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 enlarge | Author: Meryle Secrest
Publisher: Delta
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  28 reviews
Sales Rank: 232126
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 480
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6.1 x 1.3
ISBN: 0385334125
Dewey Decimal Number: 782.14092
EAN: 9780385334129
ASIN: 0385334125
Publication Date: June 8, 1999
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: Good reading copy. May include highlighting/writing, some completed exercises, missing dust cover, crease, and/or overall wear. Ships within 2 business days. 100% Customer satisfaction guaranteed.
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| Customer Reviews:
Sorry - Grateful July 31, 1998
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
According to Meryle Secrest, Stephen Sondheim's favorite subject is ambivalence. If Secrest intended to provoke this very reaction in the reader, she has succeeded admirably. Any Sondheim aficionado will be grateful for the first five chapters detailing Sondheim's childhood, school years and early musical compositions. Subsequent chapters primarily contain previously available information about his mature musicals, but only occasionally treat the reader to additional personal details or insights into the character of this most private artist.
Unfortunately, the book never offers any original insight into Sondheim's work and fails to communicate any of the visceral excitement his musicals have created on the stage. In fact, the reader begins to doubt that Secrest has ever seen a Broadway or West End production of a Sondheim musical. I vividly remember the original Broadway productions of "Company" and "Follies" as two of the most exciting, scintillating and boldly original theatrical productions I have ever seen. One would hardly guess this from Secrest's dry summaries. Her descriptions of these two musicals make them sound as dreary and tedious as Sondheim's harshest critics would have one believe.
Overall, the book has a rambling, disjointed quality which proves the New York Times' recent assertion that publishers no longer bother to edit manuscripts in an era when cost cutting and speed reign supreme (apparently even at the venerable house of Knopf). The book ends abruptly, topped off with a dollop of dimestore psychoanalysis.
In addition, the book contains numerous factual errors. Secrest states that "Company" won seven Tony Awards. It actually won six since there has not been a Tony category for "Best Producer" in at least the last 35 years despite her claims. Secrest later states that "A Little Night Music" won five Tonys (the correct number) but immediately proceeds to list six individual Tony Awards she claims the musical took home.
Some of Ms. Secrest's opinions are just as jarring. She includes "Ol' Man River" in a list of song titles to purportedly demonstrate that songs in musicals of the 1920's and 1930's had little or nothing to do with the underlying plot. It's hard to imagine a song which is more integrated into a musical than "Ol' Man River" is in "Showboat". Not to mention that it was written by Sondheim's mentor, Oscar Hammerstein, who almost singlehandedly created the modern integrated book musical.
Although this book is a must for any Sondheim fan given the new information about his personal life, how disappointing that the style and content of this biography do not shine like the brilliantly original, boldly stylized, meticulously detailed and highly polished compositions of the man himself.
Satisfying, but not completely. July 21, 1998
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Secrest is a fine writer, although I think her very straightforward style seems a bit pedestrian in the face of her fascinating subject; much like with her Frank Lloyd Wright biography. I wish she had been more attentive to Sondheim's personal life, since his work has been dealt with better elsewhere, and the book really works best when it looks at the man who shapes the artist. A good job, but not as monumental as we Sondheim freaks wished for and needed.
 Everything's Coming up Sondheim July 20, 1998
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
For lovers of musical theatre and Sondheim devotees this book is a must. Meryle Secrest has put together an admirable biography of a very talented and complex man. This book was done with Sondheim's cooperation and he has been very frank in his discussions with the author. The book delves into his troubled youth and his love/hate relationship with his mother. His friendship with James Hammerstein was an important part of his life. It also goes "backstage" in the making of his productions. If there is a weakness in the book it tends to be the fact that certain details about a musical are totally deleted. All of the hard work that went into a particular will occasionally be glossed over with a sentence or two. This does not happen often, but it does occur a couple of times. I think Ms. Secrest handled a lot of the material with tact and delicacy. Of course, one of the issues was Sondheim's admission that he is gay. For many years his sex! uality was "known" by everyone who knew him, but it was something that he did not discuss. He discussed with candor his relationships with other men and the emotional roller coaster rid he was on before he came out. I have seen some lukewarm reviews of this book that I did not feel were justified. I found it interesting and a book that held my interest throughout. A definite must for any theatre fan.
 Factual and annoying July 17, 1998
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
If you care about Sondheim, there's no way you're going to avoid "Sondheim." And if you don't much care about the man or his music, you probably wouldn't pay much attention even if the book were on par with Richard Ellmann's biography of Oscar Wilde -- which, I can assure you, it is not. There is certainly a great deal of information in "Sondheim," and there are moments of insight and even lyricism in Ms. Secrest's presentation. What there isn't, however, is a sustained, properly distanced critical perspective. Often this book seems like the autobiography Sondheim can't bring himself to write. Worse, there are so many bizarre time shifts and narrative fractures as to suggest that the book was not treated to the services of an editor. A sad thing, given the fabled meticulousness of the subject as well as the Knopf imprint.If your shower singing is about the wife whose "sweet imbecilities tumble so lavishly onto her lap," nothing's going ! ! to stop you from reading this book, in spite of its flaws. But if you have no idea why perpetual anticipation is good for the soul, go listen to Ella sing "I Wish I Were in Love Again" instead. It'll be a lot more edifying about words, music, and life, if not about Sondheim.
GOOD TIMES AND BAD TIMES: SONDHEIM BOOK HAS IT ALL July 13, 1998
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Perhaps what is most impressive about the Sondheim biography is the detail in which Secrest delves into Sondheim's psychology, especially his relationship with his mother, Janet "Foxy" Sondheim. While most of the history about the development of shows is repetition of what we have already seen in Zadan's "Sondehim and Co.", and Gordon's "Art Isn't Easy", the exploration into Sondheim's personal life is delightful, especially since Sondheim has always been a rather private man. His personal relationships are handled with great delicacy and respect, and Secrest makes sure she never judges Sondheim or his behavoir. Being a biography written about a man while still alive, I was afraid the book would take a form similiar to the Issac Goldverg bio of George Gershwin, written in 1931 while Gershwin was still in his prime - it comes across as a biased "Gershwin is God" type book, and it wasn't until Gershwin's death that biographers began looking at his life with objectivity. Luckily, for us, we haven't had to wait for Sondheim's death for an intelligent, thoughtful bio written about the man to surface. If fault must be found with the book, it is that without a solid background in Sondheim lore (ie. having read Zadan and Gordon's book, along with Martin Gottfried's "Sondheim" and Banfield's "Sondheim's Broadway Musicals"), the newcomer may feel a little snubbed at the lack of detail regarding the shows themselves. Even I was a little disappointed at the relatively quick mention of Pacific Overtures and Into the Woods. Other shows, such as Sweeney Todd, received much more mention, and I found myself wishing Secrest had handled each show evenly. Of course I'm aware that Sweeney Todd was one of Sondheim's favorites, a project he initiated himself, and perhaps this explains why there is so much devotion to that specific musical. For any Sondheim fan, the book is a must-have. But even if you loathe Sondheim, "Sondheim: A Life" is also a chronicle of the decline of musical theatre, from the golden age in the 1960's, straight through to the Aluminum Foil Age that has pervaded the last two decades - Almunium Foil, because Broadway has become all glitter, with very little strength behind it. Sondheim, like the song says, has seen good times and bad times, and through them all, is still here. His biography will tell you exactly how he did it, and inspire all of us future-playwrights and theatre-goers to do the same.
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