Stephen Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber: The New Musical by Stephen Citron

Description

Here in the third volume of Stephen Citron’s distinguished series The Great Songwriters, this eminent musicologist has taken on our two leading contemporary contributors to the lyric stage. His aim has not been to compare or judge one’s merits over the other, but to make the reader discover through their works and those of their contemporaries, the changes and path of that glorious artform we call Musical Theater.

In his quest, Citron offers unique insight into each artist’s working methods, analyzing their scores–including their early works and works-in-progress. Great significance is given to the impact their youthful training and private lives have had upon their amazing creative output. Beginning with Sondheim’s lyrics-only works, West Side Story, Gypsy, Do I Hear A Waltz? through his scores for Saturday Night, Company, Anyone Can Whistle, Follies, Pacific Overtures, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, Merrily We Roll Along, Sunday In the Park, Into the Woods, Assassins , and Passion , all these milestones of musical theater have been explored. Lloyd-Webber’s musical contribution from his early works, The Likes of Us and Joseph to Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, Cats, Starlight Express, Aspects of Love, By Jeeves, The Phantom of the Opera, Song & Dance, Mass, Sunset Boulevard to Whistle Down the Wind are also thoroughly analyzed.

The works of these two splendid artists are clarified for the casual or professional reader in context with their contemporaries. Complete with a chronology, copious quotations from their works, and many never before published illustrations, the future of the artform that is the crowning achievement of the 20th century is made eminently clear in this book. Sondheim & Lloyd-Webber is a must-read for anyone interested in the contemporary theater.