Music: Stephen Sondheim interview

Music: Stephen Sondheim interview; Sondheim interview (cont'd) SOT - On musical theatre as a genre / Oscar Hammerstein introduced idea of intelligence into musical theatre with 'Showboat' / He amalgamated European tradition of operetta with the American light-hearted musical comedy / With 'Showboat' and 'Oklahoma' Hammerstein revolutionised musical theatre so that a whole generation after could bring intelligence to musicals / Cannot answer what his legacy will be / On current state of musical theatre - youngsters don't get chance to learn their craft / In days of Hammerstein and Cole Porter writers got the chance to learn their craft by doing two shows a season / Musical theatre can only be crafted with practise but if you can't practise you cannot be perfect / Now young writers are lucky if they get show on every five years / Shows now depend on jukebox musicals such as 'Mamma Mia' rather than material written by young writers / Then there are meta-musicals which make fun of other musicals / But musicals which actually try to say something and experiment with the form are few and far between / You do find new works at fringe theatres but they don't get exposure or production they deserve / Thus it is very difficult to write something original and have it heard by a lot of people