In Memory of Stephen Sondheim – The Guru of Musical Theater

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I am just another heartbroken musical theater man adding his voice to a chorus of tributes, grief, and love. But if ever a cacophony of sound resolving into something poignant and beautiful was appropriate throughout the musical theater community, it is to lament the death – and honor the life and works – of Stephen Sondheim.

Other than binging on West Side Story” when I was a kid, it took me a while to come around to Sondheim. I would listen to an album, and every show was so musically unique (and yet so clearly and identifiably Sondheim) that I wouldn’t always get what he was trying to do. But every time, I would then see the show in person, and be absolutely stunned by it. After that, so many of those albums and scores became like dear friends, keeping me company in good and bad times, and challenging my own musical development in powerful ways.

Sondheim’s lyrics were positively masterful (he literally wrote the book on writing lyrics for musical theater). His lyrics were just… perfect. Each word, each syllable, chosen with such intention to create an incredible blend of poetry and cleverness that is so deeply satisfying at every turn. Jonathan Larson (creator of RENT) referred to him as “my guru of the Musical Theater” – a title and role with which Sondheim was most generous, truly believing in Jonathan and offering him guidance and encouragement along the way.

He was a good man. A brilliant composer and lyricist – but by all accounts, a kind, thoughtful, and nurturing human being.

Since Jonathan Larson is the reason why I write musical theater, I’ve always thought of Sondheim as my “composition grandfather.” Because so many of the lessons I have learned from over two decades of studying every note and word that Jonathan ever wrote were lessons that he himself learned from Sondheim, and which Sondheim learned from Oscar Hammerstein, and back and back and back to whoever was the first person to put word and song together and throw it all onto the stage.

The legacy and vibrant tradition that is musical theater.

Today we lost perhaps the greatest part of that legacy. The man most directly responsible for everything that musical theater is today. I honor him for that.

Because here’s what I admired most about Sondheim. For most of Broadway’s history (and Vaudeville and operetta before that), musical theater was strictly limited to musical comedy. There were exceptions here and there, starting with “Showboat” and many of Rogers & Hammerstein’s shows. But generally speaking, people would go to musical theater solely for escapism, spectacle, and fun. Sondheim brought in that same audience; but when the show started, they would be staring not at a spectacle – but rather at a giant mirror. A mirror showing them the very things they were meaning to escape, reflecting the darker and harder parts of the human experience, and challenging the audience to see the struggles and minutiae of their own lives played out by the characters on stage. This is, I believe, the pinnacle achievement of any art: to provide not just distraction and fun (though those things are quite valuable, too), but Company (pun intended) and catharsis. And so we become not just better artists and fans – we become better and wiser people.

Stephen’s passing at the ripe age of 91 is not tragic. But it is still deeply sad. He lived a truly remarkable life, and has left a legacy that will exist forever. So here’s to a life well lived – “I’ll drink to that.”

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If You Are Pro-Gun Control, Then You Can’t Be Anti-Vaccine.

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If you are pro-gun control, then you can’t be anti-vaccine.

The posts I am seeing are using the same logic as gun nuts. A lot about individual freedom over societal safety. A lot about how it’s your choice to protect yourself from some vague hypothetical enemy (intruders/vaccine side effects), while ignoring the proven threat of a real and present danger (40,000 gun deaths per year/COVID). Even incredibly offensive and utterly nonsensical posts about this being how the Holocaust started – which has long been one of the NRA’s favorite rhetorical tactics.

Why is it that you don’t support people being able to own whatever weapon they want? It’s not generally because they might hurt themselves; because even though that would be sad, they knowingly took that risk.

It’s because they might – and statistically, will – hurt other people.

It’s the same with the vaccines. If the only person impacted by your decision not to vaccinate was you, then I would be sad and scared for you if you didn’t vaccinate, but I would agree that you have the right to do whatever you want.

But you’re not just putting yourself at risk. You’re putting all of us at risk. You are turning a temporary nightmare into a permanent Hellscape, and you are literally bringing about the end of the world as we know it.

This fourth COVID surge is especially devastating, because it’s the only one that is almost completely avoidable. And with all these variants developing so rapidly because of all you readily-available hosts, the fifth, sixth, and hundredth ones might not be avoidable at all.

If you give someone COVID because you didn’t vaccinate and kept going out in public anyway – even if you continue to wear a mask, because that was always just the temporary stopgap measure that was (and is) better than absolutely nothing – if you give someone COVID, and they die, then their death is largely on you. If they have lifelong complications because of the disease you gave them – as tens of millions of people already do, and always will – that’s on you, too. That’s just how responsibility works. Whether that person is your family, your friend, or a stranger sitting next to you that you’ll never even know or talk to. Or the people they go on to infect. Remember: this entire virus, as all viruses do, began with just one person. And look where we are now.

Haven’t we seen enough of that chain reaction over this 17-month nightmare? Do you understand that the only reason it’s still going on at all is because of you, and others like you?

At least with a gun, people know they have a weapon. But with COVID, you are the weapon – and you may not even know you’re in possession before you end the life of a fellow human being. Many of whom can’t get vaccinated, for genuine medical reasons (such as not being normally able to mount an immune response at all). Can you really live with that? Especially when you have watched hundreds of your friends and family get vaccinated, and we are all doing just fine?  And knowing that our own vaccines will eventually fail, when just one of you inevitably produces a variant that is able to evade them? Especially for we at-risk people, who spent over a year living in terror praying for the safety and relief of a vaccine. We finally have that safety. I cried the day I became fully vaccinated and didn’t have to live in fear anymore. We all hugged our friends as though it was the first time in our lives that we could, and were so unspeakably grateful that finally, after so much death and sacrifice, there was a light at the end of the tunnel.

And now you are taking that away from us.

I know that this is a difficult decision for some of you. I know that there is a plethora of misinformation out there, and that it is incredibly scary and overwhelming. But it is just that – misinformation. Lies told by people who profit from chaos and fear. And it’s literally going to make the last 17 months the new normal forever if you don’t do your part to end it. We will keep watching the people we love get picked off one by one. You could even be one of them.

I have seen COVID death firsthand. It is the most horrible thing I have ever seen. I don’t want that for you. I don’t want that for anyone.

If there is anyone who is on the fence about getting vaccinated, I would like to invite you to write to me to talk about it. I promise you I will listen to your concerns, and direct you to vetted medical resources to allay your fears. I will also admit when your concerns are potentially valid, but will do my best to convince you that the vaccine is still the far, far lesser risk. Both for you personally, and for all humanity.

Please don’t make us do this forever. Please don’t allow your fear and others’ manipulations to cause more people to die. Put down your weapon. It’s not just a personal choice; what you do affects all of us.

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RIP Herbert Kretzmer – You Dreamed a Dream, and Shared it With All of Us

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We’ve lost another one of the greats: Herbert Kretzmer, who was singly responsible for translating (and often entirely re-imagining) the lyrics of Les Miserables from French into English.

Les Mis was the first musical I was ever aware of, spawning a love for the artform that has delighted me ever since. It has remained my favorite since I was five years old, and it’s been a hallmark of my own career – especially my two Les Mis parodies, “One Grain More” and “Trapped Inside the House.”

You might think that in a parody where you replace the entirety of the text, the original lyricist doesn’t have much to do with it. But nothing could be further from the truth. If the parody is a building, the original lyrics are the blueprint. The art of writing parody is to match syllables, rhyme schemes and scansion perfectly, and to draw on elements of the original and twist them to fit into the new form in order to add extra layers of comedy to people who know and love the piece that inspired it. I think that Les Mis has probably inspired more parodies than any other show, not only because of its perfect and epic score – but because the intricate and poignant lyrics are such a fertile playground and vehicle for any subject you can imagine (even food allergies!).

Herbert’s words were such a joy to work with. In studying his lyrics to write my parodies, I learned so much about the art of lyric-writing itself, which I’ve been grateful to carry over into my original music as well as my satirical pieces. He will be sorely missed, but his contributions to the world of musical theater will last forever.

Rest in peace, Herbert – and thank you so much for everything you have given to me, and to millions of others.

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RIP RBG – Champion for Women, Role Model for All

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We’ve lost one of the greats. THE greats – of all time. A pioneer of women’s rights, and the rights of all people. A role model for each and every one of us. The notorious Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

I can’t even begin to get into the mindset right now of the political firestorm that is about to begin… So for now, I only grieve the loss of such a powerful and resilient human being, who fought so hard to (among other things) bring an awareness to countless areas where women face discrimination, enabling them to raise the ceiling ever higher (though the fight continues) just as she did, and teaching men like me about issues we needed to understand and to be allies with a full heart, a strong voice, a boundless will.

May we all strive to follow her example; we’re going to have to.

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RIP Major Van Winkle – The Master of Freestyle

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Today I was heartbroken to learn that a friend and collaborator of enormous talent, spirit and energy, has left this world forever.

If you ever met Major Van Winkle, you were not likely to forget him. Major was a musician and rapper whose freestyling was at a level I have never witnessed anywhere else – you may have seen him on the news rapping about the Eagles from time to time. He and I were both working at a concert with an international superband called the One People Band last year, and as Eric Bazilian closed out the show by performing probably his 9,000th rendition of his famous classic “[What if God was] One of Us,” he looked to Major in the wings and invited him to come out and rap. And without a single instant of preparation, Major ran up to the mic and blew the entire room away.

It wasn’t just the cleverness and alacrity with rhymes that made that moment, though – more than anything, it was his heart. In just 38 seconds, Major took us on a journey unlike anything I have ever experienced, ending with the following impromptu lyrics:

“I don’t even know if it’s a question mark
Can I find God in war and art?
Can I find God in love and peace?
Can I find God in you and me?
Can I find God in all the above?
‘Cause God is just love.”

For the next minute, the entire band (and the entire audience) all sang together, again and again:

“God is love.”

It devastates me to no end that people who radiate nothing but joy into the universe seem too often to have so little left for themselves.

The world is a much sadder place without Major in it. I will miss him, and all of the work and collaborations we talked about but will never get to do. But I will never forget his passion, charm, charisma, talent, resourcefulness, and absolutely pure love of music. Rest in peace, Major – you will never be forgotten.

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