"Musical comedies aren't written, they are rewritten"
About this Quote
Musical theater sells the fantasy of spontaneity: characters burst into song as if the melody has been living in their ribcage all along. Sondheim’s line punctures that romance with a craftsman’s shrug. “Aren’t written” is a provocation, almost a dare to anyone who thinks brilliance arrives on opening night fully formed. In his world, the first draft is just an alibi for the real work: revision as the engine of invention.
The subtext is partly technical, partly psychological. A musical comedy is a three-body problem - book, music, lyrics - where changing a single joke can topple a rhyme scheme, a key change, a scene transition, a dance break, a costume quick-change. “Rewritten” acknowledges the medium’s brutal interconnectedness and the way audiences only see the seamless surface, not the scaffolding. It’s also a quiet assertion of humility: even Sondheim, the patron saint of lyrical precision, frames creation as iterative failure management.
Context matters. Sondheim came up in an ecosystem of workshops, out-of-town tryouts, and previews where a show is effectively edited in public. The audience becomes a barometer; the collaborators become co-authors; time becomes the enemy. His quote doubles as a warning against auteur mythology and a defense of collaboration: musicals aren’t solo literature, they’re living machines.
The intent, then, is both practical and philosophical: respect the rewrite, because in musical comedy, rewriting isn’t polishing the idea - it is the idea.
The subtext is partly technical, partly psychological. A musical comedy is a three-body problem - book, music, lyrics - where changing a single joke can topple a rhyme scheme, a key change, a scene transition, a dance break, a costume quick-change. “Rewritten” acknowledges the medium’s brutal interconnectedness and the way audiences only see the seamless surface, not the scaffolding. It’s also a quiet assertion of humility: even Sondheim, the patron saint of lyrical precision, frames creation as iterative failure management.
Context matters. Sondheim came up in an ecosystem of workshops, out-of-town tryouts, and previews where a show is effectively edited in public. The audience becomes a barometer; the collaborators become co-authors; time becomes the enemy. His quote doubles as a warning against auteur mythology and a defense of collaboration: musicals aren’t solo literature, they’re living machines.
The intent, then, is both practical and philosophical: respect the rewrite, because in musical comedy, rewriting isn’t polishing the idea - it is the idea.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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