How Sondheim Can Change Your Life

by Richard Schoch

Overview

An “incisive...heartwarming” (The New York Times Book Review) exploration of the powerful and universal lessons from the music and lyrics of Stephen Sondheim, the genius behind such musical theater masterworks as Company, West Side Story, and Into the Woods.

Stephen Sondheim died on November 26, 2021, but for countless fans around the world, he is “still here,” to quote one of his lyrics. With acclaimed revivals of his landmark shows occurring around the world and introducing new generations to the man who transformed American musical theater, Sondheim’s legacy has only grown.

How Sondheim Can Change Your Life makes the case that Sondheim’s greatness—beyond the clever lyrics and adventurous music—rests in his ability to tell stories that relate to us all. From Louise’s desire for freedom as Gypsy Rose Lee to Sweeney Todd’s thirst for revenge, we as an audience relate easily to Sondheim’s characters. His works understand us as much as we understand them.

“With clarity and accessibility” (Ben Brantley, former theater critic, The New York Times), How Sondheim Can Change Your Life is rich with stories about productions and iconic performers, deep readings of his music and lyrics, and insights into his creative process. But more than that, it reveals how Sondheim’s works can enrich our own lives.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781668030592
Publisher:	Atria Books
Publication date:	11/19/2024
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Richard Schoch is professor of drama at Queen’s University Belfast. He graduated summa cum laude from Georgetown University and received his PhD from Stanford University. He has received fellowships from the Whiting Foundation, The Folger Shakespeare Library, and the Stanford Humanities Center. Before launching his academic career, Schoch directed plays in New York City and worked for the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

Editorial Reviews

2024-08-02
Life lessons gleaned from the work of a musical theater master.

Drama professor and devoted fan Schoch, author ofShakespeare’s House, lovingly explores Stephen Sondheim’s musicals, aiming to show how they can help people achieve a more fulfilling life. “His works understand us as much as we understand them,” the author avers. Zeroing in on 13 shows, he enthusiastically walks us through the essence of each to demonstrate that “Sondheim, if we let him, can change our life.” Schoch notes that in his first musical,Anyone Can Whistle, Sondheim tried to impart the lesson, “Be aware of the roles that you enact in your life,” but it was a flop because he forgot to “put the audience first.” He never forgot it again.Gypsy tells the story of a toxic mother-daughter relationship, but the vivid characterizations expressed in song demonstrate that “hurtful patterns can be disrupted and then replaced by the benevolence of a nurturing heart, beginning with our own.” In the plotlessCompany, Sondheim anatomizes the “loneliness of modern urban life,” then suggests how we can overcome it in the song “Sorry-Grateful” (a “true masterpiece”). “Whenever I hear the quintet inA Little Night Music warming up,” Schoch writes, “I hear a rehearsal for life.”Sweeney Todd, the ultimate revenge piece, asks us howwe would respond to injustice.Merrily We Roll Along, poorly received when it opened in 1981 but a Tony-winning hit in 2024, oozes with feelings of personal regret. OnSunday in the Park With George, Schoch remarks, “How can wenot pay attention to a play that honors so elegantly the lost art of paying attention?”Into the Woods confronts “not knowing which path to choose,” and Schoch softly brings down the curtain withHere We Are, which opened in 2023, two years after Sondheim’s death: “a perfect theatricalnon finito: not finished, and that’s by design.”

A lively, thoughtful self-help book—sui generis, like the artist who inspired it.

Kirkus Reviews

Incisive. . . heartwarming. . . . What a joy the author’s take on it all is. I was happy simply to be in Schoch’s company, wallowing in Sondheim trivia and enjoying a series of smart, close reads.”
—New York Times Book Review

“When it comes to musing on Sondheim, from the intellectual to the introspective, Schoch seems to know it all.”
—The Washington Post

“Even if you were not a Sondheim fan on page 1, there’s a good chance by mid-book you’ll be ordering tickets for the next Sondheim show in town.”
—Minnesota Star Tribune

“Fascinating and wise. . . . offers a fresh way to look at some great works, without ignoring Sondheim’s greatness as a lyricist and composer. Rather, Schoch often demonstrates the subtle brilliance with which Sondheim uses his words and music to illuminate character.”
—Jonathan Mandell, New York Theater

“Richard Schoch presents the complexity of Sondheim’s work with clarity and accessibility. Sondheim continues to change my life, and this book will help many readers, listeners, and theatergoers to understand a bit better how he does it.”
—Ben Brantley, chief theatre critic, New York Times, 1996-2017

From the Publisher