In honor of Broadway composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim’s 80th birthday and the opening of the Caldwell Theatre’s staged reading of his Into the Woods this Friday through Sunday, May 21-23, we fiendishly present our Ultimate Sondheim Trivia Test, geared to separate the obsessive fanatics from the casual fans.
And the Caldwell has generously donated a pair of tickets to any performance of Into the Woods — based on space availability — to the winning entrant. Send your answers to thequiz@pbartspaper.com by Thursday, May 20, at 6 p.m. 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?
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? 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 current Broadway revue, Sondheim on Sondheim, he states 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
