A LETTER FROM STEPHEN SONDHEIM, A CARICATURE BY BRAD BIRD

 

Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

Since the death of Stephen Sondheim last Friday, I have posted and shared on Facebook a lot of the outpouring of sadness and expressions of love that followed. Despite having lived a long life, those of us who revered the man and his talent thought he would go on forever. Thus the shock over his death. Of course, Sondheim’s music and lyrics will last many more lifetimes; we will always have that. But the man himself, known by some personally, known by fans via documentaries, books, and many interviews, will be greatly missed. I wish I had been of the former instead of (or, rather as well as) the latter. Still, I once wrote him a letter, having somehow gotten his home address, and was fortunate enough to have received an answer. 

This was in 1980 when I was starting a career in film animation. I hoped to convince Sondheim of the viability of making an animated feature based on his musical Company, a play about the ups and downs, the good and bad about marriage. And about the need not to be lonely in life. Some of you might think that was weird of me. Certainly, a lot of people back then did. But I didn’t care. I wanted to see American Animation grow the hell up and stop making just “kiddie flicks,” as some perceived them to be. So I wrote a rather lengthy letter to Sondheim extolling the aesthetic benefits of animation and my vision for a film.

As you can read in the letter below, Sondheim rejected the idea. 

I have had more than a few rejections in my life. They are never pleasant. But this one I cherish. Simply because it exists. Simply because Sondheim was a gentleman. Because he, at least, listened. And because he was Sondheim.

To prove that I was serious about my idea for an animated Sondheim, I include below a caricature of me by Brad Bird. We were partnered at the time with Star Wars producer Gary Kurtz in a proposed animated feature based on Will Eisner’s great comic book, The Spirit. Which also would not have been a “kiddie flick.” And indeed, Hollywood refused to get behind it. But that’s another story. Brad and I were flying home from New York after meeting with Eisner to secure the animation rights to The Spirit (which we did) when Brad drew my caricature in The Spirit’s iconic clothes. But what is really telling is what he has me saying -- “On a whole, I would rather be doing Sondheim.” So I must have been bending Brad’s ears on the subject.

Brad was wrong. Of course, I would not have “rather” but “as well as.” I was excited about The Spirit project and still regret that we could not get it made. Coming out in the early 80s, as was the plan, The Spirit would have started the animation revolution that had to wait for a little mermaid. And it would have been a whole different kind of revolution.

Oh, well, on the whole, these days, I’d rather be writing my novels. And so I do.