 Click to listen |
It took
25 years, but a song that Stephen Sondheim wrote for the Kuklapolitans
was finally given its premiere on Broadway in "Side By Side By
Sondheim." Click on the picture
of Stephen to hear the song sung live onstage by Nancy Dussault, Kukla
and Ollie. Click on the CD below to order
"The Unsung Sondheim," which contains another recording of the song and
other unused Sondheim
songs. Here's the story of "The Two of You," from the CD's notes: |
Sondheim wrote the song in 1952 on a whim for the Kukla, Fran and Ollie show, which he admired very much. "I sent it, they rejected it," Sondheim remembers. "Burr Tillstrom, the show's creator, never even knew of it; his executive producer sent it back without even listening to the song. I finally gave "The Two of You" to Burr, though. When he did Side By Side By Sondheim in 1978, he sang it with the spot[light] very tight and Kukla on his arm and then, I think for the first time in his career, the spot came up and you saw his arm inside the puppet. He'd never revealed the puppets as puppets before. It was very moving." |
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