Rick Pender, the author of The Stephen Sondheim Encyclopedia, continues his analysis of every Sondheim musical with the show Gypsy. The original Broadway production, with music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a book by Arthur Laurents, opened on May 21, 1959 and ran 702 performances. The show was directed and choreographed by Jerome Robbins. Ethel Merman starred as Rose, with Jack Klugman as Herbie and Sandra Church as Louise.
NOTE: Due to copyright issues, this podcast has been reedited to remove any use of songs from the Stephen Sondheim catalog. However, we hope you will still enjoy the insightful commentary by Sondheim scholar, Rick Pender.
Rick Pender has been an award-winning theater critic since 1986. He has written for CityBeat, Cincinnati’s alternative newsweekly, since it was founded in 1994. He was the newspaper’s arts and entertainment editor and is currently a contributing editor, reviewing local theater productions. In 2002 and again in 2017, the Society of Professional Journalists named him Ohio’s best critic. Pender is past chair of the American Theatre Critics Association and was the executive editor and publisher of Everything Sondheim and managing editor of The Sondheim Review. He was also heard regularly as a broadcast interviewer for WVXU, Cincinnati’s National Public Radio affiliate. Pender has interviewed Stephen Sondheim, onstage and in the studio, several times.
Find out more at rickpenderwrites.com.
The Stephen Sondheim Encyclopedia is a wonderfully detailed and comprehensive reference devoted to musical theater’s most prolific and admired composer and lyricist. Entries cover Sondheim’s numerous collaborators—from composers and directors to designers and orchestras—key songs—such as his Academy Award winner “Sooner or Later” (Dick Tracy)—and major works—including Assassins, Company, Follies, Sweeney Todd, and West Side Story. The encyclopedia also contains information about Sondheim’s mentoring by Oscar Hammerstein II and his early collaboration with Leonard Bernstein, and profiles the actors who originated roles and sang Sondheim’s songs for the first time, including Ethel Merman, Angela Lansbury, Mandy Patinkin, and Bernadette Peters.
Featuring a detailed biographical entry for Sondheim, a chronology of his career, a listing of his many awards, and discussions of his opinions on movies, opera, and more, this comprehensive resource will attract musical theater enthusiasts again and again.
The Hardcover and Kindle editions are both available for purchase through Amazon.com.
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