Putting It Together: How Stephen Sondheim and I Created "Sunday in the Park with George

Arlen kills me. He’s as inventive a composer as there ever was.

I always point this out as the greatest piece of advice that anyone has ever given me about producing—plays, musicals, readings, whatever; you must always say something supportive.

Sunday ran for 604 performances, including previews, just shy of a year and a half. I happened to be at the theater one night after the show and the doorman told me that there was a group outside that would be thrilled to meet me. I walked out and was greeted by the St. Peter’s Girl Scout Troop No. 156 from Mansfield, Ohio. I visited with them and

always thought of it this way: “Children and Art” explained the show and “Lesson #8” explained George.

the composer! Lionel Bart, who had a serious drug problem, initially wrote the music for La Strada.

as we were walking over to the opening-night party at Sardi’s, my father said sweetly, “You didn’t tell me that you put your grandfather in the show.” I had never met his father, who passed away long before I was born and about whom I really knew nothing. “What are you talking about, Dad?” I said. “My father, Louis. He was a baker.” That stopped me

concatenations

Well, I got panned in The New York Times. SONDHEIM: Oh. Well, I knew I was right. (laughter) LAPINE: That was a first for me. It’s funny, because I went home after reading that review, and I thought, Oh, Stephen Sondheim’s never going to work with me now. I thought, Why would he? SONDHEIM: Gee, thanks. You had a lot of faith in my character. LAPINE

didn’t know Lee Adams or his family, but as far as we were concerned, after Johnny Appleseed (who had lived briefly in our town), he was the most famous person to have emerged from Mansfield.