Eldergays, Tell Me About The Young-ish Stephen Sondheim

Curious to know about what he was like in his glory days.

Who [italic]is[/italic] she? Who does she [italic]hope[/italic] to be?

Gypshy!!

Bump.

He would invite unsuspecting twinks to his dungeon room in the basement of his Turtle Bay townhouse and torture them -- all in good fun, of course!!

I knew him in 1980, when he was 50.

R6 I'd still count that as young-ish, considering the guy is 90. What was he like?

Before he finally quit, he smoked (and drank) a LOT. (Many theatre folk did.) An older friend described him as reeking of stale smoke and tobacco in his theatre seat.

Unlike Jerry Herman, who was very handsome in his 20s and 30s, IMO, Sondheim was never a looker

weirdly, sondheim was better-looking as an older man. (40s-50s).

Middle age and facial hair (when it was groomed) better suited SS' regrettably reptilian and sweaty face. He was always overly serious, lofty, and nervous, so he kind of grew into his looks.

A lot of great artists aren't lookers. It's part of why they become great artists.

Dude, nobody no D.L. is in a league to have contact with anyone like him.

R12, seriously? I've been to his house, had dinner there, gone with him to the theater, and movies.

He cruised a friend of mine once. My friend had parked his bike on the street and when he came out, there was a note from Stephen Sondheim, inviting him out. My friend is a big black bodybuilder.

He was cute for about 5 minutes when he was young. But like many Jews and the House of Windsor, he got fugly really quickly.

Music theatre is actually a relatively small scene, R12.

If you're a composer or writer and you're any good at all, chances are good that you will meet SS. Even if it's just a passing intro. He's not the easiest character, but he's very good about supporting new work.

His look from the early 80's to mid-90's was very sexy like a hot professor. He had a great smirk. You can see it in that video where he's coaching those British musical theatre students. When they do something he likes, his eyes light up and he smirks and it's really cute. Almost childlike.

R14 Did your friend bone him?

Just after moving to NYC after college, I was working on a project that he was sponsoring so I was at his house once and he used to call the office all the time. The first time he said "Hi Mark it's Steve" I thought I was gonna die! I called everyone I knew to boast.

I bet he would've been a good boyfriend.

Yes, r13--seriously. Tell all, please.

That's all there is? Nobody's got anything?

He never looked good in the beard until it went white.

I don't think he likes his face (which is why he grew the beard), but although he's not typically handsome he was quite attractive when he was clean-shaven. He looked fine for decades when he was silver-haired and grandfatherly, but now his eyelids are drooping so much (at his incredibly advanced age) he looks scary.

r19 Unfortunately, your name is David.

What’s his personality like?

[quote]"Hi Mark it's Steve"

I guess it's true...all gay men ARE named Mark, Rick or Steve!

Arthur Laurent said that Sondheim came across as completely asexual

Pics of SH around 1970 show a guy who never washed his hair.

He was greasy from sweating out all the pills and booze.^^^

R29 I have been an admirer of his work for decades, but he always looked like he hadn't had time to fully sleep off the hangover

I've met him a few times. He's always been gracious and complementary of some of my work when it has been good.

I’ve been handcuffed to the sink in his 2nd floor bathroom since 1972.

I think he was always a very decent man with a raft of psychological problems stemming from his childhood. He seemed to lighten up considerably once his mother died.

I'm sure Laurents said Sondheim was asexual because Sondheim wasn't interested in Arthur sexually.

I don't understand how Laurents scored such hot guys. Even in his youth, he wasn't that attractive and he never had a sparkling personality. Surely, his cock must have been the size of an elephant.

Sondheim seems like a complicated, but kind man. He doesn't usually speak ill of others and is always open to new interpretations of his work which I think is very admirable. He could be like a lot of creators and say things have to be done exactly as they were when their shows first premiered, but he always welcomes new interpretations. Some work and some don't, but I like that he's willing to let others interpret his works as they see fit.

After hearing about his nightmare of a mother, it's amazing that he's as seemingly well adjusted as he is. Didn't she say on her death bed that her biggest mistake was giving birth to him? And this was after he'd created many of his shows. You'd think she'd be thrilled that at least her son amounted to something.

I don't think it's coincidence that he didn't allow himself to fall in love until she was dead. And I think he was in his 40s when she said she regretted giving birth to him.

FOLLIES!

Cute twink

[quote]I’ve been handcuffed to the sink in his 2nd floor bathroom since 1972.

Well, you could do some cleaning while you're in there r32.

I didn't know him but had older NYC theatre friends who did. In the business.

All I heard about, other than the love of his talent and how messy he could be, was the S&M scene he was into, and the set-up he had in his apartment.

[quote] I don't understand how Laurents scored such hot guys. Even in his youth, he wasn't that attractive and he never had a sparkling personality. Surely, his cock must have been the size of an elephant.

He was pretty enough when he was young (see link), and then he became quite rich: remember, he wrote just about everything on the musical stage at the end of the Golden Age of Musicals, and also wrote the screenplays for several famous movies. In middle age he was no longer pretty (which is true of most Jewish men), but by that time he had snagged his gorgeous muscle boy partner, and had started working out himself so that he also had a good body. Never underestimate the appeal of a couple wanting a threesome with hot guys when one is young and hot and the other is rich and famous and has a good body. After a certain age, though, when the partner eas dead, he was only attracting the hustlers and the (would-be) kept boys.

But to be honest, I also think he exaggerated quite a bit. If you read his memoir he comes off as desperately insecure as well as self-centered, and that suggests he likely did some exaggeration. Also, if a man is known by the company he kept, he was friends with a lot of famous liars (like Gore Vidal).

I never understood why people found Arthur Laurents attractive if indeed they did. His handsome boyfriend probably lived a lavish wonderful life. He knew that Arthur's face wasn't his fortune.

can you give some details, r39?

In the early 70s, I had a friend who vaguely aspired to be a playwright/lyricist. (He was also, perhaps not coincidentally, a young S/M enthusiast, eventually becoming a well-known figure in the NY leather scene before dying of AIDS in the early 90s.)

Anyway, my friend somehow made contact with Stephen Sondheim regarding his theatrical aspirations, and Sondheim invited to come over to Turtle Bay one evening. As he stood outside Sondheim's door, waiting to be let in, a woman came down the steps behind him and stood with him at the door. It was Katharine Hepburn. When Sondheim answered the door, my friend stood dumbfounded as Hepburn immediately launched into a complaint about noise coming from Sondheim's house. She and Sondheim went back and forth for a minute or so, and then she left. When my friend got into the house, he said, rather obnoxiously, "That was Katharine Hepburn -- why didn't you introduce me?" Sondheim looked at him and said, "Oh, I thought you had already introduced yourself outside."

Unfortunately, my friend was mum about what happened after that. He abandoned his showbiz dreams soon afterward.

As a dude who is into the S&M scene, I can personally tell you that most men who are into S&M have a lot of baggage, and that most men who have a lot of baggage are into S&M. The scene isn't harmful at all but you do have to be a damaged person with a lot of issues to be attracted to it, so I wouldn't be shocked if Sondheim was into it.

I'm an extremely damaged person with a ton of issues, seriously, but I've never been into it. What's wrong with me?

I love him.

When young-ish, he was at Williams with Dominick Dunne.

I've known him since the late 80s. Worked with him on one show. When you just look at a picture you don't get his sexiness. But in person it comes through with his intelligence, wit, and well... genius. When you're with him, you know you're with Someone. He can be extremely kind and generous, but doesn't suffer fools gladly. I've never found a conversational topic he couldn't participate brilliantly in -The man is a walking encyclopedia. He was a chain smoker and overweight until he had a mild heart attack in his forties. That's when he quit smoking, lost weight, and grew the beard. His health and mobility have declined a great deal in the last 15 years -after he was hit by a taxi while biking in the city. He still likes a good, stiff drink or two in the afternoon/evening. Yes, his early life was totally messed up by his crazy mother and he still carries a lot of baggage. But even now, 90 and looking it, five minutes in the room with him and you're thinking about whether he has a big dick, and what you could do with it. We've all seen the beautiful, young gold diggers who marry rich old men, and then say they think he's hot because of his power or position. Sondheim makes me believe them, at least a little bit. A naked picture of Steve wouldn't do anything for me. But the man, live and in person, sets your pulse racing.

I've never seen his dick.

He looks unkept and greasy.

I thought he was incredibly sexy in the 70s.

What part of Candide did Sondheim write ?

Sure, R42. But only if you start using capitalization. Laziness is an insult to your readers.

R36 That was the road we didn't take!

Thanks for that, r48. Lovely andinteresting. I hadn't heard about the taxi--thought that was Furth.

I guess we'll never know what r39 might have shared.

Year after year, older and older

R51 -Sondheim wrote the lyrics for "Life Is Happiness Indeed," "This World," the revised "Auto Da Fe," the "Sheep Song" and a reprise of "The Best of All Possible Worlds."