Audience Quotes by Stephen Sondheim

12 Audience quotes by Stephen Sondheim

All Audience quotes Stephen Sondheim’s page

If you’re curious about how a master playwright thinks of the people watching his work, this handful of Sondheim lines offers a quick glimpse. Though the list is modest, each sentence packs the wit and depth that made his stagecraft unforgettable.

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It should be interesting to see two entirely different ways to treat a story, geared for two entirely different kinds of audience.

Stephen Sondheim

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I'm a great audience. I cry very easily. I suspend disbelief in two seconds.

Stephen Sondheim

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When the audience comes in, it changes the temperature of what you've written.

Stephen Sondheim

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In not-for-profit theater, you don't worry so much about how the audience is going to react. You want to make them absorb…

Stephen Sondheim

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I'm interested in the theater because I'm interested in communication with audiences. Otherwise I would be in concert music.

Stephen Sondheim

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Musicals are, by nature, theatrical, meaning poetic, meaning having to move the audience's imagination and create a suspension of disbelief, by which…

Stephen Sondheim

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Musicals are plays, but the last collaborator is your audience, so you've got to wait 'til the last collaborator comes in before…

Stephen Sondheim

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I love the theater as much as music, and the whole idea of getting across to an audience and making them laugh,…

Stephen Sondheim

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I firmly believe lyrics have to breathe and give the audience's ear a chance to understand what's going on. Particularly in the…

Stephen Sondheim

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Musicals are — particularly musicals — plays also, but musicals particularly are… the last collaborator is your audience, and so you’ve got…

Stephen Sondheim

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On stage, generally speaking, the story is stopped or held back by songs, because that's the convention. Audiences enjoy the song and…

Stephen Sondheim

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The last collaborator is your audience ... when the audience comes in, it changes the temperature of what you've written. Things that…

Stephen Sondheim

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More by Stephen Sondheim

I have, by nature, an analytical mind.

Stephen Sondheim

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“They all deserve to die. Tell you why, Mrs. Lovett, tell you why. Because in all of the whole human race Mrs Lovett, there…

Stephen Sondheim

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It's not so hard to be married, I've done it three or four times.

Stephen Sondheim

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I don't find my life that interesting. The shows, maybe. But not me.

Stephen Sondheim

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“Careful the things you say, Children will listen. Careful the things you do, Children will see. And learn. Children may not obey But children…

Stephen Sondheim

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“Because in all of the whole human race Mrs. Lovett, there are two kinds of men and only two There's the one staying put…

Stephen Sondheim

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I love computers. I love writing on them. I love gadgetry. The thing is: I am a slow reader. So, if I am going…

Stephen Sondheim

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I have inherited my father's sense of humour about myself. It's a lot more pleasant to make fun of yourself than when someone else…

Stephen Sondheim

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I prefer neurotic people. I like to hear rumblings beneath the surface.

Stephen Sondheim

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I'm sure many writers have these strange, tiny little habits.

Stephen Sondheim

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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…

Stephen Sondheim