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 than two dozen Sondheim compositions, each piece newly re-imagined by Marsalis". The concert featured Bernadette Peters, Jeremy Jordan, Norm Lewis, Cyrille Aimée, four dancers and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra conducted by David Loud. In "Playbill", Steven Suskin described the concert as "neither a new musical, a revival, nor a standard songbook revue; it is, rather, a staged-and-sung chamber jazz rendition of a string of songs ... Half of the songs come from "Company" and "Follies"; most of the other Sondheim musicals are represented, including the lesser-known "Passion" and "Road Show"". Sondheim wrote additional songs for the film adaptation