This "Vodka" line sounds like a light-hearted joke on Sondheim's part. I would be curious to know how many times Mr Feinstein, whom I admire, met with Sondheim to form such a judgement.
Sondheim, somewhere in all his comments about writing, said he took a drink to loosen up before trying to write.
I'm not sure that alcoholics are always so honest about drinking.
It seems remarkable to me that someone with a serious alcoholic problem could think and write with such precision over so many years; of course there are functioning alcoholics, but often at some point their whole world collapses.
Sondheim's flintiness might also be in part the result of his mother's unsettling effect on his youth.
I think the evidence points in an opposite direction to the thrust of Mr Feinstein's passing remark. |
