Sondheim Supplement #32
An exclusive Frogs essay, a character-themed crossword, and more...
Welcome to our 32nd Sondheim Supplement!
This week’s offering includes an exclusive essay looking at the haunting reprise of “All Aboard” (The Frogs). Our crossword asks, “Which character said that?” Plus, there’s more from our conversation with Molly Lynch, a look back at our guide to Sondheim’s musical canons, and there’s a survey of This Week in Sondheim, too.
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Lyric Essay: “All Aboard (Reprise)”
All aboard!
All aboard!
Hades Express!
Last bell
For the other hell,
Good old Earth.
Where you’re cursed at birth,
Where hearts are heavy and heads are bowed
And each silver lining conceals a cloud,
Where men are men and sheep are nervous—
At your service—
All aboard!
In Act I of The Frogs, when Charon sings “All Aboard,” he is preparing Dionysos and Xanthias for the terrors of Hades. By the time we reach the song’s reprise, though, the true horrors belong to the realm they left behind. “Last bell / For the other hell, / Good old Earth” snaps the telescope around: life, not death, is the heavier sentence.