee, Officer Krupke\u003cbr\u003e Cool\u003cbr\u003e Somewhere\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e GYPSY (1959)\u003cbr\u003e Momma’s Talkin’ Soft\u003cbr\u003e Rose’s Turn\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM (1962)\u003cbr\u003e Comedy Tonight\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e ANYONE CAN WHISTLE (1964)\u003cbr\u003e Anyone Can Whistle\u003cbr\u003e A Hero Is Coming\u003cbr\u003e Everybody Says Don’t\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e DO I HEAR A WALTZ? (1965)\u003cbr\u003e Do I Hear a Waltz?\u003cbr\u003e Someone Like You\u003cbr\u003e Take the Moment\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e EVENING PRIMROSE (1966)\u003cbr\u003e I Remember\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e COMPANY (1970)\u003cbr\u003e The Little Things You Do Together\u003cbr\u003e The Ladies Who Lunch\u003cbr\u003e Being Alive\u003cbr\u003e Multitudes of Amys\u003cbr\u003e Marry Me a Little\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e FOLLIES (1971)\u003cbr\u003e The Road You Didn’t Take\u003cbr\u003e Who’s That Woman?\u003cbr\u003e I’m Still Here\u003cbr\u003e Could I Leave You?\u003cbr\u003e Losing My Mind\u003cbr\u003e The Story of Lucy and Jessie\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC (1973)\u003cbr\u003e Now\u003cbr\u003e Soon\u003cbr\u003e Later\u003cbr\u003e The Miller’s Son\u003cbr\u003e Send in the Clowns\u003cbr\u003e Every Day a Little Death\u003cbr\u003e Remember?\u003cbr\u003e Liaisons\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e THE FROGS (1974)\u003cbr\u003e Paean: Hades\u003cbr\u003e All Aboard!\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e PACIFIC OVERTURES (1976)\u003cbr\u003e Poems\u003cbr\u003e A Bowler Hat\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e SWEENEY TODD (1979)\u003cbr\u003e A Little Priest\u003cbr\u003e Not While I’m Around\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e MARRY ME A LITTLE (1980)\u003cbr\u003e Uptown\/Downtown\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG (1981)\u003cbr\u003e Like It Was\u003cbr\u003e Not a Day Goes By (Reprise)\u003cbr\u003e Not a Day Goes By\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE (1984)\u003cbr\u003e Sunday in the Park with George\u003cbr\u003e Everybody Loves Louis\u003cbr\u003e Beautiful\u003cbr\u003e Sunday\u003cbr\u003e Finishing the Hat\u003cbr\u003e Putting It Together\u003cbr\u003e Children and Art\u003cbr\u003e Move On\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e INTO THE WOODS (1986)\u003cbr\u003e I Know Things Now\u003cbr\u003e Giants in the Sky\u003cbr\u003e No One Is Alone\u003cbr\u003e Agony\u003cbr\u003e Moments in the Woods\u003cbr\u003e On the Steps of the Palace\u003cbr\u003e Children Will Listen\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e ASSASSINS (1990)\u003cbr\u003e The Ballad of Booth\u003cbr\u003e The Ballad of Czolgosz\u003cbr\u003e The Ballad of Guiteau\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e DICK TRACY (1990)\u003cbr\u003e What Can You Lose? \u003cbr\u003e More\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e PASSION (1994)\u003cbr\u003e I Wish I Could Forget You\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e BOUNCE (2003)\u003cbr\u003e The Game (Reprise)\u003cbr\u003e The Game (Version 2)STEPHEN SONDHEIM wrote award-winning music and lyrics for theater, film, and television. He is the author of \u003ci\u003eFinishing the Hat: Collected Lyrics (1954–1981)\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eLook, I Made a Hat: Collected Lyrics (1981–2011)\u003c\/i\u003e. He is also the coauthor of the film \u003ci\u003eThe Last of Sheila\u003c\/i\u003e and the play \u003ci\u003eGetting Away with Murder\u003c\/i\u003e. Sondheim was on the council of the Dramatists Guild of America, having served as its president from 1973 to 1981. He lived in New York City. He died in 2021.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRUSSELL PERREAULT was the executive director of publicity and social media for Penguin Random House's Vintage Anchor imprint and for the Everyman’s Library series of hardcover classics at Alfred A. Knopf. He died in 2019. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePETER GETHERS is a novelist, publisher, and screenwriter, and author of the bestseller \u003ci\u003eThe Cat Who Went to Paris. \u003c\/i\u003eUnder the pseudonym Russell Andrews, he has written the bestselling thrillers \u003ci\u003eGideon \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eIcarus\u003c\/i\u003e. He lives in New York City, Sag Harbor, and Sicily.INTRODUCTION by Peter Gethers\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Nearly fifteen years ago, I was lucky enough to be at a dinner with Stephen Sondheim. I was not – and am not – a huge fan of musical theater but was – and am even more so now – what can only be described as a “Sondheim fanatic.” I saw the original Broadway production of \u003ci\u003eCompany \u003c\/i\u003ewhen I was a teenager and it completely altered my view of not only what musicals could do but of what theater was capable of doing. The show was angry, dark, cynical, funny and reflected the\u003cbr\u003e angst of that period as well as the anguish, humor and thrill of relationships in a profound and stunning way. It was life-changing. \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e For some inexplicable reason, I missed seeing \u003ci\u003eFollies \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eMerrily We Roll Along \u003c\/i\u003ein their initial runs, but have seen every other original Broadway production of Stephen’s shows. I saw the fi rst version of his collaboration with James Lapine, \u003ci\u003eSunday in the Park with George, \u003c\/i\u003etwice and that’s when my fanaticism kicked into an even higher gear. It was unquestionably the greatest night of theater I had ever experienced and having now attended various productions over the years, that opinion holds. I’ve not only traveled to cities around this country to see local productions of Sondheim shows (the Philadelphia version of \u003ci\u003eAssassins \u003c\/i\u003ewas particularly memorable, with the assassination of Lincoln taking place in the actual balcony of the theater), I went to London several times so I wouldn’t miss specific productions and performances (such as Judi Dench in \u003ci\u003eA Little Night Music \u003c\/i\u003eand Imelda Staunton in \u003ci\u003eGypsy\u003c\/i\u003e).\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e At that initial dinner were two longtime Sondheim friends – William Goldman, who had known him pre-\u003ci\u003eWest Side Story\u003c\/i\u003e, and Frank Rich, who had arranged the evening – and various spouses and companions. I learned that Sondheim shared my taste for noir movies and for Alan Ayckbourn’s plays, and got to hear stories about six-room apartments on Manhattan’s Upper West Side in the 1950s for $200 a month, and script doctoring Broadway shows during out-of-town tryouts, and something I never knew existed: anonymous song doctoring for Broadway musicals, which Sondheim had done in his youth to pick up some spare change and get a taste of the glamorous theater life. As a dutiful book editor, I asked the great man why he had never collected all his lyrics in a single volume. His answer was a tad surprising: “My ultimate nightmare is to see all my lyrics in one place.”\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Undeterred by this seeming roadblock, I began to send pestering notes every three months or so, reintroducing myself, reminding him of our dinner together, and asking if he was ready to do a book of his lyrics. In response, I would get a handwritten note that basically and always politely thanked me and ended with a firm no. Then, nearly three years later, my assistant appeared in my doorway and said, breathlessly, “Stephen Sondheim just called and asked for your email address.” I calmly said, “Well, give it to him.” Several minutes later, a chapter arrived in my email inbox. Fittingly, the pages were about \u003ci\u003eCompany\u003c\/i\u003e, and it was not just a collection of lyrics, it was a very personal history of the production and analysis of many of the songs and even a bit of autobiography. That chapter was chosen to try first because the author thought it would be the\u003cbr\u003e hardest for him to write and would prove that his prose was not worthy of a full-fledged book.  The author was, of course, as wrong as he could possibly be, and that chapter eventually became, over the course of a few years, two full volumes, \u003ci\u003eFinishing the Hat \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eLook, I Made a Hat \u003c\/i\u003eand I believe, along with Moss Hart’s \u003ci\u003eAct One \u003c\/i\u003eand Goldman’s \u003ci\u003eThe Season\u003c\/i\u003e, they are the best and\u003cbr\u003e most valuable books ever written and published about the theater.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Working with Stephen was a pleasure and an education. The process was largely my asking questions that he usually answered, my making comments that  he usually told me were wrong, and my arguing that he was too hard on his own lyrics and that his self criticisms weren’t correct, arguments I won on a few occasions.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e While working together, here are a few of the things I learned about his lyric writing and his writing process:\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e – His overriding mantra is that God is in the details, and he will ponder and analyze those details until he gets as close to perfection as possible. Perhaps the best example of this is in the song “Losing My Mind.” Look at the difference in impact the shift from “and” to “to” has in the following stanza: \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e I dim the lights\u003cbr\u003e And think about you,\u003cbr\u003e Spend sleepless nights\u003cbr\u003e To think about you.\u003cbr\u003e You said you loved me,\u003cbr\u003e Or were you just being kind?\u003cbr\u003e Or am I losing my mind?\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e It would have been easy to repeat the word “and” but the shift creates such a higher level of anxiety and passion and obsession. The detail completely changes the level of turbulence in the song. \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e – Mr. Sondheim doesn’t like cleverness for the sake of being clever. His lyrical cleverness must be character driven (“A Little Priest”) or must come from the fact that he is trying to write within a particular song style or genre (“The Story of Lucy and Jessie”).\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e – He believes – no, insists – that lyrics are not poetry. One reason impossible to argue with is that lyrics are not written in a vacuum; they are written to go with music. True. But here is the OED definition of poetry: “noun. A piece of writing in which the expression of feelings and ideas is given intensity by particular attention to diction (sometimes involving rhyme), rhythm,\u003cbr\u003e and imagery.” So I don’t get another email from Mr. Sondheim with the words “You are wrong” in the heading, I will let the readers decide for themselves if the words in this collection qualify as poetry. Read them in this collection or read them in their entirety in the two more complete books or listen to them with their accompanying music (mostly also Mr. Sondheim’s). I’m fairly sure I know on which side of the fence you will alight.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e – For someone who I believe is the most emotionally devastating lyricist who ever lived (if you don’t like the sound of hysterical sobbing, try not to be anywhere in the vicinity if I am listening to “Children and Art”), he maintains a curious emotional distance from his own lyrics, vehemently maintaining that he writes only from the character’s perspective, not from his own. Do I believe this? Not really. At least not entirely. Yes, the emotional range of his lyrics is astonishing and worthy of an enormous crowd with disparate views. And while the melancholy of “Beautiful” may belong to Seurat’s mother, and the plaintiveness of “Children Will Listen” may belong to the Witch, and the bitterness of “Could I Leave You?” certainly belongs to Phyllis, and the loneliness of “I Wish I Could Forget You” emanates from both Giorgio and Fosca, and the genuine frivolity of “Comedy Tonight” bubbles out of Pseudolus, and the magnificent combination of cynicism and celebration of “Being Alive” comes from the soul of Bobby, they all can only belong to the genius, demons, love, and yes, poetry that all live inside Stephen Sondheim.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e PETER GETHERS","brand":"Everyman's Library","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46302490591461,"sku":"NP9781101908167","price":14.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781101908167.jpg?v=1767736949","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/sondheim-lyrics-isbn-9781101908167","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}