Kaddish for Steve: On the Jewishness of Sondheim¹

‘Kaddish for Steve’ explores Steven Sondheim’s legacy as a Jewish artist after his death, seeking traces of his Judaism in stories of his Jewish collaborators, exploration of his Jewish (and Jew-ish) characters and analysis of his Jewish themes. Using theories of Jewish narrative and Jewishness as articulated by (among others) Dara Horn and Daniel Boyarin, and musical theatre theory as conceived by David Savran, the article closely reads musicals including Merrily We Roll Along, Company, Sunday in the Park with George and Gypsy alongside Sondheim’s own memoir, Finishing the Hat. In examining Sondheim’s understanding of his own work, ‘Kaddish for Steve’ discovers a Jewish way of reading and writing within both the musicals and the memoir that closely aligns with Boyarin’s concept of ‘Jewissance’. The article concludes with a remembrance of Sondheim as spiritual and artistic teacher, honouring his continued influence on contemporary musical theatre and comparing his role in the lives of his many students to that of a rabbi.