Putting "Putting It Together" Together

The making and remaking of a Sondheim revue

You are at a party. The hour is uncertain, but it’s late enough that the canapés have been cleared, your first drink replaced by a second or a seventh. You’re in a Manhattan penthouse, high above the ordinary world. Your fellow guests are beautiful and witty and adrift. You notice that they talk in the assured, modulated way of people who have learned t…