Course Description
After the failure of Merrily We Roll Along in 1981, composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim considered leaving musical theater altogether; however, new collaborators rekindled his desire to work. In 1982, he met James Lapine, an avant-garde playwright and director. Their first collaboration--Sunday in the Park with George—won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. They followed this with Into the Woods and Passion. With John Weidman, Sondheim wrote Assassins and Road Show. At his death in 2021, he was working with playwright David Ives on Here We Are, an adaptation of two films by Luis Buñuel. This final musical opened off-Broadway in fall 2023. We will survey this last part of Sondheim’s remarkable career by listening to and watching excerpts from the shows, focusing not just on the hits, but also on those shows that were considered failures at the time. In addition to experiencing his memorable music, students will learn how Sondheim applied his three “necessary principles” for writing lyrics: “Content Dictates Form. Less Is More. God is in the Details.” The course is primarily lecture with video and audio clips, but students will be able to ask questions and make comments during each class.
Instructor : Alan Teasley
Alan Teasley began his career as a high school English and drama teacher. After retiring from the Durham Public Schools in 2006, he taught in Duke’s Master of Arts in Teaching Program. A member of the OLLI Advisory Board, he is an avid theatergoer with a particular fondness for American musicals. He has previously taught twelve courses on musical theatre for OLLI. Many of his teaching materials for those courses are available at his website: musicals-101.com