CHARLIE ROSE {STEPHEN SONDHEIM, JAMES LAPINE} (TV)
Summary
One in this series of talk shows hosted by Charlie Rose. In this program, Rose interviews composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim and librettist/director James Lapine. Rose begins the evening with a brief summary of Sondheim's achievements to date and then shows a short pastiche of clips from the latest Sondheim/Lapine collaboration, the musical "Passion," featuring Jere Shea, Marin Mazzie, and Donna Murphy. Sondheim talks about his reasons for setting the movie "Passione d'Amore" to music, and he summarizes the plot of this work as the story of a handsome young nineteenth-century soldier who falls in love with an unlikely heroine. He then defines his job as one of convincing the audience members of what they should believe on stage, and of making the story's themes and characters clear. He explains some of the changes that were made to the show during previews, and he calls it an unusual project for him as it is straightforward and without irony. Sondheim also addresses allegations that "Passion" is based on his own personal life. Next, he recalls growing up in Manhattan, talking about the divorce of his parents, the hurtful actions of his mother, and the tremendous influence of his surrogate father, lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II. He compares writing lyrics to solving a puzzle, muses on the similarities between music and mathematics, describes his love of the collaborative process, and talks about the difficulty new playwrights and composers have in getting their works produced. After a brief break, James Lapine joins Sondheim. Lapine recalls how the two began to work together and explains the reasons for the success of their collaboration. He also explores the difficult process of casting the physical, dramatic, and musical elements of a single character, and Rose shows a segment from "Passion" in which two conflicting scenes occur simultaneously. Lapine then theorizes that in his projects with Sondheim the music, rather than the story, generally carries the emotional weight. Both Lapine and Sondheim discuss "Passion" as operatic. They also touch on their thoughts on theater critics and their collaborative routine before Rose shows one final scene from "Passion."
Cataloging of this program was made possible by Rosalind P. Walter, 1999.
Details
- NETWORK: PBS
- DATE: June 3, 1994 11:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:56:47
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:57751
- GENRE: Talk/Interviews
- SUBJECT HEADING: Composers; Directors; Lyricists; Musical revues, comedies, etc. - Excerpts; Theater
- SERIES RUN: PBS - TV series, 1991-2017
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Peter W. Kaplan … Executive Producer
- Gwen Barrett … Senior Producer
- Audrey Jones … Producer, Broadcast Producer
- Tony Marshall … Director
- Charlie Rose … Host
- James Lapine … Guest
- Stephen Sondheim … Guest
- Marin Mazzie … Performer
- Donna Murphy … Performer
- Jere Shea … Performer
- Hammerstein, Oscar, II