Daniel Okrent

And part of the nurturing that Oscar brought to the relationship was to be frank with him so that when the young Steve is trying to write music or write a play,

Oscar would be very direct with him.

He said, sorry, this is no good.

You're trying to pretend you're somebody other than you are.

Write what you know.

Write what you think.

And those were the lessons that Sondheim cherished for the rest of his life.

Right.

And Sondheim's glad for that.

The same thing shows up when he's at college at Williams, when he's studying music with the composer Milton Babbitt.

He wants the criticism.

He relishes the criticism.

But that happened only in the intimacy of personal or professional relationships.

Criticism from the outside.

Most creative people, certainly most creative people in the theater that I know, are very wary of, leery of, and displeased by critics, but not to the degree that Stephen Sondheim was.

He despised critics.

There were exceptions, but mostly he demeaned critics.

Now, his first...

Music and lyrics show was the enormous success of Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum in 1962, I believe it was.

Recalling that experience of a show that was a gigantic hit, he wrote to a friend to say how it was the most bitter experience that he had ever had as a composer, as a writer, or as a theater person.