My favorite discovery about Stephen Sondheim within the last few years was his obsession with video games. He almost quit theatre after the Merrily We Roll Along fiasco to go into game development - which honestly makes a ton of sense given his fondness for puzzles.

He said he owned about “six or seven Macintoshes” back in the late 80’s/early 90’s, and Ronan Farrow has talked about his love of puzzle games like Myst. Love the idea of Stephen fucking Sondheim going deep on early HyperCard games.

James Lapine recently confirmed in an interview for The Dramatist that the opening of Into the Woods was inspired by his gaming habits, with each character being given a series of active quests to pursue on their journey. A cow as white as milk, a cape as red as blood, etc. He made the musical version of a LucasArts SCUMM game.

It’s stories like this that remind me to keep my interests wide and varied. You never know where inspiration strikes. What hobbies can flow into another.

#theatre #Sondheim #musicals #writing #videogames #gamedev #musicaltheatre