I love different peoples interpretations of Stephen Sondheim's songs ( ie. not from the original cast album )
Especially love in concert recordings, artist recordings from albums, and revival casts that vary from the OBC.
I'm ALWAYS looking for fantastic interpretations and recordings of Sondheim.
A few performances that opened up songs to me in new ways vs the original cast recordings include:
Moments in the Woods- Audra McDonald Youtube in concert Not a Day Goes By- Bernadette Peters- Sondheim etc Children Will Listen-Bernadette Peters-Sondheim etc I am unworthy of your love-John Barrowman & Ruthie Henshell youtube We're gonna be alright-Emily Skinner do i hear a waltz live
Who has favorite performances of favorite Sondheim songs they would like to share and discuss?
Judy Kuhn is absolutely beautiful as Fosca on the 2013 cast recording of Passion. Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters recorded Evening Primrose on Patinkin's "Dress Casual" album and I think that it's probably the best recording of that score. I also love the 2011 Revival recording of Follies due to it's clear quality and completeness.
I love Kelli O'Hara's version of "What More Do I Need?" from her Always album- gorgeous singing. Brian Stokes Mitchell has an interesting international samba-rhythm version of Something's Coming on his eponymous album.
Raul Esparza singing "What Can You Lose" from DICK TRACEY, with Mary-Mitchell Campbell on the piano - at his American Songbook recital a few years back. Takes my breath away.
Morosco, for some reason that Cleo sings Sondheim video special used to pop up a lot on the Women's channel (a Canadian basic cable station,) in the 90s. I LOVE her interpretations--but the videos verge, in a good way, on camp. I love the oh-so-literal take on Losing My Mind. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jALrRhRCqt0
Unfortunately there's no video, but I think my single-most-favorite Sondheim performance is Nancy Walker's rueful and introspective rendition of "I'm Still Here," from the very first Sondheim tribute event in 1972. Here's the recording of her from what came to be known as "the Scrabble album":
I don't Know if this is what you'd like because it was in an actual performance of the show but in the New York City Opera version of A Lititle Night Music, Maureen Moore does an absolutely genius Every Day A Little Death. Also seconding Marin Mazzie's Losing My Mind, plus there's a version of Pretty Lady from Pacific Overtures which through the magic of sound engineering has Mandy Patinkin singing all the parts. I found it all on Youtube. I love this thread!
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000
is it such a crime to love everything Barbra sings from the SONDHEIM song book?...so I do!
personal favorites are... EVERYBODY SAYS DONT THERE WONT BE TRUMPETS with the sublime A QUIET THING from FLORA THE RED MENACE...(which is not SONDHEIM but KANDER & EBB...who I also adore) SEND IN THE CLOWNS MOVE ON PUTTING IT TOGETHER
If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.