Editing Stephen Sondheim (section)

==== ''West Side Story'' ====
[[Burt Shevelove]] invited Sondheim to a party where Sondheim arrived before him but knew no one else well. He saw a familiar face, [[Arthur Laurents]], who had seen one of the auditions of ''Saturday Night'', and they began talking. Laurents told him he was working on a musical version of ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'' with [[Leonard Bernstein]], but they needed a lyricist; [[Betty Comden]] and [[Adolph Green]], who were supposed to write the lyrics, were under contract in Hollywood. He said that although he was not a big fan of Sondheim's music, he enjoyed the lyrics from ''Saturday Night'' and he could audition for Bernstein. The next day, Sondheim met and played for Bernstein, who said he would let him know. Sondheim wanted to write music and lyrics; he consulted with Hammerstein, who said, as Sondheim related in a 2008 ''New York Times'' video interview, "Look, you have a chance to work with very gifted professionals on a show that sounds interesting, and you could always write your own music eventually. My advice would be to take the job."{{r|ReferenceA}} ''[[West Side Story]]'', directed by [[Jerome Robbins]], opened in 1957 and ran for 732 performances. Sondheim expressed dissatisfaction with his lyrics, saying they did not always fit the characters and were sometimes too consciously poetic. Initially Bernstein was also credited as a co-writer of the lyrics, but he later offered Sondheim solo credit, as Sondheim had essentially done all of them. ''[[The New York Times]]'' review of the show did not mention the lyrics.<ref name="Times 90th Tribute">{{cite news |title=Isn't He Something |author=Jesse Green | issue=Theater p. AR 11 |work=The New York Times |date=March 15, 2020}}</ref> Sondheim described the division of the royalties, saying that Bernstein received 3% and he received 1%. Bernstein suggested evening the percentage at 2% each, but Sondheim refused because he was satisfied with just getting the credit. Sondheim later said he wished "someone stuffed a handkerchief in my mouth because it would have been nice to get that extra percentage".{{r|ReferenceA}}

After ''West Side Story'' opened, Shevelove lamented the lack of "lowbrow comedy" on Broadway and mentioned a possible musical based on [[Plautus]]'s Roman comedies. Sondheim was interested in the idea and called a friend, [[Larry Gelbart]], to co-write the script. The show went through a number of drafts, and was interrupted briefly by Sondheim's next project.<ref>Dembin, Russell M. [http://www.sondheimreview.com/v18n4.htm "Forum at 50? It's possible! Sondheim 101: ''A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum''] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714145938/http://www.sondheimreview.com/v18n4.htm |date=July 14, 2014 }} sondheimreview.com, 2012</ref>