Tonight, tonight, won't be just any night. Tonight there will be no morning star.
Stephen SondheimRead
Musicals are — particularly musicals — plays also, but musicals particularly are… the last collaborator is your audience, and so you’ve got to wait ’til the last collaborator comes in before you can complete the collaboration.
Interpretation
The audience plays a crucial role in the completion of a musical, as their response shapes the final performance.
In this quote, Stephen Sondheim emphasizes the unique collaborative nature of musicals, highlighting that while they involve the work of writers, composers, and actors, the audience's reception is vital to the overall experience. The last collaborator, the audience, completes the artistic process, as their emotional responses and interactions ultimately influence how the work is perceived and enjoyed.
In practice
During a theater critique session, one might say Sondheim's quote to emphasize the importance of audience engagement.
Tonight, tonight, won't be just any night. Tonight there will be no morning star.
After the Rodgers and Hammerstein revolution, songs became part of the story, as opposed to just entertainments in between comedy scenes.
Musical comedies aren't written, they are rewritten.
Let Pirelli's / Miracle Elixir / Activate your roots, sir... Keep it off your boots, sir- / Eats right through. Yes, get Pirelli's! / Use a bottle of it! / Ladies seem to love it... Flies do, too!
Art, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos.
Careful the spell you cast, not just on children. Sometimes the spell may last Past what you can see And turn against you... Careful the tale you tell. That is the spell.
Sculpture and painting have the effect of teaching us manners and abolishing hurry.
Writing a book has about it some of the anxiety of telling a joke and having to wait several years to know whether or not it was funny.
Photography in our time leaves us with a grave responsibility. While we are playing in our studios with broken flowerpots, oranges, nude studies and still lifes, one day we know that we will be brought to account: life is passing before our eyes without our ever having seen a thing.
In terms of helping people understand and know each other a little better, music is universal - universal and transporting.
If you're performing music that is not who you are or where you're at, it is painful. It's painful for the performer and for the audience.
Writers kid themselves-about themselves and other people. Take the talk about writing methods. Writing is just work-there's no secret. If you dictate or use a pen or type with your toes-it is just work.
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