Into the Words

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Director of Artistic Development Anika Chapin, Signature artists, and notable Sondheim experts take us “Into The Words” of the genius of Sondheim's songs, analyzing the lyrics and reflecting on performing them.

Sondheim’s “The Road You Didn’t Take”: The Blessed Peace

NYC-based director and Associate Artistic Director of Prospect Theater Company Dev Bondarin analyzes “The Road You Didn’t Take” from Follies and its universality. Read more on the Everything Sondheim website!

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Deep Dive into three songs from Sunday in the Park with George

Composer Sarah Taylor Ellis, theatre writer John Verderber, and director, dramaturg and producer Adam Lenson each take on an in depth analysis of a song from Sunday in the Park with George. Click the links below to read more!

"Move On" from Sunday in the Park with George

"Lesson #8": A Hymn to Essence

"Beautiful": I’ll Draw Us Now Before We Fade

Misery Yesterday, Comedy Tonight

Former Artistic Director of NY City Center’s Encores! series and author of The Secret Life of the American Musical tells the story of how Sondheim replaced the opening number of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum from “Love is in the Air” to “Comedy Tonight”. Read more on the Everything Sondheim website!

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“Epiphany” from Sweeney Todd

Sondheim expert, Anika Chapin, Signature’s Director of Artistic Development, takes you through Sweeney’s musical and mental undoing, and unpacks the layers of melody, lyric, orchestration, and text that chart Sweeney’s transformation from revenge to mania.

“Liaisons” from A Little Night Music

Director of Artistic Development Anika Chapin sat down with Signature Theatre Co-Founder Donna Migliaccio to talk about one of their favorite songs from A Little Night Music.

Song Analysis: “A Very Nice Prince”

Sondheim’s songs are such richly layered character portraits, you can learn volumes about each character in every one. Here’s a good example, from Into the Woods: when Cinderella and the Baker’s Wife first meet in the woods, it might seem like just a charming moment of plot as Cinderella tells a starstruck Baker’s Wife about the Prince’s ball, which we never see. But listen more closely to the music and the lyrics, and you’ll become aware of a lot more; deeper shading is given to each character that foreshadows their actions for the rest of the show.

Podcast Episode: “A Little Night Music,” Know The Show

Written in 1973 by Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler and inspired by a popular Ingmar Bergman film, A Little Night Music is all about love and sex, Sondheim-style; complicated love triangles, the pain of loving the wrong person, and the inevitability of time passing. In this episode of the podcast Know The Show, hosts Anika Chapin (Signature’s Director of Artistic Development) and Michael Fling dive into the show’s genesis, history, and legacy – and Anika makes a case for why the song “The Miller’s Son”, which many feel is out of place, is in fact the key to understanding the entire show.