Finale: Late Conversations with Stephen Sondheim

by D.T. Max Narrated by Christopher Grove, Keith Sellon-Wright

Overview

“Brazenly entertaining. . . . It summons to the page a Broadway voice like no other.”-Los Angeles Times

“[An] erudite and affably self-conscious memoir of the creative process.”-Vulture

An intimate portrait of a genius: the late Stephen Sondheim in a series of illuminating and deeply personal interviews from the last years of his life-conversations that show the composer-lyricist as he has likely never been seen before.

In 2017,*New Yorker*staff writer D.T. Max began working on a major profile of Stephen Sondheim that would be timed to the eventual premiere of a new musical Sondheim was writing. Sadly , that process - and the years of conversation - was cut short by Sondheim's own hesitations, then the global pandemic, and finally by the great artist's death in November 2021.

Now, Max has taken the raw version of these conversations and knit them together into an unforgettable work of literature and celebration.*Finale*reveals Sondheim-a star who disliked the spotlight-at his most relaxed, thoughtful, sardonic, and engaging, as he talks about work, music, movies, family, New York City, aging, the creative process, and much more.

Max brings you into the room and gives you a front row seat for*their unusual and intimate three-year-long “pas de deux.” The*two bond, spar, separate, and reunite, as Max elicits from*Sondheim a candor and vulnerability he seldom*displayed in public.*

This is a unique portrait of an artist in his twilight, offering remarkable insight into the mind and heart of a genius whose work changed American musical theater and popular culture forever.

Editorial Reviews

JANUARY 2023 - AudioFile

This lively, intelligent narration by Christopher Grove and Keith Sellon-Wright offers a series of informal conversations that took place from 2016 to 2019 between author D.T. Max and musician Stephen Sondheim. Sondheim passed away in 2021 at the age of 91, and these were among his last interviews. Amusing anecdotes and witty comments reveal a side of him few have seen. While it can become confusing when more than two people are speaking, the audiobook’s overall feeling and tone are exactly right. Discussions of some of Sondheim’s works, including COMPANY and INTO THE WOODS, sound sincere and believable. From Sondheim’s difficulties trying to create a musical based on a Luis Buñuel film to his emotional comments about going to Japan and the problems with PACIFIC OVERTURES, every nuance is captured by the narrators. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

Publishers Weekly

09/12/2022

New Yorker writer Max (Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace) mixes his own commentary with the raw and revealing transcripts from his conversations with Stephen Sondheim (1930–2021) near the end of the composer’s life, conducted for what became a posthumous profile. Sondheim extols the virtues of a good rhyme (“like sinking a pool ball into the pocket”) and of fidelity to one’s vision (“Don’t write what you think people want you to write. But what you want to write.”). On the personal front, he largely retreads familiar territory such as his contentious relationship with his mother, though he does reveal a few quirks, such as affinities for Radiohead, Breaking Bad, and Microsoft Word. Interspersed throughout are Max’s insightful reflections on the delicacy required for interviews: “Profiles are fraught efforts,” Max writes, “profiles of the famous famously fraught.” In the end, Max paints a nuanced and sympathetic portrait of a notoriously private figure, enhanced with his own astute and earnest perspective: “What a burden Sondheim labored under,” he writes, “to have so many of us depending on him.” Sondheim’s fans shouldn’t miss this. (Nov.)

From the Publisher

"Max paints a nuanced and sympathetic portrait of a notoriously private figure, enhanced with his own astute and earnest perspective . . . . Sondheim’s fans shouldn’t miss this." — Publishers Weekly

"[An] erudite and affably self-conscious memoir of the creative process. . . . For every brilliant chunk of dialogue, there are multiple moments when Max invites readers into his thought process while interviewing, as well as first-person accounts of the frenzied desire he felt coaxing Sondheim into revealing what makes him tick." — Vulture

Library Journal

11/01/2022

Composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim passed away at the age of 91 in November 2021. He left behind a body of work ensuring his legacy for generations to come. An unfinished musical and an incomplete New Yorker profile were also left. Interviewer Max (Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story) culled those 2016–19 Sondheim conversations for a February 2022 tribute. This book amasses those exchanges with a woven narrative of Max's observations of Sondheim. The results provide tantalizing details into Sondheim's efforts producing an all-new musical, while reflecting on his struggle with writing fresh material and general mortality. If Sondheim were alive, with the finished musical behind him, these interviews would be simply reflective of his journey into completed works. Max intended to profile rather than memorialize. Yet, in Sondheim's absence, these interviews take on an unexpected import and catalog a journey seemingly unfinished. What might have been meandering small talk now becomes significant. As such, the context becomes, at times, more emotive than the content. VERDICT A loose latter-day chronicle of one of theater's irreplaceable voices; will be cherished by scholars and enthusiasts as a testament to Sondheim's creative process and to the man himself.—Gregory Stall

JANUARY 2023 - AudioFile

This lively, intelligent narration by Christopher Grove and Keith Sellon-Wright offers a series of informal conversations that took place from 2016 to 2019 between author D.T. Max and musician Stephen Sondheim. Sondheim passed away in 2021 at the age of 91, and these were among his last interviews. Amusing anecdotes and witty comments reveal a side of him few have seen. While it can become confusing when more than two people are speaking, the audiobook’s overall feeling and tone are exactly right. Discussions of some of Sondheim’s works, including COMPANY and INTO THE WOODS, sound sincere and believable. From Sondheim’s difficulties trying to create a musical based on a Luis Buñuel film to his emotional comments about going to Japan and the problems with PACIFIC OVERTURES, every nuance is captured by the narrators. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

2022-09-17
Final interviews with the greatest composer and lyricist in Broadway history.

New Yorker staff writer Max had wanted to meet Stephen Sondheim (1930-2021) ever since, in 1977, the author’s mother brought home a signed copy of the album Side by Side by Sondheim. Falling in love with the “tricky rhythms and harmonic improbabilities” and characters who “were made of doubt, of missteps, of ambivalence,” Max became a lifelong fan. In 2016, he wrote to Sondheim’s assistant to propose a profile and a short piece for the New Yorker. To the author’s surprise, Sondheim responded and agreed to what would become a series of interviews from 2017 to 2019. Those interviews form the bulk of this book. It’s a little crass when Max says he felt he had a better chance than previous journalists of getting the famously guarded Sondheim to open up because “he was old now. Coming to the end, to state it plainly.” He admits that, before the first interview, “I could not recall even the most rudimentary things about him,” and that, thanks to his lack of knowledge, “I would be able to push him just far enough out of his routine to get a fresh glimpse of who he was.” That’s a dubious theory and, as this book proves, a flawed one. Much of the information has been documented elsewhere. But Sondheim was a fascinating raconteur, and the book shines when Max allows him to discuss his work. Among the best sections are those about Sondheim’s difficulties trying to compose a musical based on films by Luis Buñuel, a project he didn’t complete; a long conversation on the genesis of the original Merrily We Roll Along; and little-known tidbits—e.g., that A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Sondheim’s Broadway debut as composer and lyricist, was the first show ever to be workshopped.

An adoring but surprisingly ill-informed book about a Broadway legend.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940175665001
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	11/22/2022
Edition description:	Unabridged

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