CBS Sunday Morning Stephen Sondheim Tribute

isn't it rich [Music] it's sunday morning on cbs and here again is jane pauley it happened this past week on friday we learned of the passing of stephen sondheim a legendary songwriter who reshaped the broadway musical moroccan begins our appreciation stephen sondheim forced the american musical to grow up and he showed me things many beautiful things that i hadn't thought to explore leading audiences to places they've never been before and he made me feel excited well excited and scared to become like little red riding hood and into the woods confronted with the new sometimes scary always exciting sondheim was just 26 when he wrote the lyrics for west side story a then shockingly dark look at gang life in new york city [Music] the very next year he wrote the lyrics for gypsy about the mother of all stage mothers an antihero for the ages he could have made a very fine living sticking to words but he wanted to write the words and music and so began a string of creative if only rarely commercial triumphs would subject matter well outside the confines of boy meets girl follies featuring aging showgirls set in a decaying theater was about faded dreams the pulitzer prize winning sunday in the park with george about the painter george serra obsessively working watching the rest of the world from a window sondheim himself was raised primarily by a mother he described as a social climber and whom he resented but as a boy he met the great lyricist oscar hammerstein of rogers and hammerstein the relationship would set him on his course i attached myself to oscar in the sense that i wanted to be what he was now you know i've often said that if he'd been an archaeologist i would have been an archaeologist instead sondheim became a kind of anthropologist a master observer of human behavior a man who never had children and yet wrote the classic children will listen [Music] to write his 1970 breakthrough hit company a musical about marriage sondheim a gay man who until that point was unattached invited his friend mary rogers over one evening to tell him about married life he took out a yellow legal pad and after two hours he said he had most of the score including a personal favorite of mine sorry grateful you're always sorry you're always grateful no doubt about it no one did ambivalence better than sondheim just one reason some of the greatest actors of the last half century are only grateful to have sung his words and music and who better to pick up this tribute than patti lupone starring in the current revival of company and who last year spoke with stephen sondheim for us [Music] isn't it rich [Music] i've known stephen sondheim for 40 years and have had the privilege of appearing in six of his musicals so last year just before steve's 90th birthday and what was supposed to be the opening of a groundbreaking production of company we sat down for a one-on-one are you ready for these questions i'm not allowed to move my head so i'm gonna have to answer it like this hi patty it's awfully good to see you you look great how's matt how's the kid how's everything everything's great oh that's wonderful we laughed and chatted about our love of movies my education is hollywood movies you and me both exactly we better not get on to that because we will never stop and steve answered some rapid fire questions how about dawn or dusk that's a nice one um i guess i like dusk better vanilla or chocolate vanilla coffee or tea tea velvet or silk both of them give me the creeps okay no more of those right right both steve and i were excited for the premiere of company with a fresh perspective instead of bobby with a y it would be bobby with an i.e what's happening in the audience is it's an extraordinary experience not just because it's gender bent or it has nothing to do with it being gender banned it's because company is back on broadway is to the ladies who lunch every laugh today steve's work has transcended broadway his musicals are now films [Music] his songs make appearances everywhere nothing can harm you [Music] and after a lifetime of accolades nine tonys eight grammy awards and an oscar it's easy to forget steve wasn't always a critic's darling as he told charles osgood back in 1995. i mean an awful lot of people have gone historically to musicals to forget their troubles come on get happy uh i'm not interested in that i'm not just making people unhappy but i'm not interested in not looking at life because i don't know why i want to write it otherwise perhaps this next part of our conversation sheds light on why i was surprised to even have to don't have to tell me anything well i have to tell you this we have common ground and i didn't know that you were an actor oh you mean on tv with estelle parsons give it here maybe we can set it to music uh just play some chords i'll see if i know any i wasn't talking about the tv musical june moon i was talking about steve's acting career at williams college do you remember this review sondheim is an actor who knows how to use his whole body dramatically his gestures movements and even the angles of his body anticipated participated in and completed the vocal presentation of the character you made that up you have better reviews than i do i've never heard of that in my life that is a review oh i'm not done his hands were never idle or awkward but beautifully expressive at all times he was acting every minute he was on the stage and acting very well oh this is not june moon this is something no this is college oh no i was good in college so they always cast me every play they did if there was a very neurotic self-destructive gloomy get sondheim i played every misfit number but there was one part i always wanted to play which was danny and nightmares fall it was about serial killer which is a play i had loved since i first read it when i was 12 years old and once i played that part i retired he might have retired from acting but acting seems to have informed all of steve's musicals but the fact that you were an actor for me steve makes so much more sense when oh i could cry whoops just know but the fact that the songs that you write are so actable [Music] when i'm singing yourself it's so complex and it's which way do i go which way do i go [Music] i hate it when people ask me this question but i'm going to ask you do you have a favorite character that you've written character ah um well you see i don't write the characters the book writers write the characters i explore the characters book writers like arthur lawrence who wrote gypsy with music by julie stein and lyrics by steve um as far as a character goes i'd certainly pick madam rose [Music] i just think you know she's just so much larger than life at the same time she's life that's really hard to do and i really like her and i really want to hit her and it's just she's so alive when broadway celebrated steve's 90th birthday with a concert in april of 2020 i performed one of my favorites [Music] [Music] good times and bump times steve's seen them all and we will be forever grateful steve you are you know it's stop it stop i have to say thank you i have to say thank you for me and i have to say thank you for all of us oh thank you no i mean it's i'm not this is not planned this is just coming out of me because it just is okay i can't you've said it you've said it thanks you said it by not saying it you said it you said it thank you thank you that makes you feel very makes me feel very good [Music]

Channel: Company Broadway

Views: 38,753

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Length: 10min 30sec (630 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 29 2021