Stephen Sondheim Writing New Musical ‘Square One’, Reveals Plans To Stephen Colbert

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Stephen Sondheim is at work on a new musical that he hopes to stage next season, the legendary Broadway composer told Stephen Colbert on The Late Show last night.

Few details were given – including whether the show is intended for Broadway or Off Broadway – but Sondheim did say the musical is being written with playwright David Ives and is titled Square One. (In a Today show appearance this week, Nathan Lane mentioned that he and Bernadette Peters had recently participated in a reading of the musical, though he stopped short of confirming that he’d be involved in future productions of the project.)

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Sondheim and Ives most recently collaborated on a since-canceled Off Broadway musical production about Spanish filmmaker Luis Buñuel and was inspired by two Buñuel movies, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) and The Exterminating Angel (1962). Workshopped in 2016 with plans for a 2017 production at The Public Theater. The production plans were scotched last April.

Whether or not the Sondheim-Ives Square One is connected to their Buñuel project is unclear at this point, but the composer did tell Colbert he’d been working on the show for “a couple of years.”

The 91-year-old Sondheim was on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert to promote the upcoming Broadway production of Company starring Katrina Lenk and Patti LuPone. “I don’t usually tout my own stuff but I urge everybody here to see it,” Sondheim said, calling the production “really one of the most entertaining evenings I’ve ever had in the theater.”

Sondheim also had good things to say about Steven Spielberg’s upcoming film adaptation of West Side Story. Watch the Late Show segment above.

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