Sondheim On Critics & Chatrooms
“Look, I Made A Hat,” Stephen Sondheim’s follow-up to the absorbing “Finishing the Hat,” is available tomorrow. In this excerpt, the Master unloads on critics, and tells us what he really thinks about theatre chatrooms. (Yes, he’s paid them a few visits.) “I soon learned not to keep logging on [to chatrooms] for the same reason I learned not to read my reviews: every group of compliments about my work that started me preening was soon peppered with potshots that unpreened me. And for every piece of thoughtful observation about other people’s work, there was a piece of mean-spirited snottiness – some of which, I regret to say, made me laugh and wish I were young enough again to participate in those kinds of exchanges.” Mr. Sondheim, you are ageless.
