And a hero doesn't come till the nick of time...

Last night I was in the presence of Stephen Sondheim, who was interviewed at Northeastern. There was this collective sense of awe that rippled through the crowd, and when he'd mention some of his shows, people would instantly applaud them. One girl cried when she asked him a question. Culture comes to Boston, and we reciprocate with enthusiasm.

First thing off: Sondheim fidgets a lot in his seat. I, who also cannot sit still, must be destined for greatness. He doesn't come across as senile at all, which is impressive when you're 78, and he's still writing music. He does, however, have this amusing old-man clap where he swings his arms out really far (in a "the fish was this big" way).

He talked about the upcoming revival of West Side Story, and how the Sharks will speak and sing in Spanish when they are angry or getting their rumble on. Spanish has this great passion and crispness, he said. Scores like Gypsy were quick to write because he knew exactly what performer he was writing for. One of the easiest songs he ever worked on was "Smile, Girls," which he wrote in a day with Jule Styne; naturally it was cut the next day from the show.

Anyone Can Whistle didn't work, he feels, because of its "smart-ass" writing. And so good reviews stayed at bay until Company. He began Follies much earlier than Company, but when Hal Prince decided to direct both, he insisted on Company first. Then came one of his biggest successes, A Little Night Music. The beauty of a song like "The Miller's Son," he said, is that Petra is the lifeforce of that show, avoiding the facades the others put up, which is why such a tertiary character gets the 11 o'clock number. One lady at intermission remarked that "A Weekend in the Country" was surprisingly hummable, and Sondheim replied, "yes, well you've just heard the chorus twelve times. Of course it's hummable."

No discussion of Sunday in the Park with George or Into the Woods. He does yearn to write another grand Romantic score like Sweeney Todd. That show was his love letter to London, he said -- and the first time, they hated it. Maybe the Brits can't reconcile love and cannibalism. He said Assassins, out of all his shows, most fulfills what he set out to accomplish. And though the moderator kept insisting that Passion is his most direct work, Sondheim didn't agree with that assessment, saying that he feels the score still functions on indirection. He said his music often has lots of "busy-ness" in the accompaniment because he composes on piano, which only sustains for so long; he doesn't often consider instruments like strings that could hold notes indefinitely, thus his piano copies are fairly note-driven.

Road Show, soon to open in New York, will be the final revision of what was Bounce. People asked why he'd worked on it for 14 years, and he replied that he was first took interest in the Mizner brothers in 1952. Sondheim is currently halfway through a book with his complete lyrics from Saturday Night on (next year's Christmas present?). If one can't always share the same physical space as Sondheim, this might be the next best thing.