HBO Documentaries tonight, premiers "Six By Sondheim", a look at the life of America's greatest living composer and lyricist for the musical theater. By focusing on six songs from his career we travel back to his early days and proceed right up to the present. Rare archival footage from the original casts of many of his shows are presented. This is fantastic stuff. His inspirations are revealed. The 83 year old Sondheim is secretive by nature and so I learned much about the man while really enjoying the film.
When Steven was a teenager he was struggling with adolescence and his mother and father were basically lukewarm parents at best. I'm not judging his parents but if you see this film you will come to appreciate the obstacles Sondheim overcame to achieve his success. Living in the neighborhood, perhaps next door, was the Oscar Hammerstein family. And so they became his surrogate family and Oscar his mentor. I had no idea!! When Leonard Bernstein was composing the music for West Side Story it was decided to bring in Sondheim to write the lyrics. I did not know that he wrote the lyrics. As the timeline proceeds from his early days, interviews from corresponding times in the past are shown, to give us a real sense of history. There are many revelations and I don't want to give away too much.
Some of the best parts of this film is when he talks about composing music and how difficult it is for theater. Present day performances of his six songs are also shown as well as a gem of a performance by Sondheim himself. "Six By Sondheim" is a great documentary about one of the most enigmatic composers of our time. For persons who like Steven Sondheim, musicals, or are interested in music and how a real savant works their craft; you will really like "Six By Sondheim" For the rest of you, please ......
Send in the clowns.
Depending on the person, this could be a good date movie.
I give this film a grade of B+
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