Now you know what's out there in the world

In my CD rotation over the last few days I've been working through all the Sondheim I own, which really only consists of Sweeney Todd, Merrily We Roll Along, and Into the Woods. It's interesting to note that the least depressing of those shows is the one about the homicidal barber who kills people and has them baked into meat pies. Maybe it's because so many of the numbers in that show express some sort of joy, be it love of all sorts ("Johanna," "Pretty Women," "My Friends"*), or finding that your homicidal urges will provide a monetary windfall, or even that human flesh is effin' delicious.

Meanwhile in the other two shows you've got betrayal, longing, broken friendships, deaths of wives and children, characters waking up to find that they've wasted their entire lives... all happening right there on stage!'

Seriously, those shows are a BUMMER.



*This remains the most beautiful song ever sung to a set of straight razors.