Finale: Late Conversations with Stephen Sondheim

Composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim passed away at the age of 91 in November 2021. He left behind a body of work ensuring his legacy for generations to come. An unfinished musical and an incomplete New Yorker profile were also left. Interviewer Max (Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story) culled those 2016–19 Sondheim conversations for a February 2022 tribute. This book amasses those exchanges with a woven narrative of Max’s observations of Sondheim. The results provide tantalizing details into Sondheim’s efforts producing an all-new musical, while reflecting on his struggle with writing fresh material and general mortality. If Sondheim were alive, with the finished musical behind him, these interviews would be simply reflective of his journey into completed works. Max intended to profile rather than memorialize. Yet, in Sondheim’s absence, these interviews take on an unexpected import and catalog a journey seemingly unfinished. What might have been meandering small talk now becomes significant. As such, the context becomes, at times, more emotive than the content.