What Makes Sondheim Great?
DRA2-5a-Mon1
Gail Leondar-Wright
This course will take place virtually on Zoom. Participation in this course requires a device (ideally a computer or tablet, rather than a cell phone) with a camera and microphone in good working order and basic familiarity with using Zoom and accessing email.
September 9 - October 7
Since the death of the iconic composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim in 2021, interest in his works has grown. Once thought of as a niche artist, Sondheim has become mainstream, as is evidenced by the success of three major Broadway revivals (Into the Woods, Company and Merrily We Roll Along) and the fascination with his posthumous musical, Here We Are. Many people are wondering what the fuss is about, and those who already know are eager to learn more about this once in a generation genius.
While many people know and appreciate the musicals of Stephen Sondheim, few have had the opportunity to unpack what makes his work special. The course will invite participants to listen closely to how Sondheim’s words and music work together to create complex, moving and delightful narratives for shows that have ushered the musical theatre into its modern era. We’ll investigate key concepts in musical theatre studies such as prosody (how well the words “sit on” the music), pastiche (using tropes of musical theatre to comment upon the tradition), and intertextuality (how songs from a given musical “speak to” one another) to shed light on what makes Sondheim great and why his musicals endure
More lecture than facilitated discussion.
All materials will be provided on a class website or by email links.
These will be links to recordings of songs and full musicals.
Approximately 2.5 hrs/week (viewing and listening).
Gail Leondar-Wright facilitates the online national “Sondheim Study Group,” and has taught for a number of lifelong learning communities connected with universities and religious congregations. She has supported the Pasadena Playhouse and The Lyric Stage Company of Boston productions of Sondheim musicals with virtual lectures, was a guest instructor for San Diego State University MFA in Musical Theatre program, and was a panelist at the 2023 BroadwayCon session: “I Know Things Now: Remembering Stephen Sondheim.” Gail holds an MA in Performance Studies from New York University and a BA in Drama from The University of California at Berkeley.