#29-A Mash-up of Topics Raised with me About Sondheim

It’s a mash-up! Producer Dennis Caouki weaves together audio from two recent interviews—one with mathematician Art Benjamin (via the National Museum of Mathematics’ Starring Math webinar series) and one from Shoshana Greenberg’s Scene to Song podcast—into a single conversation. The combined interview explores Sondheim’s connections to math, puzzles, and games; cryptic crosswords; design values like misdirection and accessibility; and how those ideas appear in Sondheim’s work (including Into the Woods, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, Company, and Pacific Overtures). The discussion also touches on Schmigadoon! season two’s Sondheim-inspired mashups, Hadestown, The Last of Sheila, and the Knives Out films as modern homages.   00:00 Podcast Updates Ahead 00:27 Audiobook Booth Stories 03:05 Two Interviews One Episode 05:35 Meet Barry Joseph 08:49 Hadestown As Ritual 10:10 Sondheim And Math Roots 11:45 Math In A Little Night Music 15:28 Into The Woods London Take 19:50 CD-ROM Game That Never Was 22:58 Sondheim Puzzle Design Values 26:15 Treasure Hunt Phone Puzzle 27:58 Puzzles For Anybody 29:13 Matching Minds Explained 29:59 Inside Sondheim’s Mind 31:18 Bernstein Puzzle Rivalry 32:49 Lyrics as Game Design 37:38 Cryptic Crosswords Explained 39:54 Solving a Clue Live 43:27 Games in the Shows 45:57 Knives Out Homages 47:41 Schmigadoon Mashup Magic 53:15 Broadway Hopes and Farewell Special Links: Scene to Song with Shoshana Greenberg Art Benjamin - ThatMathShow.com Colm Molloy Ann Morrison Mateo Chavez Lewis Thanks to everyone who contributed behind the scenes to this episode: the Musical Stingers composed by Mateo Chavez Lewis, our line producer Dennis Caouki, and the theme song to our podcast with lyrics and music by Colm Molloy and sung by the one only Anne Morrison, currently on the road starring in Kimberly Akimbo. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices