'Sondheim & Me' by Paul Salsini
“When I saw his Follies on Broadway in 1972 I immediately knew that here was a composer/lyricist unlike any other I had ever known—and I had been a fan of musical theater for years,” says Paul Salsini of Stephen Sondheim. “It was as daring as it was beautiful; it broke barriers and yet was conventional; it was a show with layer after layer of meaning and content.”
Salsini was a writer, editor and writing coach for the old Milwaukee Journal, but his increasing fascination with the composer led him to moonlight as founder-editor of The Sondheim Review. Debuting in 1994, the quarterly magazine reported on Sondheim productions in the U.S. and abroad, interviewed actors and directors, critiqued Sondheim’s oeuvre and even included contests and quizzes.
Salsini reflects on his years with the quarterly in his latest book, Sondheim & Me: Revealing a Musical Genius. The book accounts for the author’s fandom, reports on the process of running the Review and includes assorted letters and notes from Sondheim. Many cultural figures at Sondheim’s level would have looked on Salsini’s endeavor with Olympian detachment. Not Sondheim, who applauded, complained, corrected and supplied wider context. It was a friendly long-distance relationship between editor and subject.
Was Salsini surprised by the close attention Sondheim gave to the Sondheim Review? “Yes. At first, I’m not sure he understood what it was going to be. Maybe he thought it would be a fanzine. When he found it was journalistic, I think we gained his respect and therefore he gave it closer attention—citing small errors, encouraging our efforts. I was surprised by his corrections—a wrong first name deep in a story, for example. I was both grateful and honored.”
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After Sondheim died last November, Salsini “remembered all the notes he had sent me, and our phone conversations, and I thought ‘there’s a book here.’ Then I went through all The Sondheim Reviews I had edited over 10 years and found some really interesting articles and interviews. I thought I should share them with readers.”
It's unlikely that today’s Broadway, reliant on Disney for inspiration, would nurture a talent as substantial as Sondheim. “Broadway has become very commercial, playing to people who can afford the high-ticket prices that are necessary to finance huge productions,” Salsini agrees. “When people are paying those prices, they expect to sit back and be entertained. That’s all. Especially if they’re tourists, and 63% of Broadway audiences are tourists. They are also older—average age is 42—and have higher incomes than the average American. So producers are extremely reluctant to offer opportunities to new, exciting talent who offer different ways of telling a story through music.”
Salsini also spent several years teaching at Marquette University and has authored nearly a dozen novels and books of short stories set in his beloved Tuscany. Will there be more? “I’d like to. We’ll see,” he says.
Paul Salsini will discuss Sondheim & Me: Revealing a Musical Genius 6:30 p.m. Oct. 18 at Boswell Books.
