Stephen Sondheim slams Lady Gaga's 'Sound of Music' performance, Oscars producer slams back

[Fiona Apple 13,006]

He said something because the interviewer asked him, he didn't pull the opinion out of his ass. And if anybody has the authority to say something it's him because he was shadowing Oscar Hammerstein at the time of the show's creation and participated in the writing. 

​Goodnight

[PrinceGaga 7,585]

Julie Andrews aka the queen loved it. If the queen of The Sound of Music loved it then it was good. We don't have to listen to some toss-pot trying to be relevant and controversial when 99.9% of the viewers thought it was amazing. Stay pressed Sondheim bit** 

PS: A "travesty"? That's ridiculous sorry. Even as qualified or experienced or whatever he is, that's ridiculous. Sorry, but really really not sorry.

[shane_c 480]

Snob that has a prejudice against pop stars. 

[Spock 20,290]

​Goodnight

​

[Sad Kid 91]

Who dat? Who dat?

[Nicole 1,809]

Quite frankly he's opinion is quite irrelevant, it was a tribute to Julie Andrews and she loved it herself and tbh that's all that matters and that's probably what Gaga cared about imo.

[Spock 20,290]

And to those who are saying that he said that because he's jealous of Gaga or has something against her, Sondheim also put NBC's production of Peter Pan Live, so by extension NBC's production of the Sound of Music, on blast, calling it embarrassingly bad and cheap. What he said is not personal 

Quite frankly he's opinion is quite irrelevant, it was a tribute to Julie Andrews and she loved it herself and tbh that's all that matters and that's probably what Gaga cared about imo.

The tribute was to the 50th anniversary of the Sound of Music though

[MonsterOfficial 11,079]

yikes, i looked up to him as an inspiration but this is sad  

[kevinthesheep 2,947]

oh my god i love sondheim this just ruined my day 

[Sizzily 14,543]

I respect him for writing Sweeney Todd but his opinion is f**king wrong so whatever.

[SpadesToStart 3,442]

I respect Sondheim, but I majorly disagree with him about the performance.  It sounds like he wanted her to act out the songs like she was actually playing Maria, but that doesn't make sense for a tribute performance.  It also would have been weird considering she did a medley (you can't connect with a song when you only sing 45 seconds of it)

In conclusion, Gaga's oscar performance did and continues to slay my life 

[Chromatislaps 34,840]

atrl will have fun with this

anyways i dnt care about his opinion 

they have more fun with Leona threads

 

[DeleteMyAccount 11,881]

So he mainly just didn't care for the arrangement and such...  I can see that as the performance was mainly just a medley honoring a beloved musical, but idk.  I understand he's one of the greats, but I think he's reaching too far into this.  It wasn't trying to be anything besides Gaga singing The Sound of Music.  Gaga's vocals were great and I doubt he'd disagree.  I wouldn't be all melodramatic and call it a travesty.

[Himeros26 1,688]

Okay so I'm just on the first page of this thread and these comments are the travesty. Now, two of of my favorite musicals which border opera are Sweeney and Into the Woods Those of you saying he doesn't know sh*t about music save yourself the embarrassment, please. His music is INCREDIBLY hard to sing. He is well known in the musical theatre industry and it really irritates me whenever I see Little Monsters who are uncultured about music dissing classical forms of music. Think about it like this, if it wasn't for people like him Gaga would have never even had interest in musical theatre or theatrics. I see where his opinions might be biased because she is a pop star, and I disagree with him yes. But don't sit here and say he doesn't know about music when you don't even know him...

Sigh.

[Himeros26 1,688]

​Not everybody in the world is American, sis.

And I don't know any of those things you've mentioned because it's not in my interest and I don't have to know everything about American culture.

​Gorl musicals are always adapted into international productions in literally so many countries. Musical Theatre isn't even American Culture.