Sondheim at Herbst Theater

This past Sunday was a date I’d been anticipating for months. As part of the City Arts and Lectures series here in San Francisco, Stephen Sondheim sat down with Frank Rich for a thoroughly spontaneous and entertaining hour-and-a-half discussion.

Now, I’ve read and heard so many interviews and similar Sondheim talks over the years, so there was very little new information for me, but this is my first opportunity to sit through one in person. Sondheim was upbeat, forthcoming and very funny; a true mensh.

The Richmond District

Pianist Jeremy Denk describes my neighborhood in San Francisco more eloquently than I ever could….

When the concert ended, a Chinese man drove me back to my hotel in a large black Towncar. All the way down Geary. There were Russian bakeries, Dim Sum joints, gas stations, spas, the whole beat hybrid of San Francisco deciding, block by block, whether it is a city or not.

It’s all true. The cultural mishmash along Geary Boulevard makes the Richmond District a fun place to live. One New York friend’s reaction to a cab ride along Geary: “Oh, I get it. You live in Queens.” Except, one thing Jeremy, if I may: San Francisco is a city, and that was decided a long time ago. Only a New Yorker would question that.

(via The Rest Is Noise)
Photo Credit: Kenn Christ