ENG 409 / MUS 367 / THR 443, Spring 2011 The Musical Theatre of Stephen Sondheim: Process to Production

TTH 3:00 4:20 p.m. Room 213 Lewis Center, 185 Nassau St Professor Stacy Wolf Office: LCA, 185 Nassau St, Room 214, Phone: 258-8407, email: swolf@princeton.edu Office Hours: Thursdays 12:45-2:15 and by appointment Course Description This seminar examines the musicals of Stephen Sondheim, from page to stage. Focusing on a different musical each week from Gypsy (1959) to Road Show (2009), we will consider production, performance, and reception. We will ask, How do musical theatres elements of music, lyrics, script, dance, and design cohere in Sondheims musicals? How has his work changed and developed over his lifetime? What themes preoccupy him? What is the relationship between the written script and the musical in performance? What challenges do Sondheims musicals offer for theatre artists, including directors, designers, and actors, and for audiences, including literary, music, and cultural critics? With the musicals themselves in the center, we will explore influences on Sondheims art, both personal and cultural, and the historical and theatrical milieu in which each production opened (and/or was revived). Well study the musicals themselves by reading libretti, listening to music, seeing taped and live performances, and researching production histories. Well interrogate his musicals closely and critically to discover how they are constructed, how they affect audiences, and what they mean. Well also read scholarly analyses of his work. Might we demystify and complicate the notion of Sondheim as singular genius? While well acknowledge Sondheims tremendous importance in musical theatre, well also stress the intensely collaborative nature of musical theatre and attend to Sondheims working relationships with librettists, directors, and designers. As Sondheim wrote: Every show Ive ever written people think that Im the central character. But they ignore the fact that all of these characters are created by the playwrights, not by me. Obviously theres something that attracts me that I can relate to the story involved . . . Its always very flattering to say Stephen Sondheims latest musical or Stephen Sondheims Company, but its not. Its Stephen Sondheim and George Furths Company. Theyre his characters and Im a very good imitator and I mimic what a writer writes. And I like collaboration because its a substitute family. Goals of the course include: Analyzing Sondheims musicals as texts and as performances, which include music, lyrics, script, staging, dance, and design Describing the development of Sondheims musicals from the late 1950s until today Identifying the contributions of Sondheims collaborators Interpreting Sondheims musicals using a range of historiographical and critical methods Researching a topic of interest that illuminates one of Sondheims musicals Developing an independent project as a culmination of the seminar Texts, Music, Films, Productions

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Required Books (at Labyrinth) 1. Assassins 2. Company 3. Finishing the Hat: Collected Lyrics (1954-1981) with Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines and Anecdotes 4. Follies 5. Four By Sondheim (with A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, Sunday in the Park with George, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum) 6. Gypsy 7. Into the Woods 8. Pacific Overtures 9. Road Show All scripts also on conventional reserve at Mendel. Required Readings on Blackboard, under Course Materials Frank Rich, NY Times interview with Sondheim Prof Wolf, Elements of Music and Dance Analysis Prof Wolf, Some Questions for Play Analysis Mark Eden Horowitz, various Biography of a Song essays Merrily We Roll Along libretti (2 different scripts) Required listening: Cast album for each musical is on BlackboardAudio Reserves Required viewing on Blackboard, under Video reserves 1. A Little Night Music ( 2007, directed by Harold Price) 2. Company with Raul Esparza (2008 directed for television by Lonny Price) 3. Gypsy (with Bette Midler ) 4. Into the Woods (1990, directed by James Lapine) 5. Sunday in the Park with George (1999, The American Playhouse, directed by James Lapine) 6. Sweeney Todd (2004, directed for television by Terry Hughes) Required viewing on Blackboard under Course MaterialsFilms (it says Item is no longer available, but click on the link)Taped Performances Assassins, 2004 Roundabout production Follies, 1998 Papermill production Gypsy, 2008 Broadway revival Merrily We Roll Along, 2002 Kennedy Center production, or Merrily We Roll Along, 2002 Reunion show of original Broadway cast (only need to watch one) Pacific Overtures, 1976 original Broadway cast telecast Required field trips: Saturday, February 5: Archival research at the New York Public Library 10:30 a.m.: Meet at the entrance to the NYPL at Lincoln Center. Details TBA. (Latecomers report to the desk and ask for Jeremy Megraw.) 2 p.m.: City Center Encores! Lost in the Stars and talkback after the show. Should be over at around 5:30you could catch a 6:30 train back to Princeton.

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Thursday, April 7: New York Philharmonic concert production of Company Meet at the theatre at 7:15 Recommended Additional Resources Craig Zadans Sondheim & Co.: a great and lively accompaniment that focuses on process. Recommended! PBS series, Broadway: The American Musical, directed by Michael Kantor. Highly recommended for a good overview of musical theatre history. DVD 828 http://www.sondheimreview.com/ The Sondheim Reviewquasi-scholarly quarterly journal; online through PUs library website http://www.sondheim.com/ website for The Sondheim Stage http://www.sondheimguide.com/ http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/sondheim Sondheim listservyou may want to subscribe Course Schedule indicates reading on E-Reserves, which can be accessed on Blackboard Tues Feb 1: Introduction to you, me, class, goals and expectations Thurs Feb 3: Introduction to Sondheim and to issues in musical theatre studies Listening: Interview with Stephen Sondheim, aired January 3, 2010 http://americantheatrewing.org/downstagecenter/detail/stephen_sondheim Frank Rich, Conversations with Sondheim, New York Times (March 12, 2000). [pdf on BB under Course Materials] Sandor Goodhart, Introduction: Reading Sondheim: The End of Ever After, Reading Stephen Sondheim: A Collection of Critical Essays, ed. Sandor Goodhart (NY: Routledge, 2000), 3-12. Joseph P. Swain, Chapter 1: Introduction, The Broadway Musical: A Critical and Musical Survey, revised and expanded edition (Lanham MD: Scarecrow Press, 2002), 1-12. Bruce Kirle, Ch 1: Celebrating Incompleteness, Unfinished Business: Broadway Musicals as Works-in-Process (Carbondale: SIU Press, 2005), 1-14. Scott McMillin, Ch 1: Integration and Difference [Integration: From Wagner to Broadway, Two Orders of Time], The Musical as Drama (Princeton, PUP, 2006), 1-10. Assignment: Post a short comment to BB (around 200 words or so). Begin by quoting one of the critical readings (Goodhart, Swain, Kirle, or McMillin) then apply that quotation to something that Sondheim says in one of the interviews. How does a critical perspective link to an autobiographical one? Due by 12 noon on Thursday February 3. Please also bring a hard copy to class. Saturday, February 5: NYC field trip to NYPL and Encores! Tues Feb 8: Sondheim as lyricist: Gypsy (1959) Libretto, cast album, film [any versionRosalind Russell, Bette Midler (on ERes), Tyne Daly, Bernadette Peters, Patti LuPone (on BB)] Finishing the Hat, Gypsy, 55-77.

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*Bring the script and Questions for Play Analysis and Elements of Music and Dance Analysis handouts to class [on BB under Course Materials] Thurs Feb 10: Road Show (2009) [with John Weidman] Libretto, cast album Finishing the Hat, Preface, Introduction, Rhyme and Its Reasons, xv -xxvii. Tues Feb 15: Guest, Jane Cox (lighting designer for Road Show) Meet in Berlind Rehearsal Room Thurs Feb 17: Evening Primrose (ABC TV, 1966) [SW away] Viewing: in class Reading: Booklet accompanying dvd (pdf on BB under Course Materials) Assignment: Post a short comment to BB. How does this TV show illuminate what you understand of Sondheims work so far? How does it speak back to Gypsy and forward to Road Show? Or not? Due by 12 noon on Friday Feb 18. Tues Feb 22: Company (1970) [with George Furth] Libretto, cast album, taped Broadway version Recommended: watch Pennebaker documentary of the making of the 1970 cast album **Creative response and musical number analysis due. **Research presentations: 1) __________ 2) __________ 3) _________ 4) ____________ Thurs Feb 24: Company, contd John Olson, Company25 years Later, Stephen Sondheim: A Casebook, ed. Joanne Gordon (New York: Garland Publishing, 1999), 47-67. Stephen Banfield, Chapter 5: Company, Sondheims Broadway Musicals (Ann Arbor MI: University of Michigan Press, 1995), 147-173. Mark Horowitz, Biography of a Song: You Could Drive a Person Crazy, Sondheim Review [pdf on BB under Course Materials] Finishing the Hat, Company, 165-196. **Prcis/critique paper due (choose one essay or compare them). Tues March 1: Follies (1971) [with James Goldman] Libretto, cast album, taped stage production **Creative response and musical number analysis due. **Research presentations: 1) __________ 2) _________

3) _________ 4) ____________

Thurs March 3: Follies, contd James Fisher, Nixons American and Follies: Reappraising a Musical Theater Classic, in Gordon, Casebook, 69-84. Foster Hirsch, Harold Prince and the American Musical Theatre (New York: Applause Books, 2005, revised and expanded edition), (section on Follies), 93-105. Anne Marie McEntee, The Funeral of Follies: Stephen Sondheim and the Razing of American Musical Theater, in Goodhart, Reading, 89-99.

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Mark Horowitz, Biography of a Song: Losing My Mind, Sondheim Review [pdf on BB under Course Materials] Finishing the Hat, Follies, 199-249. **Prcis/critique paper due (write on one article or compare two or moreall of them). Tues March 8: Guest, Mark Eden Horowitz (Curator Library of Congress; Author of Sondheim on Music) Thurs March 10: A Little Night Music (1973) [with Hugh Wheeler] Libretto (in Four by Sondheim), cast album, film version **Creative response and musical number analysis due. **Research presentations: 1) ________ 2) __________ 3) __________ 4) ____________ Tues March 15 and Thurs March 17: Spring break Tues March 22: A Little Night Music, contd David Craig, On Performing Sondheim: A Little Night Music Revisited, in Gordon, Casebook, 93-106. Paul M. Puccio, Enchantment on the Manicured Lawns: The Shakespearean Green World in A Little Night Music, in Goodhart, Reading, 133-169. Mark Horowitz, Biography of a Song: Send in the Clowns, Sondheim Review [pdf on BB under Course Materials] Finishing the Hat, A Little Night Music, 251-283. **Prcis/critique papers due (choose one essay or compare them Wed March 23: Guest, Marni Nixon (dubbed voice in many film musicals, including Maria in West Side Story, Anna in The King and I, and Eliza in My Fair Lady. Also played Sister Sofia in The Sound of Music.) Master class and Q & A, 3-6 p.m. Taplin Thurs March 24: Sweeney Todd (1979) [with Hugh Wheeler] Libretto (in Four by Sondheim), cast album, taped Broadway production **Creative response and musical number analysis due. **Research presentations: 1) __________ 2) __________ 3) ________ 4) ____________ ***Proposals for final projects due Tues March 29: Sweeney, contd Carol Ilson, Chapter 17: Broadway Meets Grand Guignol: Sweeney Todd, Harold Prince: A Directors Journey (New York: Limelight Editions, 2000), 281-298, 466-468. Joanne Gordon, Chapter 7: Grander Than Guignol: Sweeney Todd, Art Isnt Easy: The Theater of Stephen Sondheim, updated edition (New York: Da Capo Press, 1992), 207-254. Raymond Knapp, Sweeney Todd (Section of Chapter 7: Operatic Ambitions and Beyond), The American Musical and the Performance of Personal Identity (Princeton: Princeton UP, 2006), 331-342, 426-429. Mark Horowitz, Biography of a Song: A Little Priest , Sondheim Review [pdf on BB under Course Materials]

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Finishing the Hat, Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, 331-376. **Prcis/critique papers due Group facilitations begin **Please complete all of the reading, listening, and viewing for each class. Thurs March 31: Pacific Overtures (1976) [with John Weidman] Libretto, cast album, taped telecast Mark Horowitz, Biography of a Song: Please Hello, Sondheim Review [pdf on BB under Course Materials] Mark Horowitz, Biography of a Song: A Bowler Hat, Sondheim Review [pdf on BB under Course Materials] Finishing the Hat, Pacific Overtures, 303-329. **Facilitators: 1) _____________ 2) _____________ 3) ____________ Tues April 5: Merrily We Roll Along (1981, rev. 1985) [with George Furth] Libretto [on BB under Course Documents], cast album, taped production (s) [watch one] Mark Horowitz, Biography of a Song: Not a Day Goes By, Sondheim Review [pdf on BB under Course Materials] Finishing the Hat, Merrily We Roll Along, 379-421. **Facilitators: 1) _____________ 2) _____________ 3) ____________ Thurs April 7: Guest, Annette Niemtzow (Broadway producer of Jane Eyre; London producer of Ragtime ) Thurs April 7: NYC Fieldtrip, New York Philharmonic, Company, 7:30 p.m. Tues April 12: Sunday in the Park with George (1987) [with James Lapine] Libretto (in Four By Sondheim), cast album, taped Broadway production Mark Horowitz, Biography of a Song: Finishing the Hat, Sondheim Review [pdf on BB under Course Materials] **Facilitators: 1) _____________ 2) _____________ 3) ____________ Thurs April 14: Workshop final projects in groups (SW away) Tues April 19: Into the Woods (1987) [with James Lapine] Libretto, cast album, taped Broadway production Mark Horowitz, Biography of a Song: Children Will Listen, Sondheim Review [pdf on BB under Course Materials] **Facilitators: 1) _____________ 2) _____________ 3) ____________ ***Drafts /check-in for final projects due Thurs April 21: Guest, Bartlett Sher (Director South Pacific, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown)

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Tues April 26: Assassins (1990) [with John Weidman] Libretto, cast album, taped production **Facilitators: 1) _____________ 2) _____________ 3) ____________ Thurs April 28: TBA/Wrap-up Tuesday May 3, 12 noon-3 p.m.: Meet for final presentations (lunch will be provided) Tuesday, May 10, 2011: Deans Date. Final projects due by 5 p.m. Course Requirements General expectations: All assignments for the class are required. Lateness on any assignment lowers the grade by one letter for every day of lateness. If any assignment is missed or not turned in, the student cannot pass the course. All written work may be revised within two weeks of its return. All written work should be typed in 12 pt font, double-spaced, 1 margins all around, pages numbered, with your name on each page, and stapled together. Please proofread for grammar, spelling, coherence, and typos. (Papers with excessive mistakes will be returned and will not be graded until they are fixed. Papers returned for mistakes cannot be revised.) Distribution of Grades 15% Attendance, participation, and various short assignments 10% Creative response 10% Dramaturgical research presentation and annotated bibliography 10% Prcis and position paper 10% Musical number / scene analysis 20% Group facilitation 25% Final Project 100% Explanation of Assignments 15%: Attendance, class participation, and short writing assignments through the semester 100% attendance and excellent, consistently engaged participation are expected. After three excused or unexcused absences, your final grade for the course will drop by a full letter (that is, a final grade of A becomes a B with fo ur absences). Two latenesses (of any length) or early dismissals (of more than five minutes) equal one absence. Spoken participation in this class is essential, both to maintain a high level of discussion and to encourage you to practice your spoken communication skills. You will be graded on both the quality and the quantity of your participation, as well as your ability and willingness to listen and to respond graciously and generously to other students ideas. After about a month of class, I will let you know how you're doing participation-wise. I expect you to sustain a consistent interaction with the course material and to develop a critical perspective, critical voice, and critical relationship to the work. Short writing includes various Blackboard posts.

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40% total: Four Assignments, 10% each: You should complete one assignment for each of the four musicals in this section of the coursea different assignment for each musical. You can choose which assignment to do for which musical. In this way, every student will construct a unique combination of assignments and plays. You must sign up in advance for the dramaturgical research presentation, but can decide later about when youll complete the other assignments and plays: 1) Creative response: a response to the play that is in a form other than a written analysis. This could be visual art a collage, a drawing, a painting; sculpture or a prop or tool or machine; film or video; music or sound; movement, gesture, or dance; food. You could create an alternative performance piece or create an experience that converses with the play in some way. The purpose of this approach is to encourage a different, perhaps more intuitive response to the musical. Please be prepared to share your response with the class. Performances should be no longer than two minutes. Also, please include a short (less than one page typed d.s.) explanation of your response. Due on the first day we study that musical. 2) Dramaturgical Research Presentation and Annotated Bibliography: a 5-minute presentation on a significant element of one musical. Topics may include the one or more of Sondheims collaborators (librettist, director, designers, choreographer , performers) lives and influences; the social, historical, and cultural context during which the musical was written and/or first performed; the context of the world of the musical; past performances of the musical and reviews and/or other critical responses. Please choose a topic according to your interests and do consult me for ideas or suggestions. The topic must require research; that is, it cant be a reading or interpretation of the musical (unless its someone elses and youve done research to locate it) . Also, please read the critical article or book assigned for the week before you select your topic to avoid repeating information that well all be reading as a class. You will need to sign up in advance for this assignment. I encourage you to use visual or aural aids, to provide handouts, to create a lively presentation (to get an A on this assignment, you must use performance or something visual (can be photos in a book or playing a bit of music; PowerPoint not required). You will be penalized one letter grade for going over five minutes. You should also post to BB an annotated bibliography of your sources for the presentation. To be presented on the first day we study a musical. 3) Musical number /scene analysis: a 3-4 page (around 1000-1200 words) paper that analyzes a musical number in the context of the dramatic scene and the musical as a whole. Use the Questions for Play Analysis and Elements of Music and Dance Analysis as a guide. You should consider, for example: What does this musical number mean? How do you know (that is, what is your evidence for your argument?)? How do music, and/or lyrics, and/or choreography, and/or staging make meaning? What is significant about the number? How does it contribute to the musical? Why is it essential to the show? To answer one or more of those questions, that is, to articulate an argument about the musical number in the show, you should focus on a close reading of the music, the lyrics, and/or the choreography or staging (in a filmed version).

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An excellent paper will: 1) be driven by a thesis/argument about the significance of the musical number in the play; 2) evoke the number in detail; 3) quote the lyrics; describe the music; 4) if needed, quote the script, describe staging in the production, and/or describe the actors performances; 5) be balanced between evidence and analysis; 6) conclude with a suggestion of the larger significance of this argument and interpretation. Due in class on the first day we study that musical. This essay isnt intended for you to consult scholarship but if you find ideas in other places, please cite them. 4) Prcis and critique of a critical reading(s): a 3-4 page paper (around 1,000-1200 words) on the weeks assigned critical reading in which you first concisely summarize the assigned essay(s) (first 2/3 of the paper) and then take a position in relation to it (last 1/3 of the paper). You may write about one article or compare two (or three, depending on the weeks assignment). Each scholarly reading in the course uses a different method, perspective, or theoretical approach to the musical. Questions to consider include: What is the authors argument? What is his/her perspective on the musical? With which other fields does the essay converse? How is the essay structured? What kinds of evidence does the author use? Is the argument persuasive? What are the high points of the essay? What do you learn from it? What do you find useful about the essay? What do you find problematic, missing, or unpersuasive about it? Due in class on the second day we study that musical. 20%: Group class presentation/performance/discussion facilitation: This assignment is intended to build on the skills and techniques of analysis, research, and response developed in the earlier part of the course and to give you the opportunity to structure the class according to your intellectual, creative, and pedagogical interests. A group of students will lead the class on a musical. You should frame the session to consider the musical itself (including the libretto, the cast album, and the film or taped version) and can supplement discussion with research on any related topic or issue either of context or issues raised by the show. You can construct the class session in any way you choose, but I encourage you to be creative in your pedagogy. You can use the various exercises of the first part of the course as a basis for your work, and also move beyond what weve done in class by introducing new pedagogies. Some of the class session may be lecture, some student-focused activity, some performance, some discussion, for example. A few ideas for in-class activities include: (These are only a very few possibilities!) 1) Performing a scene based upon your own new and collaborative vision of the show. 2) Performing the same scene or musical number in more than one way, to demonstrate the significance of different elements in interpretation. 3) Creating and showing lobby displays or program notes for a production of the play. 4) Staging a game show related to the play and its context. 5) Presenting research in a lively and interesting way. 6) Facilitating a discussion of key issues raised by the play. On the class following your facilitation day, each student will turn in: 1) any research notes you have taken (dont produce extra writing, pleas e, just turn in whatever you have done, whether its hand-written or typed)

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2) a log/journal/diary of your working processboth individually and with the group noting time spent and tasks accomplished 3) a brief (few paragraphs) of self-assessment of the class session: What went well? How and why? What might you have done differently? How? How did you feel about the class session overall? How did you feel about your working process as a group? You will be graded as a group as follows: 1) creativity of the class session 2) usefulness of the class session in understanding or raising questions about the musical 3) explicit engagement with the question of a musicals content, context, and meaning(s) 4) ability to keep the class discussion focused, moving, and useful 5) collaboration within the group; ability of the group to work together and to distribute tasks fairly (It is possible to receive a grade lower than your group if you do not participate fully.) All groups are encouraged to see me at least a week in advance to discuss ideas. 25%: Final Project Your final project should extend the work of the class into your own area of interest and curiosity. A research paper is an excellent option, but you should also feel free to consider other forms of work. Ill expect 10 pages of writing if you do a paper of some kind and will adjust the pages of writing accordingly for other projects. Talk to me about your ideas as you develop your project! Proposal due Thurs March 24 Draft or check-in due Tues April 19 5-minute presentation of final project due Tues May 3 Final project due Tues May 10, Deans Date Possible forms for the final project (just a few) o 10-page scholarly paper o Series of shorter papers o Magazine article(s) for a specific audience o Study guide for students (MTIs Guide to Into the Woods is a good model) o Mock production program with extensive dramaturgical notes o Dramaturgy casebook for a director and actors o Website o Creation and performance of an original work grounded in the work of Sondheim, or performance of already existing work o Film or video o Grant proposal to produce one or more of Sondheims musicals o Evening of Sondheim or a variation thereof: a whole (or part) class project to create a performance that will merge scholarship and performance. It might, for example, consist of scenes, songs, mini-research presentations, perhaps even some discussion or Q & A with the audience. If this interests you, I am happy to help make arrangements. Possible topics or areas of exploration for the final project (just a few)

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o Any of the musicals we havent studied or any other stage in Sondheims career (for example, the musicals he wrote at Williams College or some of his play, film, or television scripts) o More detailed exploration of any of the musicals or figures that we have studied o The role of design or of dance o Thematic analysis (for example, images of women; images of travel in Gypsy) o Close musicological analysis modeled on, for example, Stephen Banfield s approach o Concept for a new approach or concept to one or more musicals * * * * * * On Academic Integrity: While some of the work in this class is collaborative, I assume that all work is your own. Please give appropriate credit and use proper citation form for all materials. I encourage you to come to see me or to communicate via email with questions, ideas, suggestions, and comments.