Description
Stephen Sondheim is one of the best-known and most-loved musical theatre composers, but also one of the most misunderstood, often being labelled as ''distant'' or ''cynical''. Careful the Spell You Cast instead argues that Sondheim firmly belongs to the Broadway aspirational tradition, in that many of his characters are defined by their dreams: to abandon one''s dream (as Ben does in Follies, Frank does in Merrily We Roll Along, and Addison does in Road Show) is to lose one''s soul.
Rather than take the established view of Sondheim as a cynic, this book contends that throughout Sondheim''s work, letting go of one''s illusions is a process that his characters need to go through, that they must cast off illusions and false dreams, without becoming cynical and destroying their genuine dreams in the process. In turn this view aligns Sondheim''s work as being aspirational and a logical continuation from the work of his mentor, Oscar Hammerstein II.
