What Stephen Sondheim’s “Assassins,” “A Little Night Music” and “Into the Woods” can teach us about life

The problem with Richard Schoch’s “How Sondheim Can Change Your Life” is the title. That being said, it is a valuable addition to the library of any musical theater fan and certainly any Stephen Sondheim fanatic.

The book’s premise is that “a prolonged encounter with (his work) will reveal predicaments—and the paths out of them—that we recognize as our own.” The better we understand Sondheim, the better we will understand ourselves. “

That’s far-fetched. Sondheim is nothing special in this regard. Similar revelations can be found in any good musical. “The Farmer and the Cowman” from “Oklahoma,” for example, is an attempt to understand, “Why can’t we all just get along?”

Furthermore, the revelations Sondheim offers, suggested by Schoch, are rather superficial: “How to love” for his musical “Passion”; “How to Let the Darkness In” for “Assassins”; and “How to Choose the Right Path” for “Into the Woods.”

It’s also important to note that Sondheim’s songs were not written in a vacuum. They weren’t created as a concept CD with a play à la “American Idiot” added to it. In fact, he frequently and aptly noted that they were written in collaboration with some of the big names in musical theater, including Hal Prince, Arthur Laurents and Jerome Robbins, who helped decide where the songs should go, what they should be about and even their pace. In fact, one of Sondheim’s frequent collaborators, James Lapine, wrote the best book ever about the collaborative effort required to create a musical: Putting It Together: How Stephen Sondheim and I Created ‘Sunday In the Park With George’ .”

Fortunately, Schoch does not limit himself to the assumption suggested by his title. As a professor of theater at Queen’s University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, he deals intensively with eleven plays for which Sondheim provided music and/or texts. In any case, he provides insights into the creation of the exhibitions and evaluations of Sondheim’s work.

Consider “A Little Night Music,” where rehearsals began when only 10 of 15 songs were finished. To add to the pressure, director Hal Prince immediately cut two numbers because he thought they were too difficult.

Another problem: However, she was rejected in a crucial “Night Music” scene in which Desirée declared her love for the series’ other lead, Fredrik, in which a song by Fredrik was performed. However, at the last minute, Prince realized that the energy of the scene was coming from Desirée and insisted that Sondheim write a song for her.