Thursday, December 20, 2007

Speaking Of Stephen Sondheim...

I'm surprised that the song "Everybody Wants to Be Sondheim" by Alan Chapman hasn't become better-known; it's been recorded by Amanda McBroom, Bruce Kimmel (under his recording alias of "Guy Haines") and Chapman himself, but I don't think it's all that frequently done outside of New York cabaret. Which is a shame because it's one of the few really good parodies of Sondheim and Sondheim-firsters. Actually it's not so much a parody as a song about musical theatre that incorporates moments of parody -- mostly Sondheim's infamous quirk of repeating one chord over and over (like someone who heard part of The Rite of Spring and thought all songs should sound like that), as recognizable a trait as Richard Rodgers' tick-tock accompaniments.

This is Kimmel/Haines's version from the now out-of-print album "Broadway Bound" (devoted to songs by new or new-ish musical theatre writers). The arrangements are by Larry Moore.



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