So this is Inspirational Person Number One. The general idea is to collate my favourite people, famous, family or friends and bumble on about them.
And just to make a really good impression I'm going to have a musical theatre geekoid moment and write about Stephen Sondheim, composer and lyricist, and someone who is wholly responsible for making the hair on the back of my neck stand on end (when listening to his music, but you never know).
This man could rhyme circles around Andrew Lloyd Webber. Best known for composing/writing Sweeney Todd (thanks to Tim Burten, with a few rude hand gestures thrown in) and his best work being Into the Woods, a collection of traditional fairy tales all woven together with humour and two tonne of genius (the name of this blog might be a clue to how much of an impression it has made on me).
He doesn't do duds. Every song is listened to in its entirety. He doesn't have a comfort zone and he definitely doesn't work to a formula. Watching an interview with him on youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=626DgTGAczs&NR=1) he doesn't just compose the music and then sit back for the director to take center stage, his music is the direction.
Mr Sondheim takes away the grin factor associated with musical theatre. People whose toes curl at the thought of having to sit through Oklahoma (you're not actually alone there, I've never managed to get further than 'Oh what a beautiful...') should give it a listen. 5 minutes of listening and you'll hear something that makes your ears prick up.
If it still doesn't work for you, his posters are pretty lovely too...
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