Compilation Playlists
Sondheim 102 "Top 25 Songs"
- I decided to frame our end-of-course song survey as "Favorites" rather than "American Songbook Candidates" because some of the songs of the later shows did not function as traditional stand-alone songs. I had asked for students' Top 20, but there were a number of ties along the way, so here is a terrific assortment of "musical numbers," "songs," and "fragments." Again the list is in "countdown" order from the six songs tied for #20 to the undisputed "winner." There may be some abrupt shifts from song to song, show to show, audio to video, but there are also some fun juxtapositions. There are 27 videos because (1) I used both iterations of "Agony" from Into the Woods, and (2) I just had to include two versions of the #1 song. You'll know why when you get there.
- This playlist contains the "top 22" songs that the Fall 2023 OLLI at Duke class selected as candidates for inclusion in "The Great American Songbook." It's in "countdown" format beginning with #22 and proceeding through #1.
- This 1992 London revue, starring Julie Andrews, served as an "updating" of 1976's Side By Side By Sondheim, though using songs from Sondheim's post-1976 (and pre-1993) shows. The sequence of songs and the suggested scenarios were "devised by Stephen Sondheim and Julia McKenzie." Bob Avian staged the musical numbers, with Julia McKenzie directing.The cast also includes Stephen Collins, Christopher Durang, Michael Rupert, and Rachel York. A later US production starred Carol Burnett.
- The entire 2016 "Essential" compilation of previously-released recordings on Masterworks Broadway (available as a CD and MP3 files) contains a total of 30 tracks. I have included 7 of the songs in this YouTube playlist to fit the dates of the course: 1982-2016. The other 23 tracks (covering the years 1957-1981) are on the "Sondheim 101 Fall 2023 Compilations" page.