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Sondheim Song of the Day: “Being Alive”
The death of Stephen Sondheim over the holiday weekend has resulted in a lot of examination of his work and his unprecedented impact on musical theater.
His wrote”music and lyrics of unprecedented complexity and sophistication” and his shows addressed “darker, more harrowing elements of the human experience”, with songs often tinged with “ambivalence” about various aspects of life.
For this week, I’m going to pay tribute to a different Sondheim song with interpretations by various artists.
We kick off with Being Alive from Company which just opened on Broadway with Sondheim in the audience for the first preview in this gender-bending revival.
The song appears at the end of Act II and is sung by the main character who realizes being a lone wolf isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Comments
(All comments are reviewed before being published, and I review submissions several times per day.)
Cesar says:
The version with Dean Jones is an amazing performance. It’s my favorite of those listed. It’s too bad he didn’t last very long for that inaugural run.
John says:
Thank you for remembering this giant.
Bill says:
Great stuff. Yep, Dean Jones’s performance was the best, although Neil is just amazing (as with everything he does). That song is so amazing!
Bill says:
This got me to check out some more versions. Ramin Karimloo has a tremendous voice and belts this out amazingly, Julien Ovenden does a great job. as does Bobby Cnonte Thomton. Aeon Tveit has a good take on it, too. Interesting to hear all these versions.