In 2021, I began collaborating with Rick Pender, the author of the Stephen Sondheim Encyclopedia and Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd: Behind the Bloody Musical Masterpiece, on a series of podcasts where we discussed every Sondheim musical. In all, he’s been a guest of ‘On Broadway’ 22 times; there are 20 official episodes of The Complete Stephen Sondheim plus two additional interviews.
And so we concluded the series with Episode 20 in October 2024… or did we? It seems I misplaced one of the tapings where we discussed Sondheim’s only foray into TV musicals, the show Evening Primrose.
Evening Primrose was the ninth episode of the first season of the American television series ABC Stage 67. The book was by James Goldman and lyrics and music by Stephen Sondheim. It is based on a John Collier short story published in the 1951 collection Fancies and Goodnights. It aired on November 16, 1966 on the ABC Network. [IMDB]
The musical starred Anthony Perkins, as a poet who takes refuge from the world by hiding out in a department store after closing. He meets a community of night people who live in the store and falls in love with a beautiful young girl played by Charmian Carr (who played Liesl in the movie of The Sound of Music). Bizarre complications arise when the leader of the group forbids their relationship.
THIS EPISODE WILL BE RELEASED BY FRIDAY, SEPT. 18.
ABOUT RICK PENDER
Rick Pender grew up near Cleveland in Northeast Ohio. He fell in love with theater as a teenager in the 1960s: His first LP was the soundtrack of the motion picture of “West Side Story” with lyrics by 26-year-old Stephen Sondheim. In 1980 he moved to Cincinnati and a few years later he began to write about local theater. When CityBeat, the city’s alternative newsweekly, was launched in 1994 he became a regular contributor; in 1998 became joined the paper’s editorial team as its arts and culture editor. In 1997 he began to provide freelance features and reviews for The Sondheim Review, a quarterly magazine. He became its part-time assistant editor in 2002, and from 2004 to 2016 he was The Sondheim Review’s managing editor. In 2017 he launched a website, EverythingSondheim.org (now hosted by Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia). In 2002 and again in 2017 the Society of Professional Journalists named him Ohio’s best arts critic. For many years Rick conducted arts interviews for National Public Radio’s Cincinnati affiliate WVXU-FM, including several in-studio conversations with Stephen Sondheim. A longtime member of the American Theater Critics Association, he mentored young critics at regional seminars in Connecticut, Salt Lake City, Austin, and Seattle. He was ATCA’s chair in 2004-2005. A longtime communications and public relations professional, he was named to the College of Fellows of the Public Relations Society of American in 1996. Rick is an honors graduate of Oberlin College and earned master’s and doctoral degrees in English literature from Case Western Reserve University.
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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