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Almost all the shows I've been connected with have been extremely well cast. They're playing the show, not just doing the songs.

Stephen Sondheim

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Stephen Sondheim
Age: 94
Born: 1930
Born: March 22
Author
Composer
Dramaturge
Librettist
Lyricist
Musician
Poet
Screenwriter
Songwriter
New York City
New York
Stephen Joshua Sondheim
Songs
Playing
Almost
Show
Song
Cast
Shows
Extremely
Wells
Casts
Well
Connected

More quotes by Stephen Sondheim

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Generally, the best recording is the original cast, because that's the way the piece grew: integrally, with them.
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I firmly believe lyrics have to breathe and give the audience's ear a chance to understand what's going on. Particularly in the theater, where you have costume, story, acting, orchestra.
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Oh if life were made of moments Even now and then a bad one--! But if life were only moments, Then you'd never know you had one.
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Take a play that you like but you think is flawed, and see if you can improve it and turn it into a musical. [...] Then make up your own story.
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I do not hope for what I cannot have! I do not cling to things I cannot keep!
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The worst thing you can do is censor yourself as the pencil hits the paper. You must not edit until you get it all on paper. If you can put everything down, stream-of-consciousness, you'll do yourself a service.
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It should be interesting to see two entirely different ways to treat a story, geared for two entirely different kinds of audience.
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By the time I get through writing a score, I know the book better than the book writer does, because I've examined every word, and questioned the book writer on every word.
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I've always preferred actors who sing to singers who act in all the shows I've done.
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In the Rodgers and Hammerstein generation, popular hits came out of shows and movies.
Stephen Sondheim
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The man i'll never be, Who remembers him?
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Pointillism takes emotional images, character, etc., and makes them all come together and make a whole that tells a story.
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One difference between poetry and lyrics is that lyrics sort of fade into the background. They fade on the page and live on the stage when set to music.
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When I was growing up, there was no such thing as Off-Broadway. You either got your show on or you didn't.
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The truth is that I don't like rehearsals. I get embarrassed hearing my own work. I assume that the cast is embarrassed to sing the stuff.
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There's something inimical about the camera and song.
Stephen Sondheim
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The Tonys ignored West Side Story. The Tonys ignored Gypsy. It's a kind of public humiliation.
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Every writer I've ever spoken to feels fraudulent in some way or other.
Stephen Sondheim
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I'm sure many writers have these strange, tiny little habits.
Stephen Sondheim
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Math and music are intimately related. Not necessarily on a conscious level, but sure.
Stephen Sondheim