Mar 13

Mar 13 Essential Sondheim: A Playlist

Stephen Sondheim is my favorite artistic mind of all time. Out of the work of hundreds of filmmakers, composers, choreographers, poets, and painters that one could admire, I find Sondheim’s work to be the most perfect, compelling, and confounding. Obsessively studying his work since my early teen years has taught me more about both music and life than I could ever express, so I’m not going to try. Instead, I’m going to let the work speak for itself, and give you a little early Sondheim birthday gift: a playlist of the top twenty Sondheim songs that have greatly influenced not only me personally, but all of musical theatre in general.

This list started out at over one hundred songs, then, after a great deal of personal contemplation, I managed to pare it down to fifty. However, after thinking about it, I didn’t want to overwhelm any newcomers to Sondheim with hours of complex, albeit beautiful, music to tackle at once. I don’t know how I’ve done it, but I managed to cut it down even further to twenty essential Sondheim songs that everyone should hear. I won’t call it my ‘top twenty,’ because every Sondheim song is my favorite on any given day (and also because the ordering on this list is pretty much random), but these twenty are a good showcase of his mastery and starting point for anyone new to his style.

I have two notes about the list:

1. Sondheim is like pizza, except better. Most pizza is good, but, despite what people will say, there is such a thing as bad pizza. This is not true of our man Sondy. Even his worst song is a great song.

2. None of these songs are meant to stand alone, and while great on their own, these numbers have three times as much impact when put into context with the rest of their given musical. So, if these little samples are at all intriguing to you, I urge you to seek out the full soundtracks, and/or video recordings, of these shows to relish in the mastery of his distinctive musical styling.

My Essential Sondheim playlist:

“I Remember” from Evening Primrose
“Everybody Says Don’t” from Anyone Can Whistle
“Another Hundred People” from Company
“Getting Married Today” from Company
“Barcelona” from Company
“The Sun Won’t Set” from A Little Night Music
“Chrysanthemum Tea” from Pacific Overtures
“The Ballad of Sweeney Todd” from Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
“My Friends” from Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
“Epiphany” from Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
“A Little Priest” from Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
“Sunday in the Park with George” from Sunday in the Park with George
“Color and Light” from Sunday in the Park with George
“Putting It Together” from Sunday in the Park with George
“Move On” from Sunday in the Park with George
“Prologue” from Into the Woods
“A Very Nice Prince/First Midnight/Giants in the Sky” from Into the Woods
“Your Fault/Last Midnight” from Into the Woods
“The Gun Song” from Assassins
“God” from Sondheim on Sondheim

What are your favorite Sondheim songs? Let me know in the comments below, and check back for more Sondheim talk and our Film Club review of his masterpiece, Into the Woods, at the end of the month!