the american musical. as a young man, he learned his trade from oscar hammerstein — the lyricist who wrote shows like oklahoma and the sound of music. sondheim, too, started by doing the words, notably for leonard bernstein's music in west side story. # i like to be in america! # ok by me in america! soon he was writing his own music as well. # for a small fee in america! most of the shows that followed were hits. and then, in 1970, he came up with a new idea — a musical that didn't follow an obvious plot. # phone rings, door chimes. # in comes company! company was a series of vignettes featuring a dozen central characters. no two sondheim musicals were the same. i don't want to get bored writing and, you know, it's — when you hit a chord that you've hit before, or a technique of using a song that you've done before — or when i do, i get very nervous and i think "i've written that. "i mustn't do that again — somebody will catch me up