Seems like there was the twenty-year-old commentary by D.A. Pennebaker, Harold Prince and Elaine Prince and there might be a new Sondheim commentary on the latest physical release, I think I read.
― Exploding Plastic Bertrand (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 15 November 2021 12:01 (two years ago) link
Ah, Ned posted about that upthread.
― Exploding Plastic Bertrand (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 15 November 2021 12:03 (two years ago) link
Does anybody know what the instrument at the start of 'Another Hundred People' is?
It's some sort of electro-mechanical organ/keyboard instrument that I recognise from TV and Film themes of the same period, sort like a short duration organ meets celeste with a bit of harpsichord.
Can be seen/heard at 17:38
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IU80Ium0dM
― Maresn3st, Monday, 15 November 2021 14:01 (two years ago) link
I believe it's an RMI Electra-piano:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMI9brWq_kw
Also used wonderfully on Miles Davis's "Mademoiselle Mabry"
― J. Sam, Monday, 15 November 2021 14:34 (two years ago) link
Yes, I read a few things about that over the weekend. The Co-op team sought to duplicate that sound and may have tracked down one of those instruments, or perhaps got a sample patch of one at least.There was the Electra-piano and also its older brother, the cleverly named Rock-Si-Chord.
― Exploding Plastic Bertrand (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 15 November 2021 16:00 (two years ago) link
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Mount_Instruments
― Exploding Plastic Bertrand (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 15 November 2021 16:02 (two years ago) link
Okay, so does anyone know what other famous (or well-known, at least) TV or Film theme uses it prominently? It's making me a bit crazy.
― Maresn3st, Monday, 15 November 2021 16:03 (two years ago) link
I originally thought it was one of these - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztpraz85asA
― Maresn3st, Monday, 15 November 2021 16:04 (two years ago) link
Tempted to start referring to one poster as "Bobby Bubi" but am resisting the govnaming instinct for now.
― Exploding Plastic Bertrand (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 15 November 2021 16:11 (two years ago) link
Also seeing some intriguing stuff about Sweeney Todd and the "Herrmann chord."
― Exploding Plastic Bertrand (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 15 November 2021 16:12 (two years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFaWBmVrCAM
― Maresn3st, Monday, 15 November 2021 16:31 (two years ago) link
Good stuff, thanks.
― Exploding Plastic Bertrand (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 15 November 2021 16:58 (two years ago) link
This thread is colliding with In every 70s US home ever for a serious time instability/anomaly.
― Exploding Plastic Bertrand (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 15 November 2021 18:39 (two years ago) link
And the brown and the beige and the brown and the beige and the brown ...
― Milm & Foovies (Eric H.), Monday, 15 November 2021 18:45 (two years ago) link
very tied with follies for best sondheim musical and obviously both drenched in 70s divorce misery and paranoia
― plax (ico), Monday, 15 November 2021 18:48 (two years ago) link
Captain Fantastic and the Brown and Beige Cowboy.
― Exploding Plastic Bertrand (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 15 November 2021 18:51 (two years ago) link
I did wonder about the value of a thread that itemised the tropes, themes, and details of that upper-middle-class 70s NYC diaspora, or I could just leaf through my New Yorker Magazine coffee table book.
― Maresn3st, Monday, 15 November 2021 21:26 (two years ago) link
!
― Exploding Plastic Bertrand (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 15 November 2021 21:30 (two years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrRDrz53Q1E
― Sterl of the Quarter (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 18 November 2021 01:21 (two years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTsuK_HGFJg
― Sterl of the Quarter (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 18 November 2021 01:31 (two years ago) link
I liked the joke at Strich's expense.
Still down the Company rabbit hole this week, Seth Rudetsky's deconstruction videos are addicting.
In one he goes into great detail about the title song's big 'We Loooooooooooooove You' bit and how Elaine boldly sings a half step flat and then just ducks out a full 10 seconds before everyone else, gloriously dgaf and cannot be unheard.
I was wondering if Joni Mitchell was a fan of SS, there are so many parallels there between Company and 'The Hissing of Summer Lawns'
― Maresn3st, Thursday, 18 November 2021 02:36 (two years ago) link
RIP
― Duck and Sally Can't Dance (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 26 November 2021 22:07 (two years ago) link
rip :(
― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Friday, 26 November 2021 22:39 (two years ago) link
Damn :(
― Maresn3st, Friday, 26 November 2021 23:21 (two years ago) link
I chose, and my world was shakenSo what?The choice may have been mistakenThe choosing was not
You have to move on
― J. Sam, Friday, 26 November 2021 23:49 (two years ago) link
A legend, my favorite musical composer :(
― Cool Im An Situation (Neanderthal), Friday, 26 November 2021 23:57 (two years ago) link
Any film list with both Elephant and The Elephant Man on it is OK by me
About 15 years ago, Stephen Sondheim was asked by The Sondheim Review to make a list of his favorite movies. It's a really fascinating and eclectic list - I don't think I've even seen half of them - but a lot of my favorite films are on there too. pic.twitter.com/hV7dVUqu1e— Jeremy Fassler (@J_fassler) November 27, 2021
― Alba, Saturday, 27 November 2021 07:37 (two years ago) link
Elephant? Alan Clarke?
― Duck and Sally Can't Dance (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 27 November 2021 09:57 (two years ago) link
The other one
― Nu-panique schnizzle (wins), Saturday, 27 November 2021 10:13 (two years ago) link
Gus Van Sant school shooting movie.
― Precious, Grace, Hill & Beard LTD. (C. Grisso/McCain), Saturday, 27 November 2021 14:14 (two years ago) link
(which is a more-or-less-remake of the Clarke film)
― bobo honkin' slobo babe (sic), Saturday, 27 November 2021 15:15 (two years ago) link
This is a pretty fascinating detail - Sondheim almost quit musicals in 1981 to work on video games instead, and was a big fan of Myst
This was real. Steve loved video games and took them seriously as an art form. Especially adventure games—an extension of his love of math and puzzles and, later on, escape rooms, which he and his partner Jeff really crushed. We talked about his love of Myst a lot over the years. https://t.co/fJMUH5nxx4— Ronan Farrow (@RonanFarrow) November 27, 2021
― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 2 December 2021 20:01 (two years ago) link
it is super interesting to me that ILM is utterly disengaged from the death of this man…just a few posts since his universally lamented passing…but maybe someone steeped in broadway/musical theatre, which I performed in as a kid but foreswore for the kinds of music that ILM concerns itself with, and which I have since strongly disliked, can help me out here…my impression is that Sondheim changed broadway/musical theatre, what, several times over? Who else pushed musical theatre forward during his lifetime? myself and every other ILMnik can go all day long talking about hundreds of artists who changed R&B, rock and roll, country, hip hop, electronic music and on and on… but I struggle to name Sondheim's artistic peers… like, Lloyd Webber is younger, but did he introduce formal innovations? I am wondering if this paucity could be down to musical theatre being possibly more risk averse than almost any other american, or rather, popular idiom? Like, almost any other idiom has relatively infinite amounts of flexibility…for musical theatre to succeed and to later enter the popular consciousness over the past 50 years, there has to be such ironclad fealty to formula as to make the pop craftsmanship that ILMniks tend to valorize seem like alvin Lucier or some shit…I so dislike broadway that hamilton annoys the shit out of me…I do think that LMN deserves credit for bringing something new to musical theatre (and is he the first one to do so since Sondheim?) but I can't stand the goddamn thing…
― veronica moser, Thursday, 2 December 2021 20:31 (two years ago) link
FWIW, Alex in Montreal is a Sondheim superfan (as I've discovered via Twitter), but he hasn't posted on ILM over a year.
I'd guess Jonathan Larson would be considered influential between Sondheim and LMM.
― jaymc, Thursday, 2 December 2021 20:45 (two years ago) link
my partner has been super down about this
the video game thing is a shock
― When Young Sheldon began to rap (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 2 December 2021 21:45 (two years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cf_I_oHHc4I
― tvod+ (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 9 December 2021 15:17 (two years ago) link
definitely thinking of heading to NYC in 2022 for the gender-swapped version with Katrina Lenk - she was marvelous in The Band's Visit
― Feta Van Cheese (Neanderthal)
I saw this last night. Will maybe write a longer post about it soon but Katrina Lenk was indeed magnificent and her interpretation of 'Being Alive' had me weeping uncontrollably. The gender reversals mostly felt pretty seamless during the show. It wasn't until i got home listened to the original cast recording that i realized how *necessary* it is to present the show this way.
Patti Lupone was great on 'The Little Things' but her 'Ladies who Lunch' wasn't nearly grizzled enough, Elaine Stritch still defines that role for me.
― The 25 Best Songs Ever Ranked In Order (Deflatormouse), Thursday, 3 February 2022 16:38 (two years ago) link
https://playbill.com/article/hours-of-unseen-sondheim-interviews-released-by-library-of-congress
― i cannot help if you made yourself not funny (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 3 February 2022 16:44 (two years ago) link
Cool. I just found out about this weird unproduced Sondheim project, a musical version of The Jet-Propelled Couch.
― Tapioca Tumbril (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 3 February 2022 22:17 (two years ago) link
i can't find a better thread to update about this, but the current revival of into the woods is utterly dope
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Thursday, 15 September 2022 18:38 (one year ago) link
Wrong thread perhaps but did anyone see the version of Follies at the National in London? It played also in UK cinemas as a live broadcast and was streaming supposedly and may well be again (I saw an ad somewhere or other..). Damn I’d really love to see it.
― piscesx, Thursday, 15 September 2022 19:25 (one year ago) link
Belatedly, I think the right song won this one
― Bait Kush (Eric H.), Thursday, 15 September 2022 20:52 (one year ago) link
It really did.
I had the Blu-Ray of the documentary in my hand today, gonna give it another watch this week.
― MaresNest, Thursday, 15 September 2022 21:02 (one year ago) link
Some of you may know this but there's an incredibly comprehensive (and really quite entertaining) Sondheim podcast called 'Putting It Together', in which they go through *every song* one by one for at least an hour, plus adjacent interviews, it's kinda amazing.
Here is the start of the season they dedicated to Company
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/company-overture-company-with-eric-matthew-richardson/id1435108436?i=1000459363920
― MaresNest, Wednesday, 28 September 2022 12:16 (one year ago) link
This is the funniest thing I have ever seen in my life pic.twitter.com/FQiXwYAfeY— the tweeter fka LuxuryTrash™ (@2trash4luxury) November 18, 2022
― an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Saturday, 19 November 2022 19:58 (one year ago) link
Final show (the Bunuel musical) happening after all:
https://www.theatermania.com/new-york-city-theater/news/sondheim-here-we-are-premiere_94978.html
― an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Thursday, 16 March 2023 16:06 (one year ago) link
Belatedly, I think the right song won this one― Bait Kush (Eric H.), Thursday, September 15, 2022 3:52 PM (one year ago)
Even more belatedly, I now realize the magnificence of "Marry Me a Little."
― Dwigt Rortugal (Eric H.), Wednesday, 15 November 2023 15:21 (four months ago) link
Sort of crazy how aggressively pro-marriage this show is.
― Dwigt Rortugal (Eric H.), Wednesday, 15 November 2023 15:24 (four months ago) link
Sondheim's Manhattan home:https://www.compass.com/listing/246-east-49th-street-manhattan-ny-10017/1352939100748859761/
Sondheim's Connecticut home:https://klemmrealestate.com/listings/3271-Roxbury-Connecticut-11-Rooms-3-Bedrooms-4-Bathrooms-USD3-250-000/
― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 15 November 2023 15:26 (four months ago) link
Larry Kert is The Bootleg Bobby
― O Fundo Escuro de (Deflatormouse), Wednesday, 14 February 2024 02:04 (one month ago) link