Terse but illuminating ... Without grandstanding in a game of biographical gotcha, Okrent takes up key themes of Sondheim’s life and links them persuasively to songs in his shows ... Upon scrutiny, Sondheim appears to have revealed a great deal about himself in his songs about characters from all over the dramatic map, as Okrent shows ... What are we to make of this? Okrent does not hazard a guess, and a guess would be all we’re left to try.
A brisk, engaging read that avoids hagiography. Okrent highlights the emotional frailties that coexisted with the brilliance and generosity ... Okrent’s failings are, unsurprisingly, primarily those of omission ... The biography’s brevity is necessarily limiting.
Art isn’t easy, and neither is writing about artists. Okrent rises to the challenge ... An insightful look at a complicated man and talented artist whose work transformed twentieth-century musical theater.
Okrent examines the composer’s life with humor, intuition, and the utmost respect — the reader can expect frank honesty, criticism, and empathy ... An accessible and engaging resource ... This is a book that will make the reader laugh and think and feel with each turn of the page.
An intimate and detailed biography ... The author wisely focuses on the relationships that shaped his subject’s life ... Drawing on rich research, Okrent vividly captures a clever, sensitive, complicated, and sometimes abrasive artist, and sheds fresh light on even Sondheim’s most well-known productions. It’s a stellar portrait of an American theater great.
