"I'm Still Here" is a song written by
Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Joshua Sondheim (; March22, 1930November26, 2021) was an American composer and lyricist. Regarded as one of the most important figures in 20th-century musical theater, he is credited with reinventing the American musical. He received Lis ...
for the 1971 musical ''
Follies''.
Production
"I'm Still Here" was introduced in the musical ''Follies'', which premiered on
Broadway at the
Winter Garden Theatre
The Winter Garden Theatre is a Broadway theatre at 1634 Broadway in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, New York, U.S. Originally designed by architect William Albert Swasey, it opened in 1911. The Winter Garden's current des ...
on April 4, 1971. The song is sung by former Follies showgirl, Carlotta Campion. The role was originally played by
Yvonne De Carlo
Margaret Yvonne Middleton (September 1, 1922January 8, 2007), known professionally as Yvonne De Carlo, was a Canadian-American actress, dancer and singer. She became a Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film star and sex symbol in the 1940s a ...
.
[" ''Follies'', Broadway, 1971"]
sondheimguide.com, accessed May 29, 2014
Other performers who have played Carlotta in ''Follies'' on Broadway include
Ann Miller in the 1998
Paper Mill Playhouse
Paper Mill Playhouse is a regional theater containing approximately 1,200 seats located in Millburn, within Essex County, New Jersey, United States, on the banks of the Rahway River. Due to its relative proximity to Manhattan, the theater draw ...
production,
Polly Bergen
Polly Bergen (born Nellie Paulina Burgin; July 14, 1930 – September 20, 2014) was an American actress, singer, television host, writer, and entrepreneur.
She won an Emmy Award in 1958 for her performance as Helen Morgan (singer), Helen ...
in the 2001 revival and
Elaine Paige
Dame Elaine Jill Paige (born Elaine Jill Bickerstaff, 5 March 1948) is an English singer and actress, best known for her work in musical theatre. Raised in Chipping Barnet, Barnet, Hertfordshire, Paige attended the Aida Foster Theatre School, m ...
in the 2011 revival. In the 1987
West End production, Carlotta was played by
Dolores Gray
Dolores Gray (June 7, 1924 – June 26, 2002) was an American actress and singer. She was nominated for the Tony Award for Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical, Best Lead Actress in a Musical twice, winning once.
Early life
Both her mother ...
.
[ She was played by Tracie Bennett in the recent National Theatre production.
Since the original production many performers have included the song as part of their concert performances, often rewriting it to reflect their own careers, including ]Barbra Streisand
Barbara Joan "Barbra" Streisand ( ; born April 24, 1942) is an American singer, actress, songwriter, producer, and director. With a career spanning over six decades, she has achieved success across multiple fields of entertainment, being the ...
, Eartha Kitt
Eartha Mae Kitt (née Keith; January 17, 1927 – December 25, 2008) was an American singer and actress. She was known for her highly distinctive singing style and her 1953 recordings of "C'est si bon" and the Christmas novelty song "Santa Baby" ...
and Sammy Davis Jr.
Background
"I'm Still Here" was written during the out of town tryout for ''Follies'' in Boston, when Sondheim decided that another song ("Can That Boy Foxtrot") was not working. This song had been written as a throwaway song for a minor character, but Yvonne De Carlo was a high-profile name in the cast, and the creative team felt she deserved a more substantial song. The librettist James Goldman
James Goldman (June 30, 1927 – October 28, 1998) was an American playwright and screenwriter. He won an Academy Award for his screenplay '' The Lion in Winter'' (1968). His younger brother was novelist and screenwriter William Goldman.
Biog ...
suggested it should be a song about survival that said 'I'm still here.' Sondheim borrowed the phrase for the song title.
It is an example of a "list song". Sondheim noted that "the song develops through decades" (p. 181). Stephen Banfield describes it as "a blues song" (p. 183).
The tune was written as a pastiche of Harold Arlen
Harold Arlen (born Hyman Arluck; February 15, 1905 – April 23, 1986) was an American composer of popular music, who composed over 500 songs, a number of which have become known worldwide. In addition to composing the songs for the 1939 film ' ...
, one of Sondheim's favorite Broadway composers.
June Abernathy provided an explanation of some of the terms and references in the song. For example, in the phrase "I’ve slept in shanties, Guest of the W.P.A.", "W.P.A." means the Works Projects Administration (1935–43), a U.S. government agency. "Windsor and Wally’s affair" refers to King Edward VIII
Edward VIII (Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David; 23 June 1894 – 28 May 1972), later known as the Duke of Windsor, was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Empire, and Emperor of India, from 20 January ...
, King of England in 1936, and Wallis Warfield Simpson, an American divorcee.
Synopsis
Carlotta is a former showgirl who became a movie star and later a nightclub performer and television star. In this song she sings about the many adventures she has been through during her long career, and explains that she has outlived it all. She describes rising from poverty during the Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
through luck and perseverance despite limited training. The next verses describe surviving the excesses of show business success, including alcoholism
Alcoholism is the continued drinking of alcohol despite it causing problems. Some definitions require evidence of dependence and withdrawal. Problematic use of alcohol has been mentioned in the earliest historical records. The World He ...
, drug addiction and rehabilitation, as well as going through the Hollywood Blacklist
The Hollywood blacklist was the mid-20th century banning of suspected Communists from working in the United States entertainment industry. The blacklisting, blacklist began at the onset of the Cold War and Red Scare#Second Red Scare (1947–1957 ...
.
Sondheim loosely based the song on the career of Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford (born Lucille Fay LeSueur; March 23, 190? was an American actress. She started her career as a dancer in traveling theatrical companies before debuting on Broadway theatre, Broadway. Crawford was signed to a motion-picture cont ...
, stating "She rawfordstarted as a silent film-star, then she became a sound-star, and she eventually became superannuated and started to do camp movies ..she became a joke on and of herself, but she survived." This shows up in the line 'First you're another sloe-eyed vamp/ Then someone's mother/ then you're camp/ then you career from career to career/ I'm almost through my memoirs/ and I'm here!'
What makes the song interesting and poignant is the very real mixture of emotions of an older person reviewing her life, seeing how the good and the bad in life are bound to come, alternately or sometimes simultaneously, and in having reached a certain age there is a sense of both cynicism and triumph. This mixture is expressed in the emotional impact of the music itself, which gradually begins to swell as the song progresses from what starts as a nightclub lounge-act performance into a brassy big-band cabaret style finish.
As she goes through an outline of her life, skimming through the pages of her mental scrapbook, she builds up to the realization that, good or bad, she managed to get through her life and that she is a survivor. With that realization there is a confidence and a sense of triumph, but with an edge to it. Some youthful tenderness has to be left behind, but "what does not kill you, makes you stronger".
Critical reception
'' Variety'' describes the song as "electric". The ''New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' called it "the song of the survivor". Elaine Stritch told Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Joshua Sondheim (; March22, 1930November26, 2021) was an American composer and lyricist. Regarded as one of the most important figures in 20th-century musical theater, he is credited with reinventing the American musical. He received Lis ...
that an actress has only earned the right to perform the song once they reach 80. She expressed her frustration that the many women who perform the song in their forties, fifties, and even sixties, lack the life experience necessary, demanding to know "where have they been?"
Recordings
Many performers have recorded the song, including cast albums and other recordings. Among them are: Yvonne DeCarlo in the original 1971 Broadway production;
Nancy Walker in ''Sondheim: A Musical Tribute'' (1973); Millicent Martin in '' Side by Side by Sondheim'' (1976); Gemma Craven in ''Songs of Sondheim'' (1977); Carol Burnett
Carol Creighton Burnett (born April 26, 1933) is an American comedian, actress, singer and writer. Burnett has played dramatic and comedic roles on stage and screen. She has received List of awards and nominations received by Carol Burnett, nu ...
in ''Follies in Concert'' (1985); Julie Wilson in ''Sings the Stephen Sondheim Songbook'' (1988); Cleo Laine
Dame Cleo Laine, Lady Dankworth (born Clementine Dinah Hitching; 28 October 1927) is an English singer and actress known for her scat singing. She is the widow of jazz composer and musician Sir John Dankworth and the mother of bassist Alec D ...
in ''Cleo Sings Sondheim'' (1988); Dorothy Loudon in ''The Stephen Sondheim Album'' (2000); Elaine Stritch in ''At Liberty'' (2002) and ''Sondheim the Birthday Concert'' (2010); Elaine Paige
Dame Elaine Jill Paige (born Elaine Jill Bickerstaff, 5 March 1948) is an English singer and actress, best known for her work in musical theatre. Raised in Chipping Barnet, Barnet, Hertfordshire, Paige attended the Aida Foster Theatre School, m ...
in ''2011 Broadway Revival Cast Recording''; and Shirley Bassey
Dame Shirley Veronica Bassey (; born 8 January 1937) is a Welsh singer. Known for her career longevity, powerful voice and recording the James Bond music, theme songs to three James Bond films - the only artist to officially perform more than o ...
in ''Hello Like Before'' (2014).
In popular culture
The character Frederica Norman, played by Patti LuPone, sang the song in '' Pose'', season 2, episode 6.
The character Doris Mann, played by Shirley MacLaine
Shirley MacLaine (born Shirley MacLean Beaty; April 24, 1934) is an American actress and author. With a career spanning over 70 years, she has received List of awards and nominations received by Shirley MacLaine, numerous accolades, including a ...
, sang the song in ''Postcards from the Edge''. At the request of director Mike Nichols
Mike Nichols (born Igor Mikhail Peschkowsky; November 6, 1931 – November 19, 2014) was an American film and theatre director and comedian. He worked across a range of genres and had an aptitude for getting the best out of actors regardless of ...
, Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Joshua Sondheim (; March22, 1930November26, 2021) was an American composer and lyricist. Regarded as one of the most important figures in 20th-century musical theater, he is credited with reinventing the American musical. He received Lis ...
wrote special lyrics for MacLaine to sing in the film.
The character Lillian Bennett, played by Carol Burnett
Carol Creighton Burnett (born April 26, 1933) is an American comedian, actress, singer and writer. Burnett has played dramatic and comedic roles on stage and screen. She has received List of awards and nominations received by Carol Burnett, nu ...
, sang the song in ''Touched by an Angel
''Touched by an Angel'' is an American drama television series that premiered on CBS on September 21, 1994, and ran for 211 episodes over nine seasons until its conclusion on April 27, 2003. Created by John Masius and executive produced by Ma ...
'' season 4, episode 10: "The Comeback". Burnett also sang the song in character as Carlotta in ''Follies in Concert'' (1985).
The character Kurt Hummel, played by Chris Colfer
Christopher Paul Colfer (born May 27, 1990) is an American actor, singer, and author. He gained international recognition for his portrayal of Kurt Hummel on the television musical ''Glee'' (2009–2015). Colfer's portrayal of Kurt received crit ...
, sang the song in a ''Glee
Glee may refer to:
* Glee (music), a type of English choral music
* ''Glee'' (TV series), an American musical comedy-drama TV series, and related media created by Ryan Murphy
* ''Glee'' (Bran Van 3000 album)
* ''Glee'' (Logan Lynn album)
* Gle ...
'' episode in a Sondheim tribute episode in season five. TVLine gave the performance an "A"." 'Glee' Season 5, Episode 15 Recap"
tvline.com, April 8, 2014
References
External links
Internet Broadway Database ''Follies'' 1971
{{authority control
1971 songs
Songs from musicals
Songs written by Stephen Sondheim