MATCHING MINDS WITH SONDHEIM

A little night music—and a lot of games.

Joseph, co-founder of the Games for Change festival, is perfectly suited to explore Stephen Sondheim’s little-known lifelong interest in all sorts of games, mostly word driven. The composer believed that his parents’ divorce pushed him toward games and music to seek order out of chaos. He collected all kinds of board games and put them up on his apartment’s walls. Sadly, many were lost in a fire. Parlor games were also a Sondheim favorite, attended by many of his friends. His Murder Game inspired the song “Finishing the Hat.” In the 1960s he’d occasionally appear on TV game shows like The Match Game and Password, always anxious to win. He was also New York magazine’s puzzle editor. Joseph goes into great detail outlining the musician’s treasure hunts. “Tackling one of Sondheim’s puzzles can feel like being lost in the face of an unknown language,” the author writes, but the 2013 City Center Treasure Hunt offers insights, as it was “thoroughly documented” by Maria Seremetis, whom Sondheim hired as an assistant. Joseph even gathers together a group of friends over Zoom to reenact the hunt so that they could all experience the fun of matching minds with Sondheim. Joseph discusses the composer’s movie board game, Stardom, designed when he was in his early 20s. The Great Conductor Hunt was designed for his friend Leonard Bernstein. Sondheim was also a word puzzle designer, especially crosswords and challenging cryptics. Stephen Sondheim’s Crossword Puzzles was published in 1980. He was even passionate about elaborate jigsaw puzzles, giving them as gifts to performers in his musicals. Late in life, he got into escape rooms. Joseph estimates that nearly 2,000 of the composer’s possessions, which were auctioned off, were related to puzzles and games.

A smart, eye-opening look into a lighter side of Sondheim.