"My parents were what I like to call proper musical fans. Lots of Sondheim was played in the car"
About this Quote
Dropping Sondheim is the real payload. Sondheim isn’t the comfort-food musical playlist; it’s brainy, anxious, structurally intricate work about ambivalence, regret, and people making terrible choices for understandable reasons. Saying “Lots of Sondheim was played in the car” paints a hilarious domestic image: a child in the back seat absorbing adult dilemmas set to knotty melodies, learning that songs can be smart, dark, and unsentimental. It also reframes Radcliffe’s own public persona. The ex-child star could lean on celebrity autobiography clichés, but instead he locates his origin story in craft.
Context matters: Radcliffe has spent his post-Potter years proving range, including onstage musical work. This quote is a neat origin myth for that trajectory, positioning his confidence with theater not as a pivot but as an inheritance. The subtext is: my weirdness is curated, my taste was trained, and I’m comfortable being earnest about it.
Quote Details
| Topic | Family |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Radcliffe, Daniel. (2026, January 16). My parents were what I like to call proper musical fans. Lots of Sondheim was played in the car. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-parents-were-what-i-like-to-call-proper-124036/
Chicago Style
Radcliffe, Daniel. "My parents were what I like to call proper musical fans. Lots of Sondheim was played in the car." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-parents-were-what-i-like-to-call-proper-124036/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"My parents were what I like to call proper musical fans. Lots of Sondheim was played in the car." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-parents-were-what-i-like-to-call-proper-124036/. Accessed 18 Feb. 2026.