Finale: Late Conversations with Stephen Sondheim

D.T. Max

Putting It Together – You get two books in one here. The first is an edited transcript of five long conversations over a handful of years that New Yorker writer D.T. Max recorded with the great composer Stephen Sondheim. Sondheim’s conversations are not unlike his compositions: erudite, clever, sometimes funny, often insightful, an emotional journey with surprising melodies. Max recorded their conversations with an eye on publishing a major profile on Sondheim in the magazine. That never happened – and why is part of the other book you’ll read in “Finale.” This part of the tale recounts a journalist’s efforts to better understand a revered, reluctant subject in the hopes of publishing the kind of defining profile that would receive standing ovations, to-die-for reviews, and even the box office bonanza rarely seen on Broadway.