Stephen Sondheim

Stephen Sondheim Is An Artist With Many Contradictory Facets: He Is An Avant-garde Composer And Lyricist Working In The Populist Art Form, An Apparently Dry And Acerbic Critic Who Captures All The Ambivalent Pain Of Passion, An Intellectual Whose Work Contains Some Of The Funniest Bawdy Lines On The Broadway Stage. He Has Chosen To Confront An Audience That Is Usually Looking For Escapist Literature With The Very Issues It Has Fled To The Theatre To Avoid. This Collection Of Original Essays Takes Particular Pains To Present Sondheims Diversity In A Chronological Plan That Illustrates How Each Work Grew Out Of The Previous One.