So This Is Love

“The people who have throughout the United States’ history been most advantaged by the Constitution, especially its antidemocratic features, are the most obsessed with the idea that sometime soon they may have to start killing people. They are the ones who enjoyed the full panoply of rights and privileges from the start. They didn’t labor in chains. They didn’t have to fight to be able to vote, or to own property, or to see themselves represented in the halls of power. Not only that, to this day, they are granted special status within our political system. The Senate and the electoral college give overwhelmingly disproportionate power to small, rural, overwhelmingly White states. And within states they control, Republicans have gerrymandered districts so that rural White residents’ votes have even more weight.”

I do not know how to articulate this in a concise way that does it justice - sondheim would know, except he probably would brush away what I’m about to say in the way that he often did praise - part of the loss here is now that we’re forever bereft of an artistic bridge between theatre’s past and its future, and how impactful and part of the fabric of our culture broadway is. steve was mentored by rodgers and hammerstein. oscar was not only a teacher, but a surrogate father to him. he worked with leonard bernstein. he passed on that tradition of teaching and fostering new talent by reaching out to young composers, including jonathan larson (who was taken far too soon, but unquestionably had a permanent influence), including lin-manuel miranda, and that barely scratches the surface of the lives he touched, interacted with, guided and changed. all last night and today, names keep popping into my head of people who I know are grieving him, and they’re legends. they’re luminaries of the theatre. sondheim linked our cultural and musical and literary (because his lyrics ARE literary) past to where we’ve traveled and come, where we might be going. I know he said stop worrying where you’re going, but without the compass he provided, where would we be? stop worrying if your vision is new, but his always was, and its innovation and originality and moving complexity was because he was a keen observer of the current times, but also cherished the lessons he learned from those artists past. there are endless, countless things to say about the history of musical theatre and its composers and lyricists and writers, but no one had the perspective and rich perception of it that he did because he was there. his legacy lit the way because he was a part of artistic history at every turn. so it’s not only his loss as an extraordinary human being, or the realization that we won’t have new creations from him now, it’s also a grief for that piece of the past. his life kept that here with us for so long, and we were better for it.

To the man who brought us some of musical theatre’s most iconic stories and songs; the man who influenced generations of composers, lyricists and theatre lovers; thank you. Thank you Stephen Sondheim.