Finishing the Hat: Collected Lyrics (1954-1981) with Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines and Anecdotes

As a man who has spent his life working in theatre, teaching music and studying the scores of Stephen Sondheim, I am thrilled to say that "Finishing The Hat" brought a new wealth of information even to me. (I can play "Please Hello" from memory and it comes from one of the few shows I have never done)At first, my thought was that this is a book that is best directed toward songwriters: people who write lyrics; people who write both music and lyrics. But as one reads through and reads EVERYTHING we begin to see that this is also a book for lovers of Sondheim. Then anyone who has an interest in music. By the time one reads the section on the 1974 production of "The Frogs" (complete with a photo of swimming singers, Meryl Streep dead center) we also see that this book is for anyone at all who works in or appreciates musical theatre. As one reads through "Sweeney Todd" and then what I consider his most brillianmt "flop", "Merrily we Roll Along" we see that this is a book about history. Not just the history of musical theatre, but the history of America as told by the most observant and detail oriented artist to have lived over the past 80 years.In short, "Finishing The Hat" unfolds in the same manner as one of Sondheim's songs and thus, one of his musicals. The difference: Writing a book is lonely work. Writing a musical is collaborative work. People considewr "Sunday in The Park With George" to be Sondheim's masterpiece without regard to the fact that Jim Lapine gets at least half the credit. Sondheim writes this frequently in his book.Stephen Sondheim is an American Prize. More so than Copland or CAge. Certainly more than any of his idols. Sondheim is in a ctagory with W.A. Mozart and Giacommo Puccini. He has the math and the technical skills of J.S. Bach and like these composers will go down in history and the words we write of him now will long be forgotten.I've been saying this and teaching it since I was in college myself. I am lucky to have lived through the original productions of his best work-though I only became aware of him in time for "Sweeney Todd" and "Side By Side by Sondheim." I did not see "Merrily We Roll Along"- damned few did. (No pun intended) but I was one of the ones who waited with grave anticipation for the arrival of "Sunday In the Park With George"- a musical that change theatre more so than "Oklahoma!" or "Company." The work that followed was just as brilliant: "Into The Woods" which requires intensive study to see that there's no more brilliance in anything written for theatre or film in history. And the work-all the way up to the beautiful love story, "Road Show". Sondheim says that there's a huge amount of pressure upon him to top what he's done before.This is his own pressure. As he says, "God is in the details." All he need do is follow his heart and it works. Stephen Sondheim has given more to our culture than any other human being to pre-exist him.This book is briliantly written. He is painfully honest, but works very hard to say nothing bad about anyone (save a few critics into whose mouths Sondheim's foot couldn't fit as their own foot is already there) and he kindly writes only of those composers and lyricists who are already dead and therefore cannot be hurt. He is equally hard on himself; much harder than I or anyone else would be. Yes, "West Side Story" contains a mass of lyrical errors but Sondheim was 23 years old and working with the three biggest legends on Broadway. His vote weighed the least and Bernstein was a man who loved etheral floating lyrics. We learn the little tid-bits. The story behgind "Send In The Clowns" (which many of us knew was wreitten at the Park Plaza Hotel in Boston, just down the street from the Colonial theatre, but Sondheim's genius is clear: He wrote the song for the 11 o'clock number in "Night Music"; for the character of Desiree, then played by the English actess, Glynis Johns. She was unable to sustain long notes. So he knew that the song had toi be elongated lines without extended notes at the end of a phrase. Only Sondheim could have solcved this problem by creating a song that was filled with questions. As far as the fame this song hit (In 1975 it won Grammy Award as Best Song of the year- a SHOW SONG. It was the last time to happen) and has been recorded by over 500 pop singers. The only re-wrirting he's done was when Streisand called him and voiced her question about how the first half was solid but something was missing from the second half. This was, of course, a dialogue betwewen Frederick and Desiree in which he takes his coat and leaves her. Sondheim did not write the new quatrain ("What a surprise...") for a "Diva" but for a singer who studies her lyrics so closely that the entire song is one coherent piece.As a result, any time that "Send n The Clowns" is performed, it will make far more sense with this new section he wrote for "The Broadway Album" in 1985. Suddenly we're singing a song that is about something rather than a song that is about the singer.I've always seen this since directing "Night Music" in 2000.(We did not require the new lyrics as the spoken scene was there and beautifully acted) In 2002 I was coerced into playing the piano for the 40th anniversary of the Weston Drama Workshop- a summer educational program in Weston Ma"sachusetts that has produced MANY succesful and famous performers- and the woman who sang "Memory" on Broadway came back to sing "Send In The CLowns". She said she was a "purist" and refused to add the new lyrics. I aquiesed. She handed me a score in the key of Eb and told me she would do it in D major.I played in in E Major. Not because she refused to listen to what I had to say but because she treated me as though I were an inept servant- something all piano players feel from time to time. And there's nothing quite like playing with a Mezzo's passagio when they give you a hard time. Sondheim would find my behavior reprehensible. Perhaps. My reasoning would cause him to smile.So if you have ANY interest in the history of America as seen from the stage (including The Follies and the "death of theatre") this is the best book ever written on the subject. If you are a student of performance, writing or a student of human condition (anthropologists would find this fascinated) you should buy this book. Buy it as a gift. Buy it for yourself. Domnate it to the public library and the local middle school and high school library.We wondered what would follow "Road Show"- and I pray there will be more music, but "Finishing The Hat" is something that simply can't be topped. This is the best book written on theatre or the history of the 20th century to date.

I have told everyone I know about this book. As you've probably guessed, I am a Sondheimophile. I didn't expect "Finishing the Hat" to be a coffee-table-sized tome;I am actually reading it from cover to cover. I cannot put it down. I knew Sondheim's lyrics would be the basis for his book, but his analyses of them were as brilliant as the lyrics themselves. He looks at them objectively and tells us the mistakes he made, especially in but not limited to his first show,"Saturday Night""and what he should have done. He tells how much he learned working with Leonard Bernstein on "West Side Story" as well as the disagreements they had. He had been reluctant at first to be limited to lyrics,but realized what an opportunity this was,working with such a tremendous talent! Again, writing only the lyrics for "Gypsy," he learned the makings of another outstanding show. "Gypsy" is considered the most perfectly constructed musical. Both experiences were priceless. Once he was finally able to combine his lyrics with his own music in"A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," there was no stopping him! He includes fascinating backstage anecdotes as well as profiles and critiques of his contemporaries, some flattering, some not. He includes songs that were cut, first drafts of songs that were changed, and the reasons for each. I am involved in writing lyrics for a local theater group,so I was anxious to learn as much as I could about this craft.I've read half of the book so far and it has exceeded all my expectations!

I bought this book because I read a review in the NY Times Book Review by Paul Simon calling it a "Master class for anyone attempting to write for the theater." Since I'm in the process of co-writing my first musical comedy, I couldn't resist. I've never been a Sondheim-worshipper (though of course I respect his talent and achievements) - in fact I'm not a fan of theater music in general and am writing a rock musical, but I still couldn't think of a better composer to learn from. The book doesn't disappoint - he analyzes his own compositions with insight and humor and provides lots of fascinating anecdotes about the other great theater composers. I learn something from every page. It's a huge book and will take me a while to get through, but it's one of the best investments of money and time that I've made in a long time.

For any aspiring lyricist (in theater or in any other songwriting arena) this book is indispensable. Sondheim's thoughts on clarity and his reasoning are crucial to any writer. The book is structured very well, with chapters organized by show and lengthy introductions to each show's set of lyrics. I particularly was intrigued by the introduction to the chapter on "The Frogs." The inclusion of first drafts of lyrics is especially useful, and the production photos and snippets of Sondheim's handwritten drafts is a nice touch. A book that provides new information every time you read it. My only complaint is that it's companion draft,  Look, I Made a Hat: Collected Lyrics (1981-2011) with Attendant Comments, Amplifications, Dogmas, Harangues, Wafflings, Diversions and Anecdotes  isn't here yet! For lyricists who are also composers, I highly recommend buying this book along with  Sondheim on Music: Minor Details and Major Decisions . It would be hard to imagine a more complete look into the creative process of theater songwriting.

It’s magnificent.I learnt so much, not just about the shows I didn’t know, and the process behind the ones I did, and the things changed, cut or discarded before even the try-outs.There’s so much of lyric writing that any writer could do well to consider. Not just about rhyme, internal rhyme, dissonance, stress, and succinctness, but about the art of writing. About plot and character. About the three fundamentals, which we all know, or think we do, until we come to edit our own work. And also, the reasons why we need collaborators, to push our work to its best.Above all, it’s enjoyable; but not exactly a read-through book. I haven’t even started on all the analyses of the famous lyricists he’s included.As for ‘leave you humming the final bars of Merrily We Roll Along, while eagerly anticipating the next volume’–I was humming them before I even started that last chapter of Finishing the Hat.

You better love genius and Broadway shows.Nothing before has been like it. Buy both versions.

Das ist mit Sicherheit ein unverzichtbares Werk für Sondheim-Fans! Viele wunderbare Notizen von ihm selbst, dazu Anekdoten, Anmerlungen, viel Hintergrund übers Schreiben, Dichten, Komponieren, Produzieren seiner Musicals.Und - das Wichtigste: Alle Texte!! 2 Bände

This book brought me hours of joy from the moment I opened it. I only wish he could have fit it all in one volume. The feeling I got reading it was like when I first got the Bill James Baseball Abstractor the People's Almanac. It was just lots of fun to find out more about things that interest you. There were questions that had always nagged me as well as insights I'd never imagined. I love the way he connects the detailed decisions to the broad principles.

Amazing book, absolutely love it.