What Stephen Sondheim Knew About Endings
His work was strongest when it lingered in the pain of knowing that no <em>ever after </em>lasts long.
Back in 2020, I might’ve imagined the end of the pandemic being something like that : everyone together, vaccinated, picking the same time to come safely and communally out of lockdown and get back to the way things were before, so grateful to be alive we practically leapt into one another’s arms as soon as we got the chance. That is not, of course, the way . But the closest I’ve felt to that gum-commercial feeling came from being in the audience at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre on a recent Monday night, an experience I’ve played and replayed in my head since learning that Stephen Sondheim died suddenly on Friday at 91.
