Threaded Order Chronological Order
| re: 100% agree | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 08:00 pm EST 02/22/20 | |
| In reply to: 100% agree - Chazwaza 04:27 pm EST 02/22/20 | |
|
|
|
| "I have been arguing against his issues with these lyrics for years -- and the key issue is exactly what you said. His argument against them makes HIM look bad, not her lyrics. He's a genius but on this, even about his own work, I do think he's wrong and I think his issues with the lyrics are baseless." According to a source whom I consider very reliable, it was Sheldon Harnick who first suggested to Sondheim that the lyrics of "I Feel Pretty" were too literate or witty or whatever for an uneducated Puerto Rican girl whose first language is Spanish to sing, and I believe this happened very early in the show's history. So I guess Sondheim agreed with him at the time and has stuck with that opinion, even though many people might disagree, for the reasons stated in this thread. |
|
| reply to this message |
| I wonder why he's never altered the lyrics. | |
| Posted by: Amiens 08:09 pm EST 02/22/20 | |
| In reply to: re: 100% agree - Michael_Portantiere 08:00 pm EST 02/22/20 | |
|
|
|
| He's certainly had numerous opportunities over all these years. Has he ever spoken about his decision on this? | |
| reply to this message |
| re: I wonder why he's never altered the lyrics. | |
| Last Edit: Chromolume 08:38 pm EST 02/22/20 | |
| Posted by: Chromolume 08:27 pm EST 02/22/20 | |
| In reply to: I wonder why he's never altered the lyrics. - Amiens 08:09 pm EST 02/22/20 | |
|
|
|
| Good point. He has occasionally altered other lyrics - sometimes wholesale rewrites ("Now You Know" for instance), sometimes just a word or a phrase ("husband YOKED to wife," or the "fag" rhyme in the original "You Could Drive a Person Crazy"). Maybe he's just never come up with anything else that works as well - or he feels that the original lyric is so iconic to most people that changing it would just be too much of a problem? One change that I'm glad hasn't seemed to take hold - this phrase from Sweeney: (original) Sweeney pondered and Sweeney planned, Like a perfect machine 'e planned. (proposed revision) Sweeney pondered and Sweeney planned, Like a fucking machine 'e planned. I hate that revision. I get the more emphatic nature of the revision, but it seems to call attention to itself in an odd way (the f-word always does lol). Also, I just think that the image of a "perfect machine" is so much more apt in context. |
|
| reply to this message | reply to first message |
| re: I wonder why he's never altered the lyrics. | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 12:52 pm EST 02/23/20 | |
| In reply to: re: I wonder why he's never altered the lyrics. - Chromolume 08:27 pm EST 02/22/20 | |
|
|
|
| Also, whether he has said this or not, I think there's a big difference between Sondheim (1) rewriting the lyrics of songs for which he also wrote the music, and (2) rewriting the lyrics of songs for which someone else wrote the music, seeing as how the composers -- all now deceased -- might not have approved of the rewrites. | |
| reply to this message | reply to first message |
| re: I wonder why he's never altered the lyrics. | |
| Posted by: Chromolume 12:55 pm EST 02/23/20 | |
| In reply to: re: I wonder why he's never altered the lyrics. - Michael_Portantiere 12:52 pm EST 02/23/20 | |
|
|
|
| Good point. :-) | |
| reply to this message | reply to first message |
| Sondheim: I wrote a whole other lyric to 'I Feel Pretty' | |
| Last Edit: WaymanWong 11:57 pm EST 02/22/20 | |
| Posted by: WaymanWong 11:54 pm EST 02/22/20 | |
| In reply to: re: I wonder why he's never altered the lyrics. - Chromolume 08:27 pm EST 02/22/20 | |
|
|
|
| But he says, ''Nobody would accept it. They said it's working great the way it was. Which it was. But it didn't make me less embarrassed.'' | |
| Link | '60 Minutes' Overtime: Sondheim says 'I was never happy' with 'I Feel Pretty' |
| reply to this message | reply to first message | |
| Interesting that his rewrite has never surfaced over all these years. | |
| Posted by: Amiens 11:48 am EST 02/23/20 | |
| In reply to: Sondheim: I wrote a whole other lyric to 'I Feel Pretty' - WaymanWong 11:54 pm EST 02/22/20 | |
|
|
|
| Will we ever hear it? I can only think he didn't have much faith in the rewrite himself as he presumably had the power in later years to get it into the show. | |
| reply to this message | reply to first message |
Time to render: 0.020213 seconds.