“Sondheim: His Life, His Shows, His Legacy” Book Review

*Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.

Since 2021, there has been an influx of books with Stephen Sondheim as the subject. There have been so many new books, in fact, that The New York Times tuned in and published a lengthy article detailing and discussing each one. Many of the books are from people who knew Sondheim personally or at least worked with him on a professional level. Others serve as academic analyses of his work or those of his colleagues.

This week, one of these books about Sondheim was published, offering something different: a glossy, coffee table book filled with pictures that serve as an overview of both the man and the artist. From his birth in 1930 to his final work Here We Are, the book does indeed live up to its subtitle.

“Sondheim: His Life, His Shows His Legacy” comes from author Stephen M. Silverman who had a prolific career in entertainment journalism. As founder and editor of People.com, he also had bylines in such publications as Esquire, The New York Times, and Vogue, in addition to over a dozen books under his name. Silverman was originally approached to write the book after Sondheim’s death. Sadly, he himself passed away a couple of months ago, making this book a posthumous release.

For those who indulge in visual companions of major film franchises- Star Wars and Marvel come to mind- there is a familiar, perhaps even comforting, visual quality to this book. Kate Benezra designed it, and it shows. With a background in elaborate, visually rich coffee table books such as this, Benezra makes the most of the space on the page to present a beautiful, easily digestible product. Due to its nature, it is heavy on photos, and the text, though well-written, takes a back seat. For instance, compare this to Rick Pender’s text-driven The Stephen Sondheim Encyclopedia, which is one of the most comprehensive and informative publications about Sondheim currently on the market.

The book is divided into 14 chapters, with such clever titles as “A Puzzlement” (a nod to the King’s solo in The King and I) and “Never Do Anything Twice”, an allusion to the song written by Sondheim for the 1976 Sherlock Holmes film The Seven-Per-Cent Solution. It is arranged in a mostly chronological fashion, with sidebars throughout featuring other aspects of his career; his minor works like The Frogs and Saturday Night get one to two-page spreads with summaries of their plot and historical contexts. To my pleasant surprise, other aspects of the Sondheim fandom appear as well, including a page dedicated to Broadway Pins (for those who want to wear Sondheim’s face on their lapel or bag).

In terms of information, there is little new here. Sondheim devotees will find most of this in other sources (as did Silverman) such as Meryle Secrest’s biography, documentaries and interviews featuring the man himself, and numerous other articles and books. The “new” details come from Silverman’s interviews with colleagues of Sondheim such as Agnes DeMille and Adam Guettel- in addition to some information provided by those who wished to remain anonymous. The most revealing quote concerns Sondheim’s infamous mother Foxy and suggests that some stories about her that he perpetuated throughout the years were fictitious or, at least, exaggerated.

Despite the reliability of Silverman’s reporting, there are still a few editorial oversights that made it through the cracks. Some are typos, such as his 70th birthday being stated as 2020, instead of 2000. Others are sweeping, debatable generalizations, such as the statement where Silverman claims that Original Cast Album: Company is “regarded by some as the most faithful screen adaptation of any Sondheim show”. This is blatantly incorrect, primarily because the D. A. Pennebaker film is not an adaptation, it is a documentary. Both of these errors appear in the first chapter.

There is another oversight, appearing later in the book, that is so baffling that I cannot believe it was published. In the section discussing Sweeney Todd, there is a passage about an upcoming animated adaptation of the show for Disney+. The problem? The original sourced article was an elaborate April Fool’s Joke. Though this detail escaped scrutiny from Silverman and the editors at Black Dog and & Leventhal, it is no excuse. That kind of blunder is how misinformation is spread, which you all know that I hate.

This all may sound like I don’t recommend the book, which is not my intention. At the end of the day, it is an accessible, visually appealing introduction to Sondheim’s work. For those who want to learn about Stephen Sondheim, I think that is significant.