THE AMERICAN MUSICAL STOPS SINGING AND FINDS ITS VOICE: A STUDY OF THE WORK OF STEPHEN SONDHEIM

America's most significant contribution to the drama is the musical and Stephen Sondheim is one of its most sophisticated artists. By assailing the artificial boundaries between serious music and the musical theater, Sondheim has redefined the genre.;Musicals analyzed are: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum; Anyone Can Whistle: Company; Follies; A Little Night Music; Pacific Overtures; Sweeney Todd; Merrily We Roll Along.;Each of his major works is examined in terms of its social, historical and aesthetic context. Sondheim examines the experiments with the structures inherent in the traditional musical theater. He seeks to discover the effects and implications of the language of the musical and various theatrical presentational forms. His material comes from both his sociological context and from the world of the theater.