Here, we’ve compiled a list of the best Sondheim Quotes from famous persons: Mandy Patinkin, Dennis DeYoung, Ron Mael, Randy Rainbow, Richard Corliss. The wide variety of quotes available makes it possible to find a quote to suit your needs. You’ve likely heard some of the Sondheim Quotes before, but that’s because they truly are great.
1
2
3
Even though we try not to be nostalgic about drawing from old music, I’m always inspired by things like old Cole Porter songs or the words in the Gershwin songs or even Stephen Sondheim, where there’s a real craft to them but it isn’t only that you‘re hearing the words it’s that it links so well with the music.
4
5
6
‘Sweeney Todd’ is my favorite Sondheim musical.
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
I am thrilled to receive the Sondheim Award from the wonderful Signature Theatre. I have already received the invaluable gift of over twenty-five years of collaboration and friendship with Steve. Now I get to have his award, too!
16
17
As a performer, once you’ve understood the genre of musical theatre, you can tire very quickly of the two-dimensional stuff. With Sondheim, it’s always a challenge. It’s difficult and exhilarating and he’s so good on the complexities of relationships and on things going wrong.
18
19
Stephen Sondheim I am in awe of.
20
21
22
Stephen Sondheim is calculus for actors. The words are witty and brilliant and profound but complicated.
23
24
I don’t think it’s that I don’t like Sondheim. It’s that I find it really… I don’t know how to describe it. Doing it is the most extraordinary thing. Because it’s like Shakespeare times 100 with singing. It’s that satisfying – and that demanding.
25
26
Sondheim informs us, more than any other composer, about the joys, passion and pain of being a woman living in various social conditions through the ages with frightening accuracy. Playing a variety of his characters has always made me feel like I’m having a free therapy session through his words and music!
27
28
29
30
31
That’s one of the beauties of James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim and their work together. They have such a depth to the emotional exploration of the story that they’re telling, but there’s always a release, and the release is a laugh.
32
Stephen Sondheim told me that Oscar Hammerstein believed everything that he wrote. So there’s great truth in the songs, and that’s what was so wonderful to find.
33
Sondheim is New York.
34
35
36
I think one of my favorite productions ever was Sondheim’s ‘Assassins’ at the Roundabout in 2004. Beyond brilliant.
37
Sondheim is the Shakespeare of the musical theater world.
38
39
40
Leonard Bernstein was probably the most significant formative influence on me – he was such an encompassing musician. I spent my teenage years absorbing him, and my other interests stemmed off of that. Bernstein led me to Sondheim and to Gershwin, and Sondheim led me to listening to Joni Mitchell.
41
I’m a devotee of Stephen Sondheim. I think he’s a genius.
42
43
44
When Sondheim was visiting the Library of Congress, where the manuscript of ‘Porgy and Bess’ is housed, he was so overcome with emotion while holding the score in his hands that he shed a tear. He shed several tears, but one of the tears actually fell onto the original manuscript. And he was horrified.
