Saturday Night

"... his novice professional effort, "Saturday Night," written before "West Side Story" and abandoned when its producer died. The show had been consigned to a trunk for nearly half a century, though the experience of writing it, and of its young author's first efforts to break into the theater, were at the core of "Merrily."

"I don't have any emotional reaction to 'Saturday Night' at all -- except fondness," Sondheim says. "It's not bad stuff for a 23-year-old. There are some things that embarrass me so much in the lyrics -- the missed accents, the obvious jokes. But I decided, Leave it. It's my baby pictures. You don't touch up a baby picture -- you're a baby!""

~ Conversations with Stephen Sondheim