Stephen Sondheim, Songwriter with Marc Strauss
Monday evenings on Zoom from 7-8:30 p.m.
April 12,19,26, May 3, 10.
A nonagenarian since last year, Stephen Sondheim (b. March 22, 1930) remains arguably the most consequential musical theatre songwriter of the latter half of the 20th century. With songs from before his work on West Side Story (1957) and Gypsy (1959) through the groundbreaking Company (1970), Follies (1971), Sweeney Todd (1979), and Assassins(1990), and many projects between and aft, Sondheim’s complex and sophisticated and dissonant and melodic and tangled investigations into the realistic ambivalence of personal relationships continue to challenge and delight new and old fans.
This Open University of Wellfleet spring course will present to the student via CD audio and DVD/YouTube video dozens of Sondheim tunes in their historical and cultural context. Marc Strauss, Professor Emeritus in the Dobbins Conservatory of Theatre and Dance at Southeast Missouri State University, has taught courses in musical theatre, dance history, aesthetics, and film for over thirty years, and shares his love and knowledge of the arts in ways that encourage discussion, participation, and engagement. Come re-live or experience for the first time major events and songs from the hugely influential Sondheim canon.