Broadway legend Stephen Sondheim “collapsed” three times after smoking marijuana with friends, but he made them promise to keep it a secret until after his death, according to a new book.
“Hairspray” composer Marc Shaiman writes in his upcoming memoir, “Never Mind the Happy: Showbiz Stories from a Painful Winner,” how he first thought Sondheim was dead when the “Company” and “Into the Woods” composer fell to the ground.
It was at a party at Shaiman’s house, where Patti LuPone wrote that she offered Sondheim some marijuana because “he loves it.”
Sondheim readily agreed and a small group began walking around the joint.
“But he’s Stephen Sondheim, so we each continue to respectfully return the joint to him instead of going in circles,” Shaiman wrote. “That means he was easily taking four times as much as the other members. Not to mention, this joint packed a punch, as new, stronger pot was becoming the norm during this time.”
After a moment, Sondheim leans against a wooden box and suddenly falls to the floor.
“I ran up to him,” Shaiman writes. “He got up in a panic and said, ‘Hey, that pot is really strong.’
The composer of the “Company” stood up, fell down twice, and a third time. Shaiman recalls Sondheim’s “eyes rolled into the back of his head and his complexion pale.” And he thought, “I killed Stephen Sondheim!”
In reality, the eight-time Tony Award winner was just sleeping around. But when Shaiman checked in the next day, Sondheim said, “Thank you for calling. Please, please wait until I die to talk about this.”
Mr. Sondheim passed away in 2021.
Meanwhile, Shaiman, who has scored films such as Sister Act, The American President, The Addams Family, and Patch Addams, turned to cocaine to keep up with his busy schedule.
“Almost every night, I was snoring and smoking a joint when I finally knew I had to sleep to survive the next day,” he wrote. “But smoking a joint made me hungry at three in the morning and I ended up eating a bagel of cream cheese and a bag of Chips Ahoy. I should be in the Guinness Book of World Records as the only person to gain weight while addicted to cocaine.”
Shaiman said she was forced to shove small wads of toilet paper up her nose while she slept “because my nose was watering and bleeding.”
It got so bad that the housekeeper finally sat him down and tearfully said, “You know I’m cleaning the studio, and I understand what’s going on, but I’m worried about you, and I want you to stop.”
He believes his housekeeper saved his life.
Shaiman also wrote about how he angered director Nora Ephron when he co-starred with her in 1993’s Sleepless in Seattle.
Shaiman visited Efron’s New York home and asked if a black-and-white photo of an elderly couple was her parents.
“‘No,’ she replied dryly. ‘That’s A. Diane. Arbus. Photo.'”
Shaiman admitted, “I knew Arbus was famous for taking weird pictures of people, so I almost died a little bit. Fair enough.”
Things got even cooler when an argument broke out over the film’s music. But when they both received Academy Award nominations for the film, Shaiman writes, “I sent a telegram to Nora in a very old-fashioned way: ‘Well, I know. See you at the Oscars!'”
“There was no response. She was sitting right behind[me]at the Oscars and we didn’t say a word.”
Mr. Shaiman worked on “more than 20” films with director Rob Reiner, who was murdered along with his wife last month.
He loves Reiner so much that when he introduced Reiner at the 2020 film festival, he started crying in front of everyone.
“Regardless, the tears spoke louder. I was happy to let Rob and the audience know how much he meant to me,” Shaiman wrote.
