I’m a little late in wishing Stephen Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber happy birthday. The giants of the musical theater were both born on March 22 — Steve in 1930, ALW in 1948. So, boys, a belated birthday!
Now down to business. Sondheim and Lloyd Webber have been friends for years and, if I’m not mistaken, once thought of working together. They had the idea of writing a musical about the rivalry between Puccini and Leoncavallo, who went head to head writing operas based on Murger’s novel “Scènes de la Vie de Bohème.” (Guess who won that competition.)
Nothing came of it, but I’ve since been told they’d like to take a stab at writing a song, SS the lyrics, ALW the tune.
I ran into Lloyd Webber the other night at a reception for Norm Lewis and Sierra Boggess, now starring together in “The Phantom of the Opera.” I brought up the notion of a Lloyd Webber-Sondheim collaboration, and Lloyd Webber’s eyes lit up.
And then inspiration struck.
Shooting has begun on the next James Bond movie, directed by Sam Mendes.
I asked Lloyd Webber, what if you and Steve were to write the next James Bond song together?
Lloyd Webber said: “Suggest that.” And so I am.
I’m sure Barbara Broccoli, the producer of the Bond films, has already hired someone to do the score, probably Thomas Newman, who did “Skyfall.”
But wouldn’t you want to hear what Sondheim and Lloyd Webber, working together, could do with a Bond song?
The best Bond songs are as potent and muscular as any great musical theater song. You can sing “Goldfinger,” “Diamonds Are Forever” or “You Only Live Twice” as quickly as you can sing “Memory,” “Send in the Clowns” or “The Music of the Night.”
And many a musical theater writer has done a turn at one. Lionel Bart (“Oliver!”) wrote the lyrics to “From Russia With Love.” Don Black (“Sunset Boulevard,” “Tell Me on a Sunday”) wrote “Diamonds” and “Thunderball.” Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley (“Stop the World — I Want To Get Off”) wrote the lyrics to “Goldfinger” and Tim Rice (you know his credits) wrote the words to the very underrated “All Time High” from “Octopussy.”
I think a Bond song is the perfect assignment for a musical theater writer. “Skyfall” aside, the most recent ones have, to my ears, been duds. Anyone want to go to Marie’s Crisis and sing “Another Way To Die” from “Quantum of Solace”? Or “Die Another Day”? Or how about “You Know My Name” from “Casino Royale”?
Those songs can’t hold a Walther PPK to “Goldfinger” or “Thunderball” or “Moonraker” (lyrics by Hal David, “Promises, Promises”).
And so I rest my case. The best Bond songs were written by musical theater writers. If Andrew Lloyd Webber and Stephen Sondheim want to write a song together, 007 is the ticket.
To paraphrase Marvin Hamlisch (“A Chorus Line”), nobody will do it better!