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Musicals are plays, but the last collaborator is your audience, so you've got to wait 'til the last collaborator comes in before you can complete the collaboration.
Stephen Sondheim
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Musicals involve collaboration not just among creators, but also with the audience, whose reactions complete the experience.

Stephen Sondheim emphasizes the essential role of the audience in the creation of musicals. While playwrights and composers collaborate during the production process, the final element that makes the work complete is the audience's engagement and response, suggesting that their involvement is just as important as the creators' contributions.

Themes

MusicalsAudienceCollaborationTheaterArt

In practice

Example use cases

In a theater discussion, this quote can be used to highlight the interactive nature of performance art.

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