Stephen Sondheim

Many years ago, Games magazine ran a feature article about Stephen Sondheim and his passion for puzzles. His home was stuffed with mechanical puzzles, we were told. He was instrumental in the introduction of cryptic crosswords to this country, and he would regularly run puzzle parties for his friends. An example was included right there in the magazine — a complex bit of business that was like an extra-puzzly version of a murder mystery game night.

I was a teenage puzzle lover at the time (or maybe not even yet a teenager), and I was riveted. Decades later, that article would directly inspire the third Winston Breen novel, The Puzzler’s Mansion, which was set at the home of a world-renowned musician, over the course of a weekend-long puzzle party.

A few years after the book came out, my friend Mark Halpin was due to come to New York for business — Mark teaches set design at the University of Cincinnati, and would annually come to New York with his grad students to lead them through a showcase of their work for interested professionals. As was generally the case for his visits, we made plans to have an Escape Room Day, hitting three or four good rooms around the city.

A week or so before that year’s visit, Mark sent me a message:

“I was wondering if your schedule next Tuesday would allow sticking around in the city another few hours. Thought we might grab a bite after escape rooms and then I’m having drinks with Sondheim and his companion at 5:30. Want to join us?”

Mark is a superb puzzle constructor, notably of variety cryptic crosswords of just the sort Sondheim helped introduce to America. One of Mark’s outlets, in fact, was The Sondheim Review — one puzzle in each issue themed after one of Sondheim’s shows (or, when Mark ran out of shows, specific songs). You can find an archive of these puzzles here.

One of the regular solvers of these puzzles was Sondheim himself, and in due time the two of them struck up a correspondence. This in turn led to a social meeting when Sondheim traveled to Cincinnati to see a revival of one of his shows. During this get-together was a moment I have described as my favorite thing to happen to anybody, including myself: After Sondheim excused himself for the men’s room, one of the other people in the gathering leaned towards Mark and said: “You should know he is a really big fan of yours.”

I mean, seriously.

Ultimately, we did not have drinks with Sondheim and his companion. Due to a change of plans, Mark and I instead went to his New York City apartment. It was, as promised, stuffed with puzzles, as well as two very forward standard poodles who assumed we were there to see them. We talked about escape rooms — Sondheim did them regularly, and he shut us up when we started talking too much about the ones we had visited that day; our recommendation was enough to put them on the list. Mark handed over a new cryptic for Sondheim to solve. And I presented him with a copy of The Puzzler’s Mansion, the book he had inspired. We chatted for a while more about puzzles in general — he accurately remembered themes of puzzles he had solved in the 1950s, and of solving them with “Lenny” — and then it was time to go. A rather unforgettable day.

Like so many others, I am pained to learned that he has passed away at the age of 91. I am very glad to have had the opportunity to cross his path.