Stephen Sondheim finding a real synthesis. A good deal of pop music has interesting lyrics, but they are not theater lyrics". A musical-theatre composer "must have a sense of what is theatrical, of how you use music to tell a story, as opposed to writing a song. Jonathan understood that instinctively." Around 2008, Sondheim approached Lin-Manuel Miranda to work with him translating "West Side Story" lyrics into Spanish for an upcoming Broadway revival. Miranda then approached Sondheim with his new project "Hamilton", then called "The Hamilton Mixtape", which Sondheim gave notes on. Sondheim was originally wary of the project saying he was
Stephen Sondheim of "Into the Woods", including "Rainbows" (which he included in his second book). In February 2012 it was announced that Sondheim would collaborate on a new musical with David Ives, and he had "about 20–30 minutes of the musical completed". The show, tentatively called "All Together Now", was assumed to follow the format of "Merrily We Roll Along". Sondheim described the project as "two people and what goes into their relationship ... We'll write for a couple of months, then have a workshop. It seemed experimental and fresh 20 years ago. I have a feeling it may not be experimental