Sondheim Supplement #2
Our weekly bonus newsletter: Valentine edition
Welcome to this week’s Sondheim Supplement, our weekly newsletter exclusively for paid subscribers to The Sondheim Hub. This week, a love-themed crossword (especially for Valentine’s Day), more from our conversation with the wonderful Liz Callaway, a suitably Passionate lyric of the week, our survey of This Week in Sondheim, and a look back at our essay on “Is This What You Call Love?”. Enjoy!
Lyric of the Week
Just another love story,
That’s what they would claim.
Another simple love story—
Aren’t all of them the same?
In the opening moments of Passion, Clara and Giorgio reflect on their connection with a striking blend of self-awareness and irony. The lyric seems at first a casual dismissal, as though preemptively echoing the judgments of others. Yet their shared sentiment betrays a quiet defiance, as if insisting that the intensity of their bond cannot be so easily categorized. “Another” underscores their uncertainty, as if they, too, wonder whether their love is extraordinary or merely another fleeting entanglement. In framing their affair this way, Sondheim deftly sets the stage for a story that will ultimately challenge the boundaries of love itself.
Even within these four lines, the structure subtly shifts to mirror Clara and Giorgio’s evolving thought process. The first statement is firm—“Just another love story”—but the repetition unsettles it, making room for doubt. The second iteration, “Another simple love story”, adds a qualifier, “simple,” as though testing the idea aloud. And then, the final question—“Aren’t all of them the same?”—opens a door rather than closing one, turning assertion into interrogation. This progression reflects the very essence of Passion: an exploration of love that grows more complex the deeper one dares to look.
More than a reflection on their own relationship, the lyric resonates as a meta-commentary on the narratives of romance. Clara and Giorgio’s affair is, by conventional standards, a love story marked by transience and concealment. Yet Sondheim’s framing invites us to question whether any love can be deemed simple or “the same.” Beneath the surface of their clandestine passion lies a complexity of desire, guilt, and longing that defies easy definition. In this way, the lyric becomes a subtle declaration: that even the most ostensibly ordinary love carries within it an extraordinary power, as unique and consuming as the individuals who feel it.
The Sondheim Hub Crossword
This week’s subscriber-only crossword takes love and romance as its theme, since it’s Valentine’s Day... Here it is: