Linda Presents Stephen Sondheim

Jacquie's Email Hello Literary Ladies! Greetings from Eppley Airfield outside of beautiful Omaha, Nebraska! I'm so sad I will not be with you all on Wednesday, March 29^th when Linda presents on Stephen Sondheim, but perhaps it's all for the best since I would be unable to keep myself from bursting into song every time our presenter mentions any one of his masterworks, or I would talk your ear off with musings about everything I love about Sondheim and my experiences with his work. Some topics I'd feel compelled to share, but luckily for you I won't be there to talk your ear off! See end of blog*

The overture will begin at 12:30pm in the Orr Room and the first act will begin promptly at 1pm. 

Have a lovely time being in each other's COMPANY!! x Jacquie

FYI great article on Sondheim and Hirschfeld.

Christine's Minutes Ten members of the Literature Club gathered once again in the Orr Room at the Hastings Library. Two members joined us via Zoom.

President Constance rang the bell at 1 pm. The minutes of our previous meeting were read and accepted. Absent the treasurer, there was no treasury report.

Harking back to our discussion two weeks ago, Constance informed us that the charter school in Yonkers does not accept any book donations, except for graded books. Other possibilities for getting books into the hands of children in need are being looked at.

Meanwhile, the tension in the room is only becoming more and more palpable.

Finally, will all due ceremony (bugles, trumpets, court jesters and the like) Vice President Joanna Reisman announced that our topic for the coming season, 2023-to 2024, will be…..

The Literature Club Topic from the Year You Were Born. In other words, referring to the list of all Literature Club Programs from our founding in 1909, members can find the program given when they were born. Given that our seasons follow the academic year, each of us will have two possible topics to choose from. Unless we want to be pettifogging quibblers and insist that the topic chosen also correspond to the month of a member’s birth.

With that momentous announcement behind us, members were at last allowed to settle in for an afternoon of musical theater, and Linda Tucker’s much anticipated program on Stephen Sondheim.

Linda began by telling us that for the past decade she has been voting for Drama as our topic. Yet when that finally came to pass, she did not choose to present on Lillian Hellman, thankfully, but instead landed on Stephen Sondheim, because she and her grandson Sam share an abiding love of all things Sondheimian. Not only that, but Sam already owned several large tomes about Sondheim. The choice was clearly meant for the big stage.

Our first reading was from the 2021 New York Times obit by Bruce Weber, who called Sondheim a “songwriting titan, whose music and lyrics reset the artistic standard for the American stage musical.”

Stephen Sondheim was born on March 22, 1930 in NYC. His parents, Etta and Herbert, were the children of Lithuanian and German Jews. An only child, he lived on the Upper West Side until his parents divorced, when he moved with his mother to Bucks County, Pennsylvania. This outcome was not an easy one, as Stephen hated his mother and the feeling was reciprocated. On the night before going in for heart surgery, she wrote him a letter stating that her only regret was having given birth to him.

Etta’s friendship with Dorothy Hammerstein, wife of Oscar, was perhaps the only upside in their relationship. Stephen was friends with their son Jamie, and Oscar became a surrogate father and mentor. After telling young Stephen that his first musical, written while still in prep school, was terrible, Oscar then set out a program for him to follow: 1. Adapt a good play into a musical. 2. Adapt a flawed play… 3. Adapt a story from another medium…and finally, 4. Write a musical from your own original story. Sondheim followed these precepts all the way through Williams College, where he studied harmony with Robert Barrow.

Sondheim explained that lyrics exist in time – that is, you only hear a lyric once, maybe twice, thus they must be simple and they must go with music, as well as lights, costumes and everything else happening on a stage.

His first Broadway gig was as a lyricist for West Side Story and Gypsy. He did not love writing lyrics without the music, but Hammerstein encouraged him, and he learned working with the greats.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum was the first show for which he wrote both music and lyrics. He never looked back. But it was not initially a success with out-of-town audiences, until Sondheim wrote a new first number, “Comedy Tonight”, following Hammerstein’s wisdom about the importance of an opening number. When the show came to New York, it was a smash hit.

As an aside that is especially significant on account of the Literature Club’s very own crossword puzzler, Linda, Sondheim was himself a fan and even created cryptic puzzles for the New York Magazine.

Under Linda’s direction, members examined three shows, in chronological order. So as not to interrupt the lyrics and rhythm, each reader read the entire song…musically if possible.

There was also musical accompaniment. Before launching into A Little Night Music, 1973, Linda played “Send in the Clowns”. Set in Sweden and ‘suggested’ by a film by Ingmar Bergman (a dour Swede not usually associated with musical theater), it presents the various romantic complications that ensue during a weekend in the country. Members read the “Now”, sung by Frederick, then “You Must Meet my Wife”, and then the finale of Act 1, “A Weekend in the Country”. In Act 2, we read “It Would Have Been Wonderful”, a duet by the 2 lovers of Desirée, Frederik and Carl-Magnus. Next was Sondheim’s most famous song, “Send in The Clowns”, in a stirring rendition by our own Sharon DeLevie. The play ends happily.

As another not-quite-aside, Linda made sure we noted Sondheim’s many remarkable rhymes, such as glacier with Chateau, sir, denied with abide, vicious with delicious, and penchant with trenchant. This last required a footnote regarding the British pronunciation of penchant.

Next up was Sunday in the Park with George, 1984, based on George Seurat’s iconic pointillist painting that hangs in the Art Institute of Chicago (and graces 45% of the themed tchotchkes sold in their gift shop). First, we heard “Finishing the Hat” sung by Mandy Potemkin and Bernadette Peters. Members read the opening number, “Sunday in the Park with George”; then from Act 2, “Sunday in the Park”, “Finishing the Hat”, “Children and Art” (in which he rhymes rapturous with capture us), “Lesson #8” and “Move On”.

For our last act, Linda presented Into the Woods, from 1987, a kind of mash-up of Cinderella, Jack in the Beanstalk, Little Red Riding Hood, and a quest tale. Again, we heard a tape of the song, “Into the Words.” Members read from Act 1.

Linda told us, “I feel that Into the Woods is an existential show about what life is really like. Everything is OK, and then one day a giant steps on you.”

Much as I would like to end on those words of wisdom, a few more rhymes must be noted: I hate to ask it, but do you have a basket? cried and mollified, and finally, I’ll tell what I tell kings and queens, Don’t mess with my greens, Especially the beans.

The meeting was adjourned at 3 pm, and exeunt omnes, humming.

Respectfully submitted,

Christine Lehner, Recording Secretary

*Topics Jacquie would have discussed if she'd been at the meeting

• The first album I ever owned was Company, which I received for Hanukkah when I was nine after my mother was told I had borrowed it too many times from the Adriance Memorial Library and others needed a turn. I remember that night so clearly because my father had also gotten us a new stereo to take the place of our old Victrola, and he set it up on the floor in the living room. We all huddled around it to hear those first distinctive chords, and then marveled as the voices emanated from alternating speakers as they sang "Bobby!"
• Angela Lansbury delighting and heartbreaking as Mrs. Lovett
• Glynnis Johns as Desirée with that otherworldly and world weary voice and hearing "Send in the Clowns" for the first time
• Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters marveling themselves at the extraordinary harmony they created together in "Move On" as the audience marveled along with them
• Chip Zein and Joanna Gleason delighting in Into the Woods, and my being unable to move after sitting through it for the first time, my theater companion turning to me gravely and declaring, "he's dying." Luckily for us all this was not to happen for another 34 years
• Waiting on line for hours three nights in a row at Playwriters Horizon with the hope of getting a ticket to Assassins and giving up on the third night when I was the second person in line and still didn't get in, but then seeing the excellent revival with Michael Cerveris and Neal Patrick Harris at Studio 54
• Trying to understand why Sondheim and Lapine thought Passion was a good vehicle for a musical, but haunted by the story and music nonetheless
• Spending hours listening to songs that were cut from shows and attempting to mimic the sound of the perfect Sondheim soprano with my wobbly alto
• Loving The Frogs on vinyl and hating The Frogs on the stage
• Wishing I had seen Pacific Overtures staged
• Wishing I hadn't seen Follies with an obstructed view

Constance Presents August Wilson

Jacquie's Email: Attention Literary Ladies! Due to unforeseen circumstances, the role of Meeting Place at this Wednesday's performance of Constance's presentation on August Wilson, will be played by Sharon DeLevie's Living Room. Seats are available in the Zoom section, with partially obstructed views. Reservations are requested. Thank you for your attention and enjoy the show! — Jacquie

Courtesy the Estate of August Wilson

Christine's Minutes On the Ides of March, twelve members of the Literature Club met in Sharon’s lovely spacious living room. It was lovely. It is marvelous not to even write the words Orr Room (grateful as we are to the library). One member joined us via Zoom.

Constance rang the bell with all due solemnity.

The minutes were read and accepted.

The treasury contains $129.50, and will soon be bursting at the seams once all the dues have been paid.

Old Business: Constance informed the club that our idea for getting books into the hands of young people in Hastings in need, will not work as imagined, because in fact the Youth Council is already doing that. She pointed out that there is a charter school, just over the border in Yonkers that could use books, and perhaps we can work with them.

Joanna announced that that choices for next year’s theme have been painfully whittled down to a mere seven, and that members were asked to vote for their top three choices. The seven choices were: Children’s/Young Adult Literature; High School Required Reading Revisited; Literature Club Topic from the Year You Were Born; Literature of Canada; Nobel: Obscure Recipients or Noble, but Nobel-less; Rags and Riches: Wealth (or absence thereof) in Literature. The winner will be announced at the next meeting.

And then without further ado, the curtain rises, and have entered the world of August Wilson. But first, our presenter, Constance, wisely begins by raising a subject that is emblematic of the ways in which we all have to rethink how we read and discuss literature. August Wilson’s play are written in the vernacular of the time, and the N-word is often used, always by Black characters interacting with other Black characters. Constance asked: How do we – members of the Literature Club – feel about saying the N-word aloud when it is part of the text? There was no consensus. Several members said they would be willing to say it in the context of the play. Another member asserted that, in all her work at diversity conferences, she has learned that as far as the Black community is concerned, there is absolutely no situation in which it is acceptable for a white person to say the N-word. Going forward with the program, members either did or did not articulate the N-word, depending on their feelings/ beliefs.

August Wilson’s greatest achievement is his series of plays known as the Century Cycle, ten plays, each set in one decade of the twentieth century, most of them set in the Pittsburgh of Wilson’s youth, specifically the Hill District, known as Little Harlem.

We quickly learned that Constance who grew up in Pittsburgh, has long been a fan of Wilson’s plays. She showed us a beautiful boxed set of the entire cycle, with an introduction by John Lahr (Son-of-the-Lion).

Frederick August Kittel was born in 1945, the fourth of the six children of Daisy Wilson and Fritz Kittel, an Austro-Hungarian immigrant who was a brilliant baker, with a vicious temper. The parents divorced when August was 12, and Daisy eventually married David Bedford, who became Wilson’s beloved stepfather. Daisy cleaned houses for a living, raised her children, planted flowers in the back yard, where she also set up a card table. (A scene which will seem eerily similar to the sets of many Wilson plays.) August was her brightest child. He was sent to the Central Catholic High School, famous for its football team, but not its drama department. Already not a fan of school in general, August then went to a vocational school, then briefly to Gladstone High school, until he walked out one day. He spent the next 3 years reading at the library. (Was Carnegie – the great endower of libraries – from Pittsburgh?) His mother was not happy about her brightest child dropping out. At only 17, he scored second-highest on the Officer Training School Exam, but you had to be 19 to be an officer, so he quit the army.

Wilson returned to Pittsburgh and began to interview all the older Black men and attended all the local funerals. In 1964, at the age of 29, he bought a used typewriter for $29. He had decided to become a poet. He wrote constantly, wherever he was. He was briefly married to Brenda Burton, with whom he had his first daughter. Later he moved to St Paul, Minnesota and married Judy Oliver, a white social worker. The fact of living somewhere with so few Blacks, awoke in him an awareness of the specificity of Black voices and language. Wilson was very influenced by music, and this can be heard in all his plays.

His first play, Jitney, was finished in ten days. After it was rejected by the O’Neill Playwrights Conference, he returned to his first effort, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, and this was accepted by the O’Neill.

By the time Ma Rainey made it to Broadway, Wilson had written Fences, and Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. At that point, it was clear to him that each play focused on issues specific to specific decades of the twentieth century. Thus was born the Century Cycle.

Members read scenes from various plays (but sadly, it was impossible to read from all ten.):

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, set in a 1927 Chicago recording studio

Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, set in a Hill District boarding house in 1911

The Piano Lesson, set inside a home in the Hill District, in 1936

Seven Guitars, set in a Hill District back yard, in 1948

Radio Golf, in a Hill District realty office, in 1997

Many of us were surprised and intrigued to learn that Wilson disapproved of ‘color-blind casting’. One can only wish he were still with us, and to hear his take on the current staging of many plays, from Shakespeare to Stoppard to the newest play we haven’t yet heard of. But alas, August Wilson died of cancer at the age of 60, in 2005.

Respectfully submitted,

Christine Lehner, Recording Secretary

Annual Meeting

Jacquie's Email: Hello Literary Ladies! It's that time of year again – time for our 2023 Annual Meeting! It's hard to believe that our 2020 Annual Meeting was the last time we met together in the before times. We've come a long way, baby!

Our beloved President has set the agenda as follows:

• The nominating committee will announce the choices for Treasurer, Recording Secretary, and Corresponding Secretary
• Discussion of how to ensure diversity in the authors and topics of the books we donate to the Hastings-on-Hudson Public Library
• Discussion about our residency policy: how/when to extend membership beyond Hastings-on-Hudson
• Discussion of the resumption of our traditional meeting format -- meeting in members' homes, with luncheon served
• Begin our discussion of next year's season, err... our topic selection for next year (!)

Please let Constance know if you have any additional items you'd like to add to our agenda.We will be meeting this Wednesday, March 1st in the Orr Room of the Hastings-on-Hudson Public Library at 12:30pm, and Constance will ring the bell at 1 PM. Until then, enjoy the weather?  –  Jacquie

Christine's Minutes: For the momentous occasion that is our Annual Meeting, twelve members of the Literature Club met on March first, in the library’s august Orr room. Two members joined us via the miracle of Zoom.

Our president Constance Stewart rang the bell at 1 PM. Christine read the minutes of the February 1 meeting, featuring G B Shaw. Frances Greenberg read her excellent minutes of February 15, starring Tom Stoppard. Lori Walsh, our treasurer, reported that our treasury contains $129.50. (Am I the only one who misses those pesky eleven cents?)

And onto our annual business items:

1. Constance suggested raising our dues to $20 to enable us to give more money to the library. All agreed.

2. It was suggested that we leverage our donation to the library to help bring books to families in need, and yes, there are families in need in Hastings. One excellent idea is that we buy children’s books from the Friends’ Book Shop, for distribution to families, and thereby, also benefitting the Friends.

(As a diversion, as we deliberated, one member, with that admirable and possibly obsessive need to tidy, brushed away the cobwebs under the seat of the stool upon which rested that computer which is Zooming the meeting.

3. Pres. Constance thanked the nominating committee, for their Ho-Hum-No-News slate. Christine has agreed to stay on for another term as Recording Secretary; Jaquie has also agreed to continue as our inimitable Corresponding Secretary, and Lori will continue to maintain the audit-proof accounts as Treasurer. President Constance and Veep Joanna have another year of their term to go.

4. Then we arrived at the question we’ve been waiting to discuss. How do we get more diversity into the books we donate to the library? Should we defer to the needs of this specific library, as seen by Debbie Quinn? Given the fungibility of money, can we just assign our donation to whatever books by women and writers of color the library acquires? It would be nice to have our bookplates in books by women.

Linda sagely pointed out: We are not exactly diverse ourselves. It was agreed we don’t want to micromanage this. Sharon will liaise with the Friends, and Carol will speak with Debbie.

(Break. Admire the barge going upriver. And perhaps enjoy the exceptional banana bread brought by our president.)

5. Residency policy. Do we have one? Is it flexible? A careful reading of our Constitution, as amended in 2004, either clarifies or mystifies. There is exactly nothing is the constitution regarding who shall be a member of the club or where they should reside. (Nor does it specify the gender of members.) Perhaps we might want to amend the constitution* to reflect the current situation, and our current de facto policy:  members should live in Hastings, or have lived previously in Hastings, or have some strong connection to Hastings.

6. Then comes the question we keep revisiting and presumably will continue to revisit until the coronavirus is a dead issue. Members decided that for the remainder of our 2022-2023 season, we will continue to meet in the Orr Room, or outside whenever possible. On days when the Orr Room is not available, and the weather is not agreeable, we will meet in the living room of any member whose living room is sufficiently large to allow for some distance. As for the fall: we will have to decide later when we see what’s happening, Covid-wise.

It is agreed that no one should do anything they are not comfortable with.

7. Now for the fun part: deciding on next year’s theme. We read and discuss the preliminary ballot distributed by Joanna, in order to decide what we can delete. We did manage to delete 3 or 4 topics, and perhaps added only one, so the list is somewhat reduced. One new idea was to visit the archives and see what the Literature Club was discussing 100 years ago, or what the topic was for the year of one’s birth. For instance, in 1952, the program was titled "The Genius of Eve"– for the first time a year was devoted to writing by women. Yet curiously, one presentation focused on G B Shaw’s Saint Joan!

8. Meeting adjourned at 2:35. Some lucky members took home some of Constance’s excellent banana bread.

Respectfully submitted,
Christine Lehner, Recording Secretary