Tonight, tonight, won't be just any night. Tonight there will be no morning star.
Stephen SondheimRead
Musicals are, by nature, theatrical, meaning poetic, meaning having to move the audience's imagination and create a suspension of disbelief, by which I mean there's no fourth wall.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Musicals engage the audience by blending poetry and theater, breaking the traditional separation between performers and viewers.
In this quote, Stephen Sondheim highlights the essence of musicals as a unique art form that combines theater and poetry to captivate audiences. He emphasizes the importance of fostering a connection where the audience can suspend disbelief, allowing them to fully immerse themselves in the performance without the constraints of the 'fourth wall'.
Themes
MusicalsTheaterArtPoetryImaginationAudience
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the importance of live theater, one might quote Sondheim to emphasize how musicals engage audiences.
More from Stephen Sondheim
All quotes βAfter the Rodgers and Hammerstein revolution, songs became part of the story, as opposed to just entertainments in between comedy scenes.
Stephen SondheimRead
Musical comedies aren't written, they are rewritten.
Stephen SondheimRead
Let Pirelli's / Miracle Elixir / Activate your roots, sir... Keep it off your boots, sir- / Eats right through. Yes, get Pirelli's! / Use a bottle of it! / Ladies seem to love it... Flies do, too!
Stephen SondheimRead
Art, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos.
Stephen SondheimRead
Careful the spell you cast, not just on children. Sometimes the spell may last Past what you can see And turn against you... Careful the tale you tell. That is the spell.
Stephen SondheimRead
Similar quotes
My mom was an orphan, and there was never anybody to tell her what she could or couldn't do. At the core, she's probably an artist - an artist and a feminist.
Mark BradfordRead
I am seeking that dance which might be the divine expression of the human spirit through the medium of the body's movement.
Isadora DuncanRead
I've always seen writing as a way of telling the truth. For me, writing is about truth. I have always tried to be faithful to my own experience.
Edmund WhiteRead
After playing Chopin, I feel as if I had been weeping over sins that I had never committed, and mourning over tragedies that were not my own. Music always seems to me to produce that effect. It creates for one a past of which one has been ignorant, and fills one with a sense of sorrows that have been hidden from oneβs tears.
Oscar WildeRead
Photography is a kind of virtual reality, and it helps if you can create the illusion of being in an interesting world.
Steven PinkerRead
The best way to execute French cooking is to get good and loaded and whack the hell out of a chicken.
Julia ChildRead