"wait a minute, you did that in that show." into the woods was based on fairy stories like jack and the beanstalk. sondheim's music was rhythmically complicated and harmonically sophisticated. # we've no time to sit and dither. # while her withers wither with her. # and no—one keeps a cow for a friend... that's one of my favourite things about a sondheim musical, is the material that you learn is some of the most complex series of notes put together that you can learn, and so you feel such a sense of accomplishment when you finally get to — when you've arrived at a place where you realise i've got it. i've figured out how to sing this sondheim lyric and sing this beautiful phrase that he wrote. # i thought that you'd want what i want, sorry, my dear... for his admirers, stephen sondheim produced some of the most sophisticated and thoughtful musicals ever written.