A Conversation with Jonathan Tolins

We speak to the showrunner of CBS's "Elsbeth"

Playwright, screenwriter, and Elsbeth showrunner Jonathan Tolins has long carried Sondheim in his creative bloodstream—from discovering Sweeney Todd as a teenager to folding a cascade of Merrily Easter eggs into the new season of Elsbeth. We talked about the joy of writers’-room collaboration, the craft of surprise, and how Sondheim’s sensibility contin…