Thank you to Harper and to NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

As a big theatre person I was really excited to read this book. Sadly it was rather disappointing. I was looking forward reading the conversation between D.T. Max and Sonheim but there was not a lot of material here to make it interesting.

I finished this book on the same day I attended a concert featuring Bernadette Peters performing with our local symphony. Most of the numbers were by Stephen Sondheim. She was amazing and his songs genius. Sadly the same can’t be said for this book.

D.T. Max working as a writer for the New Yorker transcribes five conversations he had with Sondheim in 2016-2017. But there isn’t a lot of context for the conversations. Evidently, Max wrote a 1000 word published piece but was hoping to create a major profile that never happens. The interviews are rambling and haphazard. I don’t need to know that they both once had a dog with the same name. I wanted to learn his process or thoughts on creating his shows or about legends he worked with. That isn’t this book. The most interesting story to me was Meryl Streep mentioning playing charades with him while they are listening to Audra McDonald perform. He comments about Andrew Lloyd Weber saying I don’t remember which ones (shows) I have seen. It is a conversation but it doesn’t tell me much.

I think someone interested in Sondheim should read the two books he wrote himself or a Wiki page. Sadly I didn’t learn much here. Thank you to NetGalley and Harper for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a transcription of pedestrian interviews with a notable person. Not enough to make a book and I was disappointed in the content and the format. Also, a lot of name dropping.