Editing Stephen Sondheim (section)

==== ''Evening Primrose'' and other work ====
In 1966, Sondheim semi-anonymously provided lyrics for "[[The Boy From...]]", a parody of "[[The Girl from Ipanema]]" in the off-Broadway revue ''[[The Mad Show]]''. The song was credited to "Esteban Río Nido",<ref>The Mad Show: A Musical Revue Based on Mad Magazine, Samuel French Inc</ref> Spanish for "Stephen River Nest", and in the show's [[Programme (booklet)|playbill]] the lyrics were credited to "[[pen name|Nom De Plume]]". That year Goldman and Sondheim hit a creative wall on ''The Girls Upstairs'', and Goldman asked Sondheim about writing a TV musical. The result was ''[[Evening Primrose (musical)|Evening Primrose]]'', with [[Anthony Perkins]] and [[Charmian Carr]]. Written for the [[anthology series]] ''[[ABC Stage 67]]'' and produced by [[Hubbell Robinson]], it was broadcast on November 16, 1966. According to Sondheim and director [[Paul Bogart]], the musical was written only because Goldman needed money for rent. The network disliked the title and Sondheim's alternative, ''A Little Night Music''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.playbill.com/features/article/144210-I-Remember-Original-Evening-Primrose-Director-Recalls-Making-of-TV-Musical/pg2 |title="I Remember": Original "Evening Primrose" Director Recalls Making of TV Musical |work=Playbill |date=October 22, 2010 |access-date=July 4, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714162610/http://www.playbill.com/features/article/144210-I-Remember-Original-Evening-Primrose-Director-Recalls-Making-of-TV-Musical/pg2 |archive-date=July 14, 2014}}</ref>

After Sondheim finished ''Evening Primrose'', Jerome Robbins asked him to adapt [[Bertolt Brecht]]'s ''[[The Measures Taken]]'' despite the composer's general dislike of Brecht's work. Robbins wanted to adapt another Brecht play, ''[[The Exception and the Rule]]'', and asked [[John Guare]] to adapt the book. Leonard Bernstein had not written for the stage in some time, and his contract as conductor of the [[New York Philharmonic]] was ending. Sondheim was invited to Robbins's house in the hope that Guare would convince him to write the lyrics for a musical version of ''The Exception and the Rule''; according to Robbins, Bernstein would not work without Sondheim. When Sondheim agreed, Guare asked: "Why haven't you all worked together since ''West Side Story''?" Sondheim answered, "You'll see". Guare said that working with Sondheim was like being with an old college roommate, and he depended on him to "decode and decipher their crazy way of working"; Bernstein worked only after midnight, and Robbins only in the early morning. Bernstein's score, which was supposed to be light, was influenced by his need to make a musical statement.<ref name=urga>{{cite book|last=Secrest|first=Meryle|authorlink=Meryle Secrest|title=Stephen Sondheim: A Life|chapter-url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=ndlY6OTKM-sC|page=1188}}|year=2011|publisher=Vintage Books|isbn=978-0-307-94684-3|pages=1188–|chapter=Being Alive}}</ref> [[Stuart Ostrow]], who worked with Sondheim on ''The Girls Upstairs'', agreed to produce the musical, initially titled ''A Pray by Blecht'', then ''[[The Race to Urga]]''. An opening night was scheduled, but during auditions Robbins asked to be excused for a moment. When he did not return, a doorman said he had gotten into a limousine to go to [[John F. Kennedy International Airport]]. Bernstein burst into tears and said, "It's over". Sondheim later said of this experience: "I was ashamed of the whole project. It was arch and didactic in the worst way."<ref>Abernathy, June.[http://www.sondheim.com/commentary/blecht.html "Sondheim's Lost Musical"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120320143349/http://www.sondheim.com/commentary/blecht.html |date=March 20, 2012 }} sondheim.com. Retrieved February 5, 2012.</ref> He wrote one and a half songs and threw them away, the only time he ever did that. Eighteen years later, Sondheim refused Bernstein's and Robbins's request to retry the show.{{r|urga}}

Sondheim lived in a [[Turtle Bay, Manhattan]] [[brownstone]] from his writing of ''[[Gypsy (musical)|Gypsy]]'' in 1959. Ten years later, he heard a knock on the door. His neighbor, [[Katharine Hepburn]], was in "bare feet—this angry, red-faced lady" and told him, "You have been keeping me awake all night!" (she was practicing for her musical debut in ''[[Coco (musical)|Coco]]''). "I remember asking Hepburn why she didn't just call me, but she claimed not to have my phone number. My guess is that she wanted to stand there in her bare feet, suffering for her art".<ref name=wolf>Wolf, Matt. [https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/stephen-sondheim-an-audience-with-a-theatre-legend-8559902.html "Stephen Sondheim: An audience with a theatre legend"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170927052552/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/stephen-sondheim-an-audience-with-a-theatre-legend-8559902.html |date=September 27, 2017 }} ''The Independent'', April 2013</ref>