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.

majordomo,

Also, shelled peanuts if anyone got hungry. (A nod to Jimmy Carter.)

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

memory is uniquely personal and, as time passes, the facts of an event are often rewritten to reflect the teller and the stories he or she chooses to hold true.

Many years ago, on a Sunday, I was home writing a new project and the work felt labored and forced. I was not having a good workday. The phone rang and it was Steve, who was in a similar state of mind with a project he was working on. We chatted for a while—always a treat—and then I hung up and decided to take a break. I went and turned on the TV

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

concatenations

always said that Bernie didn’t bet on the horses, he bet on the jockeys. Michael Bennett comes up with a musical. Mike Nichols comes up with a play, Neil Simon with a play. You try to get their shows in your theaters. So Sondheim comes up with a musical—you say yes. William Goldman used to say, “Nobody knows anything. Every time out, it’s a guess.”