Go to source The easiest way to get over the anxiety produced from an embarrassing moment is thus to simply laugh at yourself and the situation that just occurred. X Trustworthy Source International DOI Foundation (IDF) Registry of published versions of academic, professional, and government information, such as journal articles, research reports, data sets, and official publications. Recent research suggests laughing and humor are both key components of health in general. "There are people who care I couldn't care less what happens to my stuff after I die because I won't be around to enjoy it."ĪBC News' Lauren Effron contributed to this report.Laugh at yourself. "I'm one of those people why doesn't care about posterity," he said. I just put my head under my wing and pretend I'm not there."Īlthough all of the composer's great work has continued to live on and be celebrated, he said being immortalized isn't important to him. "The street girl is singing, 'It's alarming how charming I feel.'. "I'm fond of quoting 'I Feel Pretty,'" Sondheim said. There is one bad song in particular that stands out for Sondheim, one that Jack Nicholson turned into a hilarious parody in the film, "Anger Management," as many others have done. I don't mean that they are terrible, I just mean they're so self-conscious." heavy, what he called 'poetic,' and my idea of poetry and his idea of poetry are polar opposites. "It goes even deeper than you imagined."Īs for "West Side Story," despite Sondheim's grumblings, the musical was produced by a Broadway all-star team, with music by Leonard Bernstein, direction by Jerome Robbins, and Sondheim's lyrics, which he penned in his early 20s. "What's funny about Steve's songs is you think, 'Oh, this is about something,' and then you start working on it and you go, 'No, it's about something,'" Peters said. Peters, who recently took over the role of Desiree from Catherine Zeta-Jones in the revival, is the most recent actress to sing the powerful song. "A Little Night Music," now in revival on Broadway, features one of the most iconic songs ever to hit the stage and perhaps the most famous song Sondheim ever wrote: "Send in the Clowns." Whatever small struggles he has encountered in the past, there also have been stunning successes. Sondheim's Most Famous: 'Send in the Clowns' "I think it's the only one of the arts that's mostly reviewed by ignoramuses, people who know nothing about what they're writing about," he said, although he admitted that when "Sweeney Todd" first opened, it lost two-thirds of its money. "Sweeney Todd" debuted on Broadway in 1979 and featured the "Demon Barber of Fleet Street," while, on a sweeter note, the 1987 Broadway production of "Into the Woods" was a delightful romp through children's fairy tales about what really happens after "happily ever after."ĭespite his massive success, Sondheim also has been met with fierce critics over the decades, many of whom have said his music is too cold, impersonal, difficult to sing and lacks mass appeal. "Company," which opened on Broadway in 1970, was the first musical without a defined, linear plot. "Theater needs surprise, so I like to surprise myself and I want to surprise the audience." "One of the things I learned early on about theater and all art is art needs surprise, otherwise it doesn't hold an audience's attention," Sondheim said. Sondheim was taken under the wing of another impressive Broadway legend, Oscar Hammerstein, who was like a surrogate father to Sondheim in his teenage years. There's more to his enormous musical success than just lying on his couch and using a special kind of pencil. You know, a line in a song is like a scene in a play." in a lyric that each one has enormous weight. "When you write lyrics, there are so few lyrics in the song, so few words. "When I write words, I'm very careful," he said. He also is scrupulous in how he produces his craft. Earlier this year, the Henry Miller Theater on West 43rd Street in New York City became the Stephen Sondheim Theater, another event in his career that the composer was somewhat uncomfortable with. There's even a Broadway theater named after him. Most theater buffs have heard (or sung) at least one of Sondheim's most famous scores, which include, "Sweeney Todd," "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," "Into the Woods," "Company," "Sunday in the Park with George," "Assassins" and "Follies." He also wrote the lyrics for "Gypsy" and then, of course, "West Side Story." That man is the 80-year-old composer-lyricist, Stephen Sondheim. Only a man who has won eight Tony Awards, two Grammys, a Pulitzer Prize and an Oscar could get away with saying something like that. "It's very hard for me to listen to some of those songs." 28, 2010— - Stephen Sondheim finds the music from "West Side Story," one of the most revered musicals of all time, downright "embarrassing." And he should know.
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