Where Do Ideas Come From?

 “And a person should celebrate everything passing by” is a line from my favorite Stephen Sondheim song. I was reminded of it when I watched a concert on YouTube – Take me to the world:A Sondheim 90^th Birthday Celebration.

Stephen Sondheim is considered by many to be the premiere creator of work in the American musical theater. We at Rhymes Over Beats agree with this assessment.

Not just because he speaks to us when he says,  “Of all the forms of contemporary pop music, rap is the closest to traditional musical theater…”.

Or even for the reasons that are typically cited, such as

• his clever lyrics. In one song, a madame, a fan of variety, who explains to a customer requesting “an encounter” dressed in clerical garb, that she’ll “get in the habit, but not in the habit,” from THE SEVEN PERCENT SOLUTION.
• his clever, inventive rhymes. For example, “If you want to bump it, bump it with a trumpet” in the song “Gotta Have a Gimmick” from GYPSY.
• his ability to create complex tunes at breakneck speed, like “Getting Married Today” from COMPANY.

I think that the real reason Stephen Sondheim is great is because he demonstrated more than anyone else that there are stories all around us.

And that you can make a musical out of anything.

An Overview of Sondheim Themes in Musicals

Stephen Sondheim has made hit musicals with unorthodox themes, such as:

• Gangs in NYC (WEST SIDE STORY)
• Cannibalism (SWEENEY TODD)
• A French painting (SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE)
• Political assassins (ASSASSINS)

And on and on.

The ability to create work from stories that are seldom, if ever, told is the heart of our mission.

Happy 90^th Mr. Sondheim.

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Not Business As Normal

Because we are involved in theater either as a writer, an actor, a director, or a producer, these are tough times.

Most of the things we normally do just can’t be done. Eventually we will be able to present our art in front of a live audience, just not anytime soon.

But there are things we can still do.

But What Can We Do?

I’m going to reserve the last blog of every month until we can do what we should be doing – putting on a show –  to suggest and highlight ideas on how to productively make the best use of this shutdown time.

For our Rhymes Over Beat’s Associate Artistic Director Cate Cammarata, she created a new play reading series on her CreateTheater.com website.

“I knew that Zoom was a great place to develop new work already,” said Cate, “because I’ve been working with writers for years over that platform. The Monday Night Reading Series was an idea I had the very first week after the theaters were shut down. I just knew we all had to keep our projects in development and come together as a community or else we would all go crazy.”

The most recent reading, A TOMATO CAN’T GROW IN THE BRONX by Gary Morgenstein, had 100 people attending online. “I had emails of people telling me they couldn’t get in because I had maxed out my Zoom limit,” Cate said. “There’s obviously a lot of interest right now.”

New plays have readings in front of invited guests to make sure that the storyline “works” and holds the audience’s interest. Sometimes guests will laugh in unexpected places, or maybe WON’T laugh in places where the writer thought they would. Due the to high cost of production, producers want to make sure that the script is ready to be put onstage. A reading, which is free, is typically the first step in development. In the age of Covid-19, Cate proves that this step can happen online.

Stay Home and Stay Safe 

Meanwhile, I hope everyone is staying safe. I also want to extend our condolences to the friends and family of Fred the Godson, who recently passed from the virus. He was a wonderful artist and person, and was one of the very first people in the community to be on board with the idea of hip hop theater. We will miss you.

Take care of yourself out there, and stay creative.

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