Falmouth Jewish Congregation invites all to a virtual Jewish Book Council author talk by Barry Joseph on Matching Minds with Sondheim: The Puzzles and Games of the Broadway Legend.
This free talk will take place on Zoom on Thursday, June 11 at 7pm. It is the final talk in this year's cycle of JBC author talks. Look for more in-person and virtual talks starting next fall. Register for Zoom at www.falmouthjewish.org.
“This stands apart from other Sondheim biographies in celebrating his sense of fun and how it informed his creative process, and readers will delight in the amusing anecdotes supplied by friends and collaborators. It's a fresh peek into the mind of a celebrated American artist.” ―Publishers Weekly
“If you're bedazzled by Stephen Sondheim and want to get inside his mind, you need this book. If you're equally entranced by puzzles and games, you must read this book immediately and repeatedly. Matching Minds is a real accomplishment, and no one but Barry Joseph could have written it. His intelligence and commitment to this complex subject can be found on every page.” ―Daniel Okrent, author of the forthcoming Stephen Sondheim: Art Isn't Easy
By near-universal consensus, Stephen Sondheim was the greatest musical theater composer of his generation-celebrated, among other things, for the wit, sophistication, and intricacy of shows from West Side Story to Sunday in the Park with George. But a less well-known avenue for his brilliance was his lifelong fascination with designing and constructing intricate puzzles and games, from treasure hunts to crosswords to parlor and board games.
Matching Minds with Sondheim is a journey into this rich but largely unmapped aspect of the composer's creative life, illuminating how Sondheim's playful designs delivered moments of clarity and connection for friends, colleagues, and anyone who's ever been captivated by his genius. This book opens, for the first time, the door into what Sondheim called his “puzzler's mind,” helping readers to better understand the man, his work, and-if they accept the challenge-themselves. Gaming expert Barry Joseph draws from over eighty years of Sondheim's activities, including extremely rare and never-publicly-seen puzzles and game designs, scores of original interviews with the celebrity friends who played them, archival deep dives, and illuminating analysis from both puzzle designers and theater professionals from around the world. Packed with illustrations and insights, this book does more than describe Sondheim's life in puzzles: It allows readers to match minds with the maestro by attempting to solve his puzzles and bring Sondheimian games into their own homes.
