The Sound of Mucus

That was Christopher Plummer's term for his most famous movie appearance. Another person who turns out to be less than a fan is Stephen Sondheim. In one of my favourite passages from one of my favourite books of the year, Sondheim mentions a line from the title song - 'A lark that is learning to pray' and comments: 'How can you tell a lark that is just learning to pray from one that's actually praying? Wait a minute - a lark praying? What are we talking about?' 

The full title of Sondheim's book is Finishing the Hat: Collected Lyrics (1954-1981), with attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines, and Anecdotes. It's one of the best accounts of the creative process by a practitioner I've ever read. And the heresies (for example a near total dislike of Gilbert & Sullivan and Noel Coward) are genuinely startling - and thought-provoking as well. The man is scarily clever.