Following up on the 60 Minutes piece on Stephen Sondheim I posted over the weekend in honor of him passing at age 91, we have a very fun and somewhat unexpected bonus of us. Unexpected, because it is not a venue in which you expect to see Stephen Sondheim. “Somewhat” though because Sondheim famously loved puzzles and games. And so, here he is from 1966 as a guest on the game show, Password. This is from a primetime incarnation of the show, and it wasn't only the main players who were celebrities, but also the guest contestants. The main stars here are Lee Remick and Peter Lawford. From scrolling through the full show, I get the sense that the main stars got to pick friends who they wanted to play with. (Lawford was a brother-in-law of President Kennedy, and one of his partners was former JFK press secretary Pierre Salinger. Lee Remick had her mother as one of her partners.) It's noteworthy that Remick asked Sondheim. She had starred in the second show for which he wrote both the music and lyrics, Anyone Can Whistle, that also starred Angela Lansbury. The musical was a huge flop -- only nine performances -- yet its score was so well-regarded that a cast album was nonetheless made and prized. But also, you may have noticed in that 60 Minutes segment the other day that it included a brief clip of the song "Could I Leave You" from a one-night only 1985 concert production of Follies. The singer in that clip was...Lee Remick. One additional note related to this. In his game show appearance, host Allen Ludden asks Sondheim what musical he's working on next, and he answers that it's called The Girls Upstairs. That's the original tile for -- Follies. (Though the title was changed, Sondheim still used the name for one of the songs, "Waiting for the Girls Upstairs.") The show finally opened in 1971. The password is -- Sondheim.
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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