Stephen Sondheim suggested evening the percentage at two percent each, but Sondheim refused because he wanted the credit. Sondheim later said he wished "someone stuffed a handkerchief in my mouth because it would have been nice to get that extra percentage". After "West Side Story" opened, Shevelove lamented the lack of "low-brow comedy" on Broadway and mentioned a possible musical based on Plautus' Roman comedies. When Sondheim was interested in the idea he called a friend, Larry Gelbart, to co-write the script. The show went through a number of drafts, and was interrupted briefly by Sondheim's next project. In 1959, Sondheim was
Samuel Byck musical written by Stephen Sondheim. The "9/11 Commission Report" also mentioned Byck's attempt to fly a plane into the White House. On page 561 in note 21, it says: Byck is one of the (failed) assassins portrayed in Stephen Sondheim's and John Weidman's 1991 musical "Assassins". His role in the musical is built largely around his tapes sent to Leonard Bernstein and other famous public figures, which he is depicted recording during two scene-length monologues, the first addressed to Bernstein and the second to Nixon himself. A movie based on his story, "The Assassination of Richard Nixon", was released in