James Lapine’s account of how he and Stephen Sondheim braved bad previews and cast members jumping ship to create a hit musical is fascinating
This book is a retrospective peep behind the curtain, an account of how a musical was conceived, written, produced, launched – and nearly died in its infancy. It is mostly fascinating, especially if, like me, you’re baffled by the mechanics of artistic collaboration. How is it that two people can find a common voice to make a single work of art?
In this case, it was a musical of a quite cerebral and challenging nature. In 1982, Stephen Sondheim was so depressed by the flop of his last project – Merrily We Roll Along had closed on Broadway after 16 performances – that he contemplated abandoning musical theatre to start on something new: video games. (Yes, really.) Before that ambition could take root he happened to meet a young playwright, James Lapine, who’d had some off-Broadway successes. At Sondheim’s apartment, they got together again, smoked dope and began throwing ideas around. After a couple of false starts, Lapine brought over a postcard of Georges Seurat’s painting Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, which set something off: it looked like 50 characters on a stage set. When Lapine pointed out that the main character was missing – the artist – Sondheim responded: “Boing! All the lights went on… a great moment.” Sunday in the Park With George was up and running.