Thanks for this - such a young Stephen and his views on his own work. And so interesting how the style of singing has changed over the years. ZT'l Stephen, you live one through your words and music.
Just WOW. What a gem to get to see and experience. How I wish this kind of excellence was far more prevalent than what passes today for the art and craft of musical theater. I am so delighted to have been able to see this and hear the gorgeous voices, and the spectacular music conducted and played so brilliantly.
Wonderful to listen to Stephen talking about how he creates such supreme lyrics, and to have the song performed by such great singers. Thank You for a glorious upload.
This was back when high school students dressed up (ties for the boys, necklaces for the girls) because they were going to be in the audience for a TV show.
This is a really fascinating historical document. Pre-Funny Thing where Sondheim is already tinkering with the form of musical theater before he would re-define it completely as his mentor had with Showboat and Oklahoma. He would hold his opinions about his lyrics in Gypsy and West Side Story for a long time when, many years later, he would repeat them in his two wonderful books about lyrics. Beyond Sondheim, the host talks about the "men" who create musical theater. And it was men mostly. And then there is the totally male orchestra, mostly white. This is surely a black-and-white document of a different time when musical theater in particular was at the cusp of major changes.
Great look at history here. I'm so sad that very few of these TV studios with orchestras/bands/grand pianos exist any more. But I'm also heartened that more women are involved in professional music making in orchestras and composing in the public sphere nowadays. It certainly was an era!
36:08 Jazz pianist Hall of Famer Hank Jones, who recorded with the greatest names in music, from Coleman Hawkins, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, et al, was also CBS Orchestra pianist for 19 years. He worked many years in the orchestra on the Ed Sullivan Show, accompanying Barbra Streisand and other singers on ballad features when they appeared.
The "Small World" performance in this really made me wish one could watch the original Gypsy with Ethel Merman, so I went looking for it and found it! Here goes: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-g4lOiej0kNw.htmlsi=Sw61hbifzJY83I_9 Obviously we all knew how she sung those songs, but comparing the delivery here to, say, the incredible LuPone version from 2007/8 and it's night and day. Current versions of Gypsy are so funny and a bit more on the nose with the humour, seeing the same material performed with this classic style of acting is quite interesting, especially from Merman. "Small World" for example is such a funny song, yet in this it's played completely straight, probably because it's removed from the context of the actual show.
