All too rarely do area theaters tackle the musicals of Broadway’s pre-eminent composer-lyricist, Stephen Sondheim.
But this summer Florida Atlantic University is producing the revue Side by Side by Sondheim as well as A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum in its 2013 Festival Rep (now through July 21.) In addition, Palm Beach Dramaworks has selected Sondheim’s Company for the second of its Musical Theatre Masters Series concerts (Aug. 7-18).
So in celebration of this unusual abundance of Sondheim, we have a revival of our own. We have dusted off our Ultimate Sondheim Trivia Test — created three years ago for his 80th birthday. At the time, no one was able to answer the entire test correctly, so we saved the Caldwell Theatre (remember them?) the pair of tickets to its concert reading of Into the Woods, which was the prize.
This time around, we have lowered the bar slightly. You do not have to have all the right answers, just be the entrant with the most right answers. For that, A) we will be impressed and B) so will Dramaworks, which will show its admiration with a pair of tickets to Company, based on availability.
Send your answers to themailbox@pbartspaper.com by Wednesday, July 31, at 6 p.m. Put “Sondheim Quiz” in the subject line. In the case of a tie, the amount of detail and accuracy in your answers will be the deciding factors. The decision of the judges is final. (Gosh, we’ve always wanted to write that.)
Ready? Go!
1. Many of Sondheim’s musicals are wholly original, but identify these adaptations from this list of source material authors.
A. Aristophanes
B. George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart
C. Ingmar Bergman
D. Ettore Scola
E. William Shakespeare
F. John Collier
G. Arthur Laurents
H. Christopher Bond
2. If a song does not work in the show, Sondheim writes another one, no matter how good the song being scrubbed is. Name the three songs he wrote for the opening number of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. And name the three songs he wrote for the finale of Company.
3. What is Stephen Sondheim’s middle name?
4. Sondheim at the movies: Name two movies for which he wrote least one original song, two movies for which he wrote the background score and one movie musical he wrote that was never produced.
5. Name an existing Sondheim song that was used in each of these movies.
A. Jersey Girl
B. Camp
C. Death to Smoochy
D. In & Out
E. Postcards from the Edge
6. What is the only Sondheim musical that Meryl Streep has appeared in (prior to her upcoming role in the film version of Into the Woods, of course)? Where was it produced?
7. Name two non-musical Arthur Laurents plays for which Sondheim wrote the incidental music.
8. Where is the Stephen Sondheim Center for the Performing Arts located?
9. What do the following three actresses have in common:
A) Ellen Foley
B) Garn Stephens
C) Karen Black
10. Whodunit in The Last of Sheila, the 1973 murder mystery movie that Sondheim co-wrote with Anthony Perkins?
11. In the Broadway revue, Sondheim on Sondheim, he stated that he regrets spending a year and a half of his life writing one specific musical. Which one is it?
12. What is the intentional grammatical error that Sondheim wrote in the title of a song in Gypsy?
13. Organize these Sondheim musicals in order of the number of performances of their original Broadway run, from most to least.
A) Anyone Can Whistle
B) Merrily We Roll Along
C) Passion
D) Road Show
14) Name two television shows that Sondheim was on, playing a character, and one movie in which he played himself.
15) Occasionally, but only occasionally, Sondheim loses the Tony Award for best musical. What show won out over these also-rans?
A) Gypsy
B) Follies
C) Pacific Overtures
D) Sunday in the Park with George