The West Side Story collaborators, L to R: Stephen Sondheim, Arthur Laurents, Hal Prince, Robert Griffith (seated), Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Robbins
Sondheim's Early Work as Lyricist for Other Composers: West Side Story, Gypsy, and Do I Hear a Waltz?
Class Preparation
- If you're not familiar with the scores of these musicals, then snoop around on the Internet, scour iTunes, sample Amazon.com, search the public library, look on Netflix, or check out YouTube.
- The Wikipedia pages for each show usually contain a list of characters, a synopsis of the plot, a list of songs, and how the production was created, and, of course, links to hundreds of other sites. Don't get lost!
- Handout of the class slides
- Useful DVDs and CDs related to this class
- Links to online videos shown in class:
- "America" from the 1962 film of West Side Story
- Face to Face with Stephen Sondheim (BBC, 1994): Available on Amazon Prime with a subscription to Broadway HD.
- Ethel Merman singing "Some People" from the Gypsy Original Cast Recording.
- Patti LuPone, Laura Benanti, and Boyd Gaines performing "Everything's Coming Up Roses" on the 2008 Tony Awards broadcast. (All three won Tony Awards for their performance in this revival of Gypsy.)
- Bernadette Peters sings "Rose's Turn" on the 2003 Tony Awards broadcast.
- Marin Mazzie and Jason Daniely sing "We're Gonna Be All Right" from Do I Hear a Waltz?
- "Tonight" (Quintet/Act I Finale) from the 1962 film of West Side Story
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