Picking up where he left off in Finishing the Hat, Sondheim gives us all the lyrics, along with excluded songs and early drafts, of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods, Assassins and Passion. Here, too, is an in-depth look at the evolution of Wise Guys, which subsequently was transformed into Bounce and eventually became Road Show. Sondheim takes us through his contributions to both television and film, some of which may surprise you, and covers plenty of never-before-seen material from unproduced projects as well. There are abundant anecdotes about his many collaborations, and readers are treated to rare personal material in this volume, as Sondheim includes songs culled from commissions, parodies and personal special occasions--such as a hilarious song for Leonard Bernstein's seventieth birthday. As he did in the previous volume, Sondheim richly annotates his lyrics with invaluable advice on songwriting, discussions of theater history and the state of the industry today, and exacting dissections of his work, both the successes and the failures.
Filled with even more behind-the-scenes photographs and illustrations from Sondheim's original manuscripts, Look, I Made a Hat is fascinating, devourable and essential reading for any fan of the theater or this great man's work.
Priscilla Gilman is an author and book critic.
Finishing a hat Starting on a hat Finishing a hat Look, I made a hat Where there never was a hat. Thank you, Stephen Sondheim, for the innumerable & incomparable hats you made for us. #RIPSondheim, who died #OTD one year ago today
@johnmitchinson & @i_am_mill_i_am giving new life to old books every fortnight. https://t.co/AEXg6MP40a Indie Champion 2023. Support us: https://t.co/6v0TkHJO2C
The books we’ll be discussing on the next episode of Backlisted (Mon 24th Jan, earlier for @Patreon supporters) are Finishing the Hat and Look, I Made a Hat by the late and very great Stephen Sondheim. https://t.co/S3j8e6XW7e
🎼Writer, lyricist, composer @bmi Musical Theatre 🎭Artist-in-residence @nystageandfilm @oneill_center 🎤Season '22 @edfringe 🎬Executive Producer @LinkedIn
"However you live There's a part of you always standing by Mapping out the sky Finishing a hat Starting on a hat Finishing a hat Look, I made a hat Where there never was a hat." Thank you, Stephen Sondheim, for all the hats you made.
"While the book technically covers Mr. Sondheim's output from 1981 to the present, aficionados will delight in all the bits and bobs from early in his career that Mr. Sondheim didn't make room for in the first volume . . . The extensive miscellany also includes a drawerful of lyrics Mr. Sondheim wrote as birthday gifts for friends like Harold Prince, Mary Rodgers and Leonard Bernstein. One of the choicest pleasures of the first volume was in Mr. Sondheim's sharp-minded analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of musical theater lyricists from the past. He's covered most of that territory already, so the new book features essays on 'Awards and Their Uselessness' and 'Critics and Their Uses' -- savory reading." --Charles Isherwood, New York Times