Sondheim's Life: Struggles, Demons, Triumphs

The brilliant Broadway composer and lyricist, Stephen Sondheim, was every bit as difficult, complicated, and sometimes frustrating as the puzzles that he collected and so enjoyed over his lifetime.  

Sondheim's many quirks, squabbles, grudges, demons, peaks and valleys  are richly detailed in the new biography, Stephen Sondheim, Art Isn't Easy, by Daniel Okrent, for the Jewish Lives series from Yale University Press.

Here are some of the things we learn in this biography which illuminates the life, struggles and triumphs of Sondheim in a way heretofore unavailable:

•  The author tells us that for all intents and purposes, Sondheim was an alcoholic. He drank almost every day of his life. Yes, there were periods when he went  off the bottle, but invariably he returned to his previous ways.  He enjoyed almost every kind of alcoholic beverage, including scotch, vodka, bourbon, martinis, champagne, wine  or whatever would do the trick and he resisted any efforts to get him into a program such as Alcoholics Anonymous.
•  Like many great artists, Sondheim was also a perfectionist who obsessed over his work and, even after he completed a composition, was often less than satisfied with it. He was known to return to previously "finished" works to correct what he still perceived as mistakes or oversights. And no, whatever natural talent he had didn't make the pursuit of his art any easier. Thus, the subtitle Art Isn't Easy.
• Sondheim was also a notorious procrastinator, either because he found it difficult to face a looming task or because he worked best under pressure. This often presented a difficult dilemma for his collaborators and the many others who depended on his output in the high-pressured theatrical world of Broadway.  Still, when the pressure was on, more often than not, he delivered mightily. But oh, the waiting!
• They called Sondheim a genius, and he certainly was significantly above average in intelligence. In school, he skipped both kindergarten and seventh grade and entered college at 16. In first grade he read aloud from the New York Times. But, like many high IQ people, he could be awkward in social situations and found such settings difficult. He was an enigma, difficult to get to know and not what you would call a "people person." 
• Yes, some might characterize him as a "tortured genius" as he also sometimes obsessed over small slights or things that were said or written about him and he was known to hold grudges, sometimes letting things fester for years or even decades. But, he could just as easily blow up, let off steam and then put his anger aside and act as if all was well again.  Friends learned to deal with his sometimes volatile behavior and treasured their relationships with him nonetheless.
• Drugs were another part of Sondheim's life, though apparently not to the point where he became an addict. The musical Sunday in the Park With George was written largely with the help of marijuana at a time when weed was not legal and Into The Woods was reportedly helped along with cocaine and even ecstasy. 
• Sondheim suffered two heart attacks, one just beyond the middle of his life and one a bit later and he did clean up his act a bit after each one, incorporating an exercise regimen and sticking with wine instead a variety of liquors. But, in both instances, he returned to his old ways and, incredibly, managed to live to the age of 91 -- still very alert, cogent, and still working on a new musical (Here We Are) at the time of his death. 
• Though he avoided sentimentality in all his shows, Sondheim himself proved to be a sentimentalist at times. He was deeply  moved by the mere mention of the word "teacher" because he felt that teachers had the greatest impact on his life and on the life of others. And though, he was an insular person, Sondheim was known to cry easily. In fact, he cried, whenever he played the song Someone In a Tree which was deeply personal to him.

In this book, the author gives us a Sondheim, who is characterized by three overwhelming traits -- alienation, ambivalence and revenge. 

The product of a fractured marriage (and a resulting deep personal animus toward his mother) Sondheim, according to Okrent, was motivated by a feeling of vengeance, and this unfortunately carried over into many of his dealings with others. Throughout his life, he also felt a deep sense of separateness and an inability to connect with others. On top of all that was a persistent ambivalence, which carried over into the lyrics of many of his songs. This ambivalence added to the mystique of Sondheim and was depicted in the tales disconnected prople, particularly in an urban setting. And this, of course, is most dramatically expressed in the musical Company.

Alienation. Ambivalence Revenge. These three run through some of Sondheim's greatest works. 

Alienation crops up in characters who often appear to be mere observers of the world around them rather than active participants and it is a frequent trait of artists who spend the bulk of their time observing and creating, often necessarily shutting themselves off from others. Think Sunday In The Park With George and Merrily We Roll Along. Ambivalence finds a home in a secular world devoid of moral underpinnings, guidelines or even any semblance of a road map. Think Company and Follies. Revenge often grows from past traumatic events, sometimes even criminal. Think Sweeney Todd.

As gruesome as Sweeney Todd was, the strong propulsion of revenge that characterized his macabre tale was something that Sondheim could understand. Asked once about the difference between himself and Sweeney, Sondheim didn't flinch. "I tuned it into art," he answered.

Though Sondheim may have passed on nearly five years ago, we remain abundantly grateful for the art he created which lives on among all of us. Or, as George Bernard Shaw once said: "You can lose a man like that by your own death, but not by his".