Song of the Day: Passion Finale

Passion is a musical that took me a long time to like.  Initially when I saw it, I couldn't believe it was a Sondheim musical.  It was so unlikeable with characters that seemed so one-dimensional and incredibly selfish.  The music was a bit repetitive, though at times staggeringly beautiful.  Passion has grown on me a great deal and now it is one of my favorite Sondheim musicals. It's repetitiveness, selfishness, and unlike ability serve a purpose and the show itself says a lot about Sondheim as a person and an artist and his views on life and love. To me, Passion is like Sondheim's response to an Andrew Loyd Webber musical.  The ending to Passion is incredible and probably one of the most moving moments in musical theater history.  I recently got to see the Chicago Shakespeare production of Passion a few months ago and it was an incredible experience.  It was done as a very intimate and small black box production, which is just the way it should be done.  The only part of it I didn't like was Georgio.  I have never liked any Georgio that I have ever seen because I feel they all play it too safe.  No one is willing to take risks with the character.  No one is willing to make him truly vile and unlikeable.  In a sense no one is willing to make him human, instead he just becomes a vessel for the story.  It's a role I'm dying to get my hands on so I can turn it on it's head.  Hopefully one day I'll get to.  Enjoy.

Note of Interest: This was the last original musical of Stephen Sondheim's to ever play on Broadway.  Now we sure do get a lot of revivals.  But this is also the last Tony Sondheim ever received for best score, though he did get a lifetime achievement award at the Tony's this past year... and they sure did a piss poor job with it too.