"Getting Married Today" is a song in which a woman expresses her extraordinary worry on her wedding day, repeatedly declaring that in fact, she will not get married after all. What, I ask you, could be more important than this? - Guess (which is also the last word of another Sondheim song. It said: I came up here to rattle off the lyrics to "I'm Not Getting Married" for you from memory, and you decided to be gone. I don't remember why, but one day back when we all still worked in-person at the NPR offices, Ari Shapiro came by my desk when I wasn't there and left me a note. I invite you to hear mine, but to love yours, however you first heard them.
I sent another friend a clip from Sunday In The Park With George after he had a professional disappointment. I watched a VHS tape of Into The Woods when I was babysitting in high school, and I never stopped loving it. I wasn't so much a Sweeney Todd person - it freaked me out. I can offer only the fact that, almost always, on some level, there is Sondheim music in my head it takes almost nothing to nudge it from sleep and get it tripping across my lips as I do the dishes or drive my car. Sondheim died at 91, and I encourage you to read every obit, every snippet of historical context. On the day of Stephen Sondheim's death, creating a list of his songs you will never stop playing is to invite an argument - and I do. Bernadette Peters leans forward to discuss the recording of the "Sunday in the Park with George" album with Stephen Sondheim and producer Thomas Z.