My Name Is Stephen Joshua Sondheim Lyrics > Sondheim on Sondheim
My Name Is Stephen Joshua Sondheim Lyrics
[STEPHEN SONDHEIM, spoken]
My name is Stephen Joshua Sondheim. The Stephen and the Joshua come from the Bible. My parents were not religious, but they didn't know what to call me, so they merely stuck their finger in the Bible and came out with those two names. In fact I was called Josh until I was ten years old.
My father, Herbert Sondheim, was a self-taught piano player. He couldn't read music, but he liked to pick out Broadway tunes on the piano. And I used to sit next to him when I was very small, and he would put my hand on his, his little finger which played the melody up at the top of the piano. And so that was my first experience playing piano.
I took piano lessons for two years when I was seven years old, and, uh, then I took another two years when I was fourteen. And that's my piano playing experience.
The first show I wrote, I was in prep school, a place called George School in Pennsylvania. And I wrote a show that was about sort of local happenings, uh, in the school. And I think the first song I wrote was called "I'll Meet You at the Donut." The donut was a round seat in the center of the main hall.
(sung)
I'll meet you at the donut
And—
(spoken)
But that's enough of that song. I don't want to embarrass myself any further. Instead of going on with the songs from By George, uh, let's skip around.
The first show that I did both music and lyrics for that got on Broadway was a show called A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.
Last Update: October, 24th 2023
Sondheim on Sondheim Lyrics
- My Name Is Stephen Joshua Sondheim
- Invocation/Forget War
- Love Is in the Air
- Comedy Tonight
- Take Me to the World
- Ten Years After I Was Born...
- Talent/When I Get Famous
- Something’s Coming
- My First Professional Show...
- So Many People
- For Many Years, Hal Prince...
- You Could Drive a Person Crazy
- The Wedding Is Off
- Now You Know
- Hal Prince and I Did Six Shows Together...
- Franklin Shepard, Inc.
- Good Thing Going
- Sometimes a Song Changes Its Shape...
- Waiting for the Girls Upstairs
- The Best Thing That Ever Has Happened
- My First Serious Relationship...
- Happiness
- Fosca’s Entrance (I Read)
- Is This What You Call Love?
- Loving You
- God
- If You Ask Me to Write a Love Song...
- Losing My Mind / Not a Day Goes By
- A Lot of People Think...
- Opening Doors
- We Had Three Endings to Company...
- Multitudes of Amys
- Happily Ever After
- Being Alive
- Something Just Broke
- The Gun Song
- Jule Styne and I Realized with Gypsy...
- Smile, Girls
- I Suppose If There Is One That’s Closest...
- Finishing the Hat
- Beautiful
- I Had a Lot of Trouble with My Mother...
- Children Will Listen
- To Me, Teaching Is a Sacred Profession...
- Send in the Clowns
- I’ve Often Been Asked Why I Don’t Write...
- Company/Old Friends
- Anyone Can Whistle