The Great Sondheim Pop Quiz Crossword Puzzle
When I was twelve, I saw Into the Woods on Broadway at the Martin Beck Theater, and it blew my mind. That night, unbelievably, I found Stephen Sondheim’s address in the White Pages and wrote him a fan letter on hotel stationery. More unbelievably, he wrote me back two weeks later. I would share photo images of our sporadic correspondence, which transpired over the next six years, but (tragically) these letters disappeared when the family moved out of my childhood home in Southern California.
I remember, though, Sondheim writing, “Your friends must think you’re crazy;” and my thinking, “Stephen Sondheim is the only one who gets me.” And I remember him telling me the key to becoming a theater artist is to just keep making theater, stubbornly, without giving up. I remember him politely declining my invitation to speak at my high school graduation because “I am due to attend the opening of Sweeney Todd on the West End.” And I remember that once, when I came across a stack of Stephen Sondheim’s Collected New York Times Crossword Puzzles at a local used bookshop, he asked me to buy them all and send them to him, which I did. …Except, I kept one for myself. Every once in a while I’d try to complete one, and fail, and in time I became a crossword fanatic.
As I became ensconced as a grown-up at Playwrights Horizons, I was chronically too shy to see if he remembered me. It would have been too devastating if he didn’t. I wish I could have thanked him for the plays that shaped my upbringing, and for giving me that first scrap of encouragement that I could have a life making work myself. But here, I wrote a crossword instead. He would not like this crossword, I imagine, but I hope he would read it as my way of saying, Thanks, Mr. Sondheim.
Across
1. Thick slice of a thing
5. Three letters on the4 button
8. Good (slang)
11. The final, final, final word
15. Popular spot for a run?
16. Color of the grass, part one. (“Sunday in the Park With George”)
18. Attention-grabbers
21 An Oskar for Schindler’s List
22. Don’t have this around Bart Simpson, man.
23. Fabric for a Prince?
25. 4,840 square yards
26. Where they keep “Campbell’s Soup Cans”
27. Inventor of the ATM, the UPC, and the floppy disk
28. Not nay
29. Some night school courses (Abbr.)
30. A ball in the arcade
31. Precambrian, Paleozoic, Mesozoic, or Cenozoic
33. Where April will not be flying today. (“Company”)
36. Prefix to -god!, -cron, and -nous
37. Plácido Domingo, José Carreras, or Luciano Pavarotti, e.g.
40. Like Hester Prynn, Cain, and St. Francis
44. Sixth musical note (alt.)
45. Autumnal flower, or “An herb that’s superb for disturbances at sea.” (“Pacific Overtures”)
48. “Liebe” in Spanisch
49. The first Martha afraid of Virginia Woolf
50. Prefix for an American ship
51. Like trumpets, horns, tubas and trombones
52. Snack for a luau
53. Aware of itself
55. Slices and _____
57. Catalytic event for Cinderella
59. Wedding Barbie, e.g.
64. Destination for Charles Guiteau, from the gallows. (“Assassins”)
67. LIke a guilty plea
68. Incendiary
70. Where to find Jim Morrison
72. Home for the Baker’s sister (“Into the Woods”), and other prisoners
75. Schoolyard bully
76. Wonders abstractly
79. Act without words
80. After 70-down, a possible abbr. for Tinder
81. Where drip coffee drips
84. Diamond, sapphire, or emerald
87. Frequent quality of a swimsuit model
88. Commotion
89. What the swimsuit model did
93. “A very palpable ___”
94. “___ ___ know,” as per Alanis Morissette
96. Like library books, or recovered artworks
98 Almost-grads (Abbr.)
99. Targeting
102. ruof yb dedivid thgie semit eerhT
103. New Age Music icon
105. Cinema giant
106. French farthing
107. Good (slang)
109. “Altra” in Spagnolo
112. Prom attendee
113. Predisposed to worry?
116. Ozian roarer
117. “We’re all born naked; the rest is ____.”
118. Pamela of “Better Things”
119. Humility
120. Liberal arts major (Abbr.)
121. Irked
122. A lamb’s mother
123. East Germany (Abbr.)
124. Tms Sqr dstntn fr thtrgrs
Down
1. A kind of marriage
2. Crazy in Cancun
3. Time that Mme. Armfeldt spent at the Villa of the Baron de Signac. (“A Little Night Music”)
4. Helpful tip for pickpockets, dog, and the ides of March
5. Whose national dish is the sauerbraten?
6. Groovy
7. How to take an aerobics class
8. Fundamental
9. A kind of moment
10. Ceasefires, “They’re what everybody wants!” (Pacific Overtures)
11. A kind of donation
12. The quickest trick for a thick thicket. (“Into the Woods”)
13. Trim
14. Captain Hook’s right-hand
16. This pig is out of order
17. For safe shagging, or a rainy day
19. Sets up for a lousy shot
20. Birthplace of Rosanna Rosanna Danna (Abbr.)
24. Tripoli, in a manner of speaking?
32. Path of history, the sun, or a character in a play
34. Sigur ___, of Iceland
35. U.S. Stds for a safe workpace
36. The sound of silence?
37. What you do with the depths
38. “Gunsmoke” or “Stagecoach,” in old slang
39. Thanksgiving day
41. LaRoche, Pearce, or Maupassant
42. Increasingly, a common thought while gazing into the mirror.
43. Like a slinky, or Little Orphan Annie’s hair
46. Birthplace of 20-Down
47. Tra due et quattro
54. Verb for the fripperous?
55. Like a guest spot on “Six Feet Under”
56. Good (slang)
57. Landed, as a sparrow upon a branch
58. “_____ Buddies”
60. For Beth, time that does not go by. (“Merrily We Roll Along”)
61. The first Sweeney
62. “Back in business and I mean just that / Back with Franklin Shepard, ___.” (“Merrily We Roll Along”)
63. What Beth will do day after day after day after day after day after day after day. (“Merrily We Roll Along”)
64. Famed General of Chinese take-out
65. Term of endearment
66. Dir. from NYC to 115-down
68. Yoruban affirmation
69. A combo of sts, aves, hwys and fwys
70. Words to come out
71. Cool haircut
73. Medium for spams and scams
74. Lets
76. Lady of the house
77. A saucer, perhaps
78. Upper chamber mbr.
81. Minor character
82. Like a sinner at confession
83. Handbag that Joanna isn’t bringing to Paris, or to Spain. (“Sweeney Todd”)
84. What Peter Pan won’t do, or what Sally won’t do on Buddy’s shoulder. (“Follies”)
85. Hoop, stud, or huggie
86. CCCLXVII x III
89. Target for a poultice
90. Rowing on this side of the pond
91. Belgian currency (Abbr.)
92. What a witch might cast upon trespassing neighbors
95. Color of the grass, part two. (“Sunday in the Park With George”)
97. Color of the grass, part three. (“Sunday in the Park With George”)
100. “Out of many, there __ __”
101. “Now it’s he and ___ you who is stuck with a shoe in a stew in the goo.” (“Into the Woods”)
103. Airport stats
104. Demonic emperor of Rome
105. Goal for grade grubbers
108. One way
110. Origin
111. Coulter, Margaret, Richards and Raggedy
114. One of 21 in this puzzle
115. A breezy Cape
