How old were you when you discovered Sondheim?- Page 2

[light_thelights]

Posted: 1/12/09 at 6:38pm

I think I was twelve; starting with Sweeney Todd, and then Gypsy.

Updated On: 1/12/09 at 06:38 PM

[me2]

Posted: 1/12/09 at 6:42pm

I was about 21 or 22. I saw INTO THE WOODS on video for $3 at Goodwill and picked it up. It took me a while to decide if I really liked it or not, but I showed it to my students, who really liked it.

When I got the OBCR of A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC, I didn't like the music until I read the libretto. I then loved the music. :)

The first time, though, were I really understood why he's so big, however, was probably the FOLLIES revival, which really opened up my mind as to what a musical could do.
Broadway Mouth: White Christmas in January: Reflections on Movie Musicals and Movie Musicals on Stage

[Hest882]

Posted: 1/12/09 at 6:54pm

16? It must have been around 1986 when I saw the filmed production of Sunday in the Park with George on PBS. I've loved Sondheim--and Bernadette Peters--ever since.

[jagfkb]

Posted: 1/12/09 at 6:55pm

When I saw the Revival of Into the Woods, I knew I would be hooked. As bad as people may claim it to be, it was one of the most amazing theatre experiences of my life.

[Elphaba3]

Posted: 1/12/09 at 7:17pm

Right before I turned 14. I saw a community production of Into the Woods and LOVED it.

[CurtisTaylorJr2]

Posted: 1/12/09 at 7:24pm

Around when I was 17, I heard "Last Midnight" from "Into The Woods" and it became a favorite of mine. I slowly listened to some of his other material and in the past year or so I've become a big fan of it. My IPOD playlist has a lot of Sondheim now.

[jv92]

Posted: 1/12/09 at 9:00pm

PalJoey, did you ever meet Alexis or Dorothy or any Follies cast members durring the course of its run? And what a story!

[TheatreFreak05]

Posted: 1/12/09 at 9:18pm

My first introduction to Sondheim was with Into the Woods (I was 10 or 11 years old). My mom had bought the cast album and I memorized every single word of it. I fell in love with the music, and then I bought the DVD. I must have watched it 5 times within a week.

When I first saw the DVD of Sunday in the Park With George (about 12 or 13), I truly saw the genius that Sondheim really is.

Sunday is still my favorite show :)

[laura is broadway]

Posted: 1/12/09 at 10:00pm

PalJoey, I love your story, not to mention I'm extremely jealous that you got to see those performances.

I discovered Sondheim in 8th grade. (I'm 17 now).. I was going through a bit of an "emo" stage, i guess you could say, (haha) and was drawn by the plot of Sweeney Todd so I bought the recording... ha , little did I know.
I quickly became obsessed, seeing the revival several times and literally coming home from school every day for months to watch the dvd with Angela Lansbury and George Hearn.

It really took off from there, and my love for Sondheim grows more everyday as I discover more about him and his music. I don't think I'd be as happy as a person with out him.
Updated On: 1/12/09 at 10:00 PM

[JeaniusIsMe]

Posted: 1/12/09 at 10:07pm

Back in 8th grade I was in Into the Woods Junior, but had no idea who Sondheim was. The first time I put a name to his music was watching the Assassins Revival performance on the Tony's. Then I went to New York to see the Sweeney Todd revival for an early 21st birthday present and I was officially hooked.

[BwayBound2012]

Posted: 1/12/09 at 10:20pm

my story is going to sound super cheesy, but i first heard of him when i was maybe 14 or 15 and was watching the movie Camp. Daniel Letterle says something to Robin de Jesus' character about a picture saying "is that your father?" and robin replies "no that's stephen sondheim" and daniel still has no clue who he is and robin says something like "he's the head hancho of musical theatre". so i had no clue who he was and looked him up. and then i discovered sondheim. i had also figured out he did "the ladies who lunch" and i loved that song so much. so i have been a fan since.

[jimmycurry01]

Posted: 1/12/09 at 10:22pm

I must have been about 8 or 9. It was the first time Into the Woods was on PBS. I was supposed to be going to bed but caught the beginning of it and stood right next to the TV in my room and watched the whole thing with just barely audible sound as to not get caught out of bed with the TV on. After that, I was hooked.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 1/12/09 at 11:50pm

Well, I discovered him again tonight, at 52.

At the Roundabout benefit reading of A Little Night Music.

I was as excited as if I were 14 again.

[sondheimboy2]

Posted: 1/13/09 at 12:54am

I was a teenager when Judy Collins had a hit with "Send In The Clowns". I remember watching the Grammy Awards the year it won for "Best Song" and asking my sister why, if Judy Collins sang it, is this guy getting the award?

Then, when I was a Junior in High School the acting teacher would tell us what was happening in New York and how people were so shocked by "Sweeney Todd" that they were leaving at intermission.

I knew that I would never have left. My best friend in the class asked his parents for the cast album for Christmas. I borrowed it from him as soon as I could and fell in love with the show.

Though, I wouldn't say that I fell in love with Sondheim until "Merrily We Roll Along". I read the review in the Times and thought "how sad". Then a couple of months later I paid five bucks for a copy of the Original Cast Album at a second hand record store and could not believe that a show with a score this fabulous would only run a week and fell in love with Sondheim.

I didn't start worshiping him until "Sunday In The Park With George."

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 1/13/09 at 12:59am

I have to be honest--not until senior year of high school, which would have been the age of 17. Though I did like "The Final Ballad of Sweeney Todd" several years before, after I'd first heard it.

[bk]

Posted: 1/13/09 at 1:15am

I guess I'll chime in - I was twelve and I bought the Gypsy cast album from the Columbia House Record Club, from whom I'd just received my very own Columbia House Stereophonic Record Player. I put it on and fell in love, with the show, the music, and the lyrics. I'd never heard lyrics like that - I was obsessed even then with words. I knew of Styne because I'd just seen the film of Bells Are Ringing and loved that, too. Then I saw the film of West Side Story at the Chinese Theater in LA and realized the lyrics were by the same guy - and I saw that film every Saturday for fourteen weeks in a row (at the horribly expensive reserved seat price of $2.50 or something like that). Then, a few years later, I was in a record store and saw the just released LP of Anyone Can Whistle, noticed Sondheim's name, and bought it. I listened to it about 100 times in a row - and this time it wasn't just the lyrics it was the music, too. And as brilliant as the lyrics were, it was the music I really responded to (when I told this to Sondheim he was very pleased). And then, some years later, came Company. I bought the album and listened to it about 100 times in a row, and saw the national tour with most of the original cast. Then came the LP of Follies, which blew me away like I'd never been blown away, and then I saw most of the B'way cast when the show played the Shubert.

In 1989 or so, I'd started my first record label, which was called Bay Cities. We were the first to issue A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum on CD. One fine day I came into the office and there was a little envelope, which contained a thank you note from Mr. Sondheim. We began a correspondence. In 1993, when I was offered the chance to join Varese Sarabande (a company I'd helped create) and to do whatever I wanted, I started their B'way division, and the first CD I planned was, of course, Unsung Sondheim. He made so much fabulous material available to me, and he was very supportive, and it was the first of many Sondheim albums I did.

When I decided to do the series of Sondheim in Jazz albums with Terry Trotter, Steve told me he didn't think much of jazz because he didn't really understand it that well. The first one we did was Passion in Jazz, and I explained a little about the nature of jazz, and I must say, he totally loved it and loved Terry's work. And he felt the same about each subsequent album.

He was a good egg when I suggested Dame Edna to sing Losing My Mind, and he really liked the result. It's amazing that we've been corresponding now for close to twenty years. His music and his words have informed so many people's lives - given them hope, made them laugh, shocked them, surprised them - I never throw around the word genius lightly, but the man deserves the word and the word deserves the man.

[defyingravity11]

Posted: 1/13/09 at 1:18am

When I was two or three I saw the PBS taping of Into the Woods and I've been hooked ever since!

[Craww]

Posted: 1/13/09 at 1:46am

22, I guess. 21, if we're counting when I fell in love with the Broadway Assassins cast recording.

I might have even liked Sondheim more as a teenager. I was such a different kind of cynic then, I would have been able to love Sondheim without worrying about whether or not I was being susceptible to some perceived elitist bias. Too bad I got into Broadway so late.

[Mama2]

Posted: 1/13/09 at 2:45am

I first heard Sweeney Todd when I was 10 years old.

That was about 8ish years ago now.

I fell in love with it instantly!

Then I heard Into The Woods. I've been obsessed ever since

[NYC_or_Bust]

Posted: 1/13/09 at 3:14am

My first introduction with Sondheim was when my parents took my brother and I to see Into the Woods in 1992. I dont remember much except rupunzels tower and a lot of blue lighting...flashforward to 7 years later when I went to see a community production of FOLLIES...i was 11 years old and was hooked on Sondheim....even at 11, i totally understood his brilliance

[Eastwickian]

Posted: 1/13/09 at 4:50am

I'm extremely jealous of those who got to see so many wonderful original casts and productions. I had been exposed to his music from an early age and the first Sondheim show I saw was the original London production of Into the Woods, but I only got properly hooked five years later with the National Theatre's A Little Night Music, aged 13.

The person I have to thank for both of these trips (as well as many more) is my gran - she had been a huge Sondheim devotee since seeing the tryout of Anyone Can Whistle in Philadelphia and was constantly playing cast LPs from Sondheim shows when we went to visit her (I still associate the factory whistle from Sweeney with being in her living room!). Now she's quite frail, finds it hard to get around and her eyesight is failing so her theatre-going is limited, but she says that sitting in a chair with Sweeney or Sunday in the Park with George on the CD player is still one of the true pleasures of life!

[TheActr97J]

Posted: 1/13/09 at 5:33am

I know that I saw productions of West Side Story (two, I believe) and Gypsy when I was still in elementary school. The one production of West Side in particular, I remember to this day as one of the first shows that inspired me to want to pursue theater.

My true first experience with Mr. Sondheim came when I was 16 and played Magruder in a production of Anyone Can Whistle. I became fascinated by the bizarre genius of the wacky show, and fascinated by the man who wrote it. Since then, I've grown into a Sondheim devotee, seeking out every Sondheim recording and piece of literature that I could get my hands on. I believe my iPod has six different recordings of Sweeney Todd and Follies and at least two recordings of every one of his other shows. As a musical theater performer, he is my favorite composer to sing and a constant reminder of why I love this artform. His music inspires me to continue on this path.

[fairygodmother]

Posted: 1/13/09 at 6:49am

When I was 13/14 my mum literally shut me in my room to watch the BBC taping of the Donmar Warehouse's Company.
I came down the next morning a total convert.
She did the same with Rocky Horror when I was about 11 - I have a great mum!

[nicole neumann2]

Posted: 1/13/09 at 8:34am

when i was 24 years old. now i am 25. it was a year. when i saw Company and sweedy.. but i do know who he is...

[nicole neumann2]

Posted: 1/13/09 at 8:34am

when i was 24 years old. now i am 25. it was a year. when i saw Company and sweedy.. but i do know who he is...