This week Jimi and Tommy go on a trip with Sondheim to Italy and explore the life and love of Fosca and Giorgio in his ‘Passion.’ They ponder over why the show was a critical success but not as popular with audiences, laud the importance of orchestrators on Broadway and make conjecture on Sondheim’s meta-musical.
Passion (Original Broadway Cast Recording)
SHOW NOTES
Did you know Donna Murphy also had a star turn as the Witch in Into the Woods? Watch Tommy proclaim his love for her in his Miscast Witches video!
If Sondheim is God then does that mean Finishing The… and Look I Made A… are the Old and New Testaments? Either way, gettem!
If you don’t know who Maria Friedman is then the perfect place to start is this this performance of ‘How Many Tears’ from Martin Guerre from ‘Hey, Mr Producer!’
We’re extremely grateful that Sondheim is an advocate for filmed staged versions of his show. Why not treat yourself and have a listen to the creator’s commentary on ‘Passion’?
Here’s a fascinating interview with Sondheim around the time of the release of ‘Passion’ on Broadway.
If you’ve never dipped into the ‘Show People with Paul Wontorek’ Broadway.com segments, you really should! No better place to start than with Judy Kuhn getting passionate.
Hear the man himself talking about the importance of orchestrators, particularly Jonathan Tunick!
If you don’t want to take our word for it, just look at Jonathan Tunick’s repertoire. We owe him so much!
A HIGHLY ANTICIPATED QUIZ QUESTION
This show has seen substantial rewrites for it’s licensable school version including the entire re-writing of one of its songs. The creators have said they actually like the new song better than the original and may just include it in all future versions. What show?