“There is, accidentally, a sort of mini-Sondheim festival taking place around Britain at the moment… The revivals reveal the range of Sondheim’s concerns: from the motivations of the men and women who assassinate American presidents to the opening up of Japan; from the psychological power of fairy-tales to the travails of art. It is this kind of list that leads to Sondheim being branded ‘difficult’, but he isn’t really. He smuggles intellectual concerns into musicals, but they remain first and foremost musicals, full of light, life and colour, with songs that may not be traditionally catchy but have a remarkable way of winding themselves into your mind and heart.”